The Cricket in Times Square

My professional field is Special Education. I teach in an elementary school. This morning before students arrived, I read a bit of The Cricket in Times Square. Some of you may remember that book. It dawned on me again why I enjoy teaching elementary. For the majority of the books, there isn't profanity spewing across the pages. There are even guidelines on what published books can not contain for some ages of children, one of which is something like the details of how someone died.

Admittedly in college, I skipped reading some assigned novels because of the content. It usually was 2 pages or so into it when I ran across something I did not appreciate, in the name of being true to the culture or era or situation, and so on. I remember not reading entire books in high school for a couple of reasons: 1) I didn't like being told what to read, and 2) Some of the books' content left me feeling not very good. Being true to a story is more than just having it contain themes of "realism". What about bringing to the forefront optimism?

On a positive note, there have been books I was assigned to read that I have enjoyed. In 5th grade my class read Huckleberry Finn. In 9th Grade, my class read To Kill a Mockingbird. (Yes, I know I don't appear to be following my own standards because both of these books use a common derogatory term referring to an African-American, at least in Huckleberry Finn that term is used. What I am talking more about are crass references to body parts and immoral situations, in essence, objectifying people.)

One book I was able to choose in a history class--we each had to read up to 700 pages per quarter-- was The Frontiersmen. It was very well documented, researched and accurate. It was a historical narrative. Practically the only thing made up in the entire book were some of the dialogues between characters. The author noted that where journals or other records didn't record actual dialogue, he had inserted dialogue that would have fit the situation. In college I enjoyed reading some of the classics--Moby Dick (which I also enjoyed reading in high school), Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.

I feelit is my moral obligation, even a necessity to quietly turn down books that had compromising content. It is not in my personality to make it a point to be vocal about those decisions (i.e. "I'm not reading this book because..." announcement to the teacher and entire class).

There is so much good reading. One comment I have heard on this topic before any content is presented as good or bad is something like this: "It had such a great message."

My response is that you can teach those same messages without having to
muscle through deep murky cold swamps of demoralizing language, negative imagery, and the like.

Back to being true to the story: Another aspect of being true to a story is showing people acting civilized and respectful, that things aren't always going wrong, that in fact, good things happen and compassion and selfless acts and actions without ulterior motives (expecting something in return). I sum up the observations of some wise men and women more seasoned in years and with more of life's experiences--Much of the world is filled with negative comments, cynical remarks and sarcastic expressions; still there is much good in the world that needs to be reported on, heralded, and spoken of.


I conclude with a couple of thoughts.

How encouraging, how edifying it is for one wandering in the desert who comes upon a beautifully colored flower or shrub in the middle of an otherwise wasteland!

Conversely, how discouraging, how demoralizing it is for one wandering through a thicket of green-leafed trees in early summer to come upon spent cans, plates, bottles and ash in an otherwise land of bounty.