Talk out loud

" It can be easy to say that our school library learning commons is a safe space, grounded in the principles of equity, social justice and human rights. The reality is that simply saying something out loud does not make it true." (Jennifer Brown, Open Shelf, 2018) Jennifer Brown is a school librarian in the Peel District School Board who writes for the Ontario Library Association online magazine Open Shelf. In the November issue of her regular column It's Elementary , she tackles the question of whether to teach classic novels such as To kill a mockingbird — a novel that continues to generate controversy. I think Jenn is speaking to questions of harm reduction and storytelling ... respecting diverse lived experiences and changing our choices in the classroom, on library shelves and in publications accordingly to promote positive social change.

I've had fun this fall channeling Maud Malone: Suffragette, labour organizer and library worker. I first met Maud (1872-1951) while doing my research on women, unions and work. She not only took on President Woodrow Wilson over the suffrage issue in 1912 but led the charge in unionizing library workers at the New York City Public Library in the 1920s and 30s. Getting arrested? Not a problem for Maud. Getting fired? That was easy too. I have become reacquainted with Maud as part of Prof. Pamela Walker's first-year seminar, The long civil rights movement . Pamela has adopted the "reacting to the past pedagogy," which engages students in historical problems through immersive game play. Based on games such as Assassin (of which I have only heard about), students take on the roles of historical (or composite) characters to argue for and against "big ideas" such as democracy, Burke's social contract and the right to vote. Maud is a new character who f...