It’s about representation: Let’s talk about the Outsiders and Animal Farm
Through this conversation today I would like to unpack representation in the classroom, what is known as culturally responsive classrooms and the importance of it in the classroom. When classrooms are centered and speak only to one cultural background, everyone misses out.
I know that there are many teachers that have retired the Outsiders and Animal Farm in their classrooms and I am so thankful for that. Unfortunately, there are still some using them and refuse to remove them from their practice. I am all for teacher autonomy in the classroom but when it is harming students and more specifically Indigenous, Black and People of Colour students (IBPOC), this is where I feel we need to talk about what is happening in classrooms. I believe that there are a lot of people stepping into work that makes them feel uncomfortable in order to do better for IBPOC students and my hands are raised in deep gratitude for you and the work you do for change.
I would like to talk through some of the things that I find challenging about still using books that have been written 50-70 years ago. Books that I read when I was in grade 8 & 10, like the Outsiders and Animal Farm that all three of my children have read or reading now in their grade 8 & 10 classrooms. Starting the conversation there, how is the education system actually changing and reflecting the moment we are in when my children are getting the same lessons and books from my childhood? I feel like the world has shifted drastically from when I was a child. We are in an educational space where we need to be talking about oppression, racism, identities, and LGBTQ+ experiences in schools today. These were not topics talked about or taught about when I was in school, and we were never asked to use critical thinking about what we were being taught.
The Outsiders was written in 1967, Hinton was 15 when she started to write it and sold it when she was 17. In her own words Hinton said: "Most of the literature handed down for high school students to read had, in Hilton's estimation, nothing to do with the lived experiences of teenagers in her hometown of Tulsa, Oklahoma". What I find most interesting when I read about the author and the book, is that her belief was that there was nothing being written about real topics for young adult books at the time. There was not even a genre of young adult books. So, she wrote an "outsider" story about boys and gangs from the perspective of a white, middle class, female.