in the classroom
These texts themselves do have teachable moments , in terms of bringing a critical literacy approach to these texts that actually looks at the way in which certain texts do circulate views of power that are really problematic in a contemporary society .
There are many powerful and wonderful texts , particularly Australian texts , in our society that we would really encourage young people to take up .
Why do you consider them to be potentially harmful in forming children ’ s ideas of cultural identity ? What we need to understand with learning to read is that the Dr Seuss books have been incredibly popular because of the ways in which they use language , the ways in which they use rhyme . However , there are also other important messages that young children do get from reading texts , and they are messages around diversity . Who is powerful , who is not powerful ? And so when we present young children with images , they are learning to read not just by reading words , but also by reading images . And if those images present views of people which show they are particularly disempowered or made ‘ other ’, then this can be particularly harmful to young children ’ s emerging sense of what it is to be in the world .
And this is really important , not only because we ’ ve got a real diversity of children reading , and we know that when we ’ re reading a text , whether we ’ re a young person or at any age , we are looking both to learn more about ourselves and to learn more about the world . And so what we really want for our texts for young children is that they represent really positive ways of understanding diversity in our societies .
As for these texts that have been recalled , I think it ’ s important to remember there ’ s been a lot of criticism in scholarship around these texts for some time . So , it ’ s not as though this hasn ’ t actually been part of a conversation for many years .
What do you think it is about the Dr Seuss collection that has made it so successful in engaging young readers over time ? One is that the use of rhyme , one is the use of language . That ’ s how we know that rhyme is a really important stage in terms of young children learning to read and learning to play with language , but the notion of play and the use of play is incredibly powerful .
These texts are important because they have been important to previous generations , and we don ’ t come to a text cold . And so the enthusiasm previous generations have had for the texts , and this happens in classrooms and it happens at home , is that we want to share that .
Dr Seuss texts , like many socalled classic children ’ s texts , have become popular because of their popularity , if you like . It has snowballed because parents will say : ‘ These are the texts that were important to me . These are the texts that I read with my parents , and now let me read these texts with you .’
I think one of the fantastical elements of Dr Seuss is the way in which imagination is used ; it ’ s really powerful , but it is also a cultural product and something that has been consecrated if you like within cultures , as texts that are valuable and important to reading families .
Do you suspect that the other books in the collection will continue to be popular , or are there potential problems with those ? There ’ s been a lot of research , and in fact recent research has suggested the entire collection needs to be looked at . I think what ’ s happened here is that there ’ s particular texts that have been identified , but we also know that language and the way in which we understand the importance of text changes over time . So we couldn ’ t say at this point that in the future there may not be other texts that are drawn to our attention as ones that we don ’ t want to keep circulating .
Of course , they will exist , they ’ ll be curated . But it ’ s just that when people are purchasing texts , when texts are going into schools , these are not going to be on the table because there are many other texts that we would want our young children to be engaging with .
So we can ’ t predict the future . And certainly , my knowledge of the gamut of Dr . Seuss texts would indicate that there are probably other texts that we would want to bring to attention , but at this stage this is the decision that ’ s been made . ■
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