~In defense of Laura Ingalls Wilder~

I've written over 1,200 blog posts since I began this writing journey in May of 2011.  Originally I began writing for the sole purpose of letting my family and friends back home in Kansas know that I was safe during the Bike Across Kansas of 2011.  That's what the blog address "peggysbakjourney" refers to.  Once the bike trip was finished, the blog was to come down and I'd go about my life as usual.  Well, that didn't really work out and many stories later, here I am this morning.

I have on purpose stayed far, far away from anything political or controversial in my writings.  I have told my students countless times as I shared my blog with them as a teaching tool in class, that there was one cardinal rule that I always followed when I wrote and that was this.

I never write anything that would bring dishonor or disrespect to myself, my family, my community, my school, or my state.  What I do write will be positive, uplifting, encouraging, and the truth. 
To me, that aspect of writing is more important than making sure a period is never overlooked or a word is capitalized.  In the six traits of writing, I try to emphasize the voice part of it, and when you read my words then you will know me.

Today I choose for the first time to write about something that in 1,219 blogposts before I have never done.  

Recently, members of a library association thought it would be better to remove the name of the beloved children's author, Laura Ingalls Wilder, from one of the prestigious awards that they give each year.  Their reasoning was that in some of her books, Laura writes with racist overtones in reference to people who are different from her.  Several of my parents and friends messaged me yesterday with links to the story.  They know how much I have enjoyed reading Laura's books to my classes each year.  Since 1979, I have shared each of her books with kids in Kansas, Colorado, Texas, and now Oklahoma.  I have always said that Laura's writings were the "meat and potatoes" of children's literature and I always wanted my students to get the benefit of reading her books.  When I first saw the story links for the recent decision to remove her name from the award, I couldn't believe it and my first thought was this.

That's ridiculous.

In my experience as a teacher, I can tell you that children everywhere love Laura.  Children of all backgrounds, races, economic classes, from all across America and around the world have been enthralled by her stories of life on the prairie.  Never once as I read those books, all 8 of the original ones, did I feel like I was sharing anything bad with children.  I would be the first to admit that there were tiny parts in one of the books that I knew kids might not understand, but those parts provided the fodder for conversation between teacher and child, and ended up being a valuable life lesson in the making.  

Laura's writings provide wonderful character education lessons and have done so for well over 85 years now.  Her memories help to teach lessons of courage, determination, fortitude, faith, family values, hard work, adventuresome spirit, teamwork, and most importantly telling the truth.  That is what I feel I am doing today by writing this blogpost.

I'm telling you the truth of how I feel about what in my heart looks like an injustice to Laura's memory.  

As a teacher, I have only so many precious and quite fleeting moments with children each day.  I have to choose wisely what I spend my time on because once that time is finished, I cannot call it back.  I love to read to children and promote what I feel is very wholesome literature.  I will stand by my conviction and continue to use Laura's books this year in my classroom.

On a personal note, one of the reasons I love the Little House series is because her words take us back to a time that was much simpler.  That's a welcome respite for those of us who live in the fast paced and technologically advanced world that we are a part of in 2018.  For 20 minutes each day, I can take my students back in time to that world and let them see how things were before everything was plugged in.  I can show them how a pioneer family had to work together in very meager circumstances in order to thrive and equally more important, to survive.

Although I cannot change the ruling which removes her name from the award that is given, I can sing her praises in this post and in the future as I promote her books to a new class of students.  You know, I was a little nervous about writing these words at first.  Like I said, I steer far, far away from controversy.  But now that I have finished, I'm glad that I did.  I choose to stand for many different things in this world.

Today I stand for Laura. 

~back at the original site in southeastern Kansas where the Ingalls family lived for not quite 2 years, Little House on the Prairie~  Springtime of 2018