What I Learned From Lessons From Turtle Island
Know better, do better
Good morning from the depths of February! ⛄️
On Sunday night I finished reading Lessons from Turtle Island: Native Curriculum in Early Childhood Classrooms by Guy W. Jones and Sally Moomaw, and, wow 🤯 I have zero intention of ever working in education, but I learned a ton of valuable information about the cultural stereotypes of Native people found in children’s books, and have already removed a couple books from our home library* as well as ordered a bunch of titles based on the authors’ guidelines and resource lists.
(I highly recommend perusing and buying from Birchbark Books in Minneapolis, which is Native-owned and operated and, as a self-described “teaching bookstore,” has the single-best Native peoples children’s section in the country, if not the world).
If you know a teacher, especially one who is working in early childhood or elementary classrooms, it’s worth mentioning Lessons from Turtle Island to them.
And, though I have said from the beginning that I will feature at least one diverse title in each issue of this newsletter and I have done that, that will not (will never) change, I’m going to use my new knowledge here to do better, and feature more books about Native peoples by Native authors.
* Brother Eagle, Sister Sky, a speech from Chief Seattle illustrated by Susan Jeffers. And I am this close to throwing the entire Little House on the Prairie series out the window but would like to discuss with someone who has actually read all the books — if you’re that person, I’d love to hear your thoughts
Quick question
I am planning a couple upcoming Spotlight On issues (these are issues where I cover a topic once, rather than seasonally every year). Which topic are you more interested in?
Mindfulness & Meditation
Makers & Making
(Both; figure it out, Sarah! is also an acceptable answer.) Hit reply and let me know.
Read good books and take good care 😘