Habibi - Should we teach it debate

Today's video and discussion about the teaching of Habibi had me really thinking. I found it incredibly fascinating and wanted to talk about my views and opinions on the topic a bit more. I think that to take out this book in school curriculums (like bloomfield hills) is telling children that it is okay not to read books of other people's perspectives. It gives them an out to challenge their thoughts and religious beliefs. It allows children to only consider their own opinions and gives them no experience in critically reading and analyzing literature, a very important skill to begin developing in middle school. To not present this material is to not fully educate those students. A good teacher would use this novel as a learning tool and opportunity in his/her classroom in order to present a peice of controversial literature. Teacher's needed to incorporate other literature or articles that presents the "other side" of the story in order to make students, parents, and other faculty feel that this book is being taught with a purpose and with equality. By not teaching this novel, the bloomfield hills school district is opting to not create well informed and well-rounded students and citizens. This school district was not well educated on how this novel could be taught properly to benefit their students and community. If they were, the novel would have never been banned.

In regards to the video we watched, I think some of this professor's points about the novel were accurate and fairly expressed. However, he said that it did not give enough accurate history of what was happening at the time this book was set in. I have a problem with that statement becuase this book was not meant to teach history. This is why it is not classified or written with the label of historical fiction. In addition, like some of the course pack articles discussed it is not the job of the author to incorporate every perspective and historical fact into their children's literature. This would be overwhelming in a pleasure novel and unnecessary.