A Teacher’s Dilemma
Posted by Valerie on March 24, 2009
I helped a teacher today. Don’t tell on me, okay?
My new customer has been teaching junior high for thirty-five years in a northern Illinois school district and was looking for good, colorful, well-written children’s books on medieval times.
I let her know that none of my books have been scanned or tested and that I have no way of knowing which of my older children’s books might be over 600 ppm in some component. I also told her that the CPSC says that their limited evidence has pre-1985 books hovering right around the 300 ppm mark, and that any books that are over 300 ppm in any component will be illegal to distribute in her classroom as of August 10, 2009.
Deciding to put the educational interests of her students ahead of such foolishness, she purchased the following:
- Heraldry: The Story of Armorial Bearings by Walter Buehr, 1964
She has her students make shields and likes the pictures of armorial elements in this book, which is the most intelligent description of this topic that we’ve seen for children. (This teacher told me that making shields is okay, but that students in her school are forbidden to construct even cardboard swords.) - The Roman Empire and the Dark Ages by Giovanni Caselli, 1981
“These illustrations are wonderful!” (And they really are: loads of pictures of clothing, housewares, weapons, tools and more.) - A Florentine Merchant (Everyday Life Series) also by Giovanni Caselli, 1986
Whew! We just made it on dating with this short, well-illustrated book which follows a medieval merchant through a typical day. - Living in a Castle by R. J. Unstead, 1971
R. J. Unstead understood the kinds of things kids want to know. We like his books especially when, as here, they are colorfully illustrated by Victor Ambrus. - The Search for King Arthur (A Horizon-Caravel Book) by Christopher Hibbert, 1969
Sale of this outstanding book, which is illustrated from primary sources, has no legal implications since it was written for ages 12 and up. Whew! - Made in the Middle Ages by Christine Price, 1961
A visual feast of art and artifacts from medieval times, well and colorfully illustrated for children.
This teacher said that if she brought her own classroom into compliance, she would lose most of her carefully collected library and many more educational supplies that she finds very helpful. She said, “I guess our whole shelf of microscopes would have to go, too.”
This teacher is working to give her students a rich, well-rounded education and she finds older books very useful in her classroom. Meanwhile, her experience confirms my own: children just don’t eat books.
Has Henry Waxman talked to any experienced teachers? Would it change his mind if he did?
In other news, I had an interview with the Beloit Daily News today.
Sebastian (a lady) said,
I love Unstead’s books. We used a lot of these when we lived in Europe, but they are much harder to find here.
Interesting, I think there has been a focus on retail sales of products (whether new or used) and on libraries. But I really hadn’t considered if classrooms would fall under these new rules.
Carol Baicker-McKee said,
Classrooms absolutely fall under these rules - and not only do they purchase and distribute materials whose prices will rise once testing goes into effect, most also “manufacture” booklets, science kits, etc. under the definitions of this law. My kids’ schools regularly assemble unit packets with plastic comb bindings, bind literary collections or classroom recipe books, and of course, teachers are forever stapling papers together. Our schools host book swaps to boost literacy, hand out the occasional free staple-bound book and tons of small prizes as reading incentives and distribute catalogs for book clubs - featuring lots of staple-bound books as wells as novelty books, book-plus formats, etc.
When I asked the CPSC chief of staff about how schools were supposed to handle testing when they’re the manufacturer, there was dead silence, and then he said he’d have to get back to me. Haven’t heard a word since. But the CPSC can hardly exempt schools, since kids spend at least 30 hours a week there, more awake hours than many kids have at home - and if they’re saying lead is so dangerous that a 12 year old shouldn’t be given access to a book that might barely exceed the minimum level when he’s at home, it would be hypocritical in the extreme to say that it’s perfectly safe as long as it happens through the school.
There are interesting new articles in the Washington Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/23/AR2009032301764.html and the St. Petersburg paper:http://www.tampabay.com/news/health/article985784.ece about books - the comments are pretty indicative of the mood of the average person about this law.
Elysabeth said,
I’ve posted several times that not only will this law set us back but it now seems we will only be allowed to let our kids sleep on straw mats, wear burlap sacks (undyed of course), and only use what God has put out there in nature for toys and entertainment. If we have such great technological advances and have supposedly moved forward somewhat, why is it we are taking 100-years’ worth of steps backwards? The extreme of the law is this - books are dangerous, our children’s clothing are dangerous, the bedding they sleep on is dangerous, the toys and other items for entertainment are dangerous, our computers and TVs and everything else are dangerous; there is nothing left that is untouched by this law. Even with exemptions, everything and everyone is affected because without the children’s market (which is what it looks like is happening), the non-children’s items will start seeing increases in costs to the general consumer. So even if you don’t have any kids, are not a grandparent, aunt, uncle, or anyone who has relatives with kids, the cost of this law will eventually hit you and will hurt you. Every citizen of voting age should be definitely writing and calling their congressmen (and women) and tell them to ban CPSIA and stop acting like stupid idiotic, nonthinking, brainless jerkwads. We need to protect the children but this is not th way to do it. Why not fine the manufacturers in China or overseas who are the ones responsible for sending us lead-tainted toys instead of the honest people who are trying to make a decent living? How can you fine resellers who have nothing to do with the manufacture of the products in the first place? How many people rely on second-hand stores for clothing and other items for their kids? And in these troubled times, more than not. Valerie summed up CPSIA in a previous posting and I applaud her for that. I’m definitely trying to get the word out and keep it going out. Fighting the battle of DC with everyone - E
—————-
Elysabeth Eldering
Author of the Junior Geography Detective Squad (JGDS), 50-state, mystery, trivia series
STATE OF WILDERNESS, Book 1 of 50 now available.
STATE OF QUARRIES, book 2 of 50 coming spring 2009
STATE OF RESERVATIONS, book 3 of 50 coming 2009
STATE OF HEIGHTS, book 4 of 50 coming 2009
WHERE WILL THE ADVENTURE TAKE YOU NEXT?
http://jgdsseries.blogspot.com
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http://elysabethsstories.blogspot.com/
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