A kind, alert FrontBurnervian points us to this story on the New Yorker’s site about the aborted book ban at HP ISD. It was written by Annie Julia Wyman, an HP grad and a doctoral candidate in English at Harvard. A taste:
My own story provides some evidence of how books can expand the horizons of a kid growing up somewhere like Highland Park. As a young woman with desires for things that I’d read about but couldn’t find in my home town—including what felt like non-negotiable forms of social and economic justice—I stayed away from the Park Cities during and after college. I refrained, too, from talking about where I came from, because it embarrassed me. I could see only that I came from homogeneity; I was terrified I would be rejected from the new life I’d stumbled into, a life that was richer and more complex. But I should have been more honest. I never would have known to be embarrassed had I not gone to world-class public schools where I read whatever I wanted. Books were there, and they had taught me to value difference.
Take a minute to read the whole thing. It’s short. And smart.
