Lochlan Downard

Staff Writer

No topic has been more critical to my own childhood than reading. And yet, through history, the topic of who reads and what people are able to read has proven to be a divisive one. As far back as the Catholic reaction to the Reformation, books have been banned on ideological grounds, a history that continues to this day.

It is fitting, then, that any uproar of emotion over reading is often directed at school officials, especially the WS/FCS Board of Education. To Superintendent Tricia McManus, the advancement of literacy, especially through partnerships with organizations like Bookmarks to provide timely books in district schools, is paramount.

“It’s our number one priority,” McManus said. “Literacy is the gateway to success in all areas.”

In her own life, McManus knows the value of reading. As a child, her favorite book was Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret by Judy Blume. That book spurred an early love of reading. It is that very enthusiasm that she seeks to advance in the partnership with Bookmarks and in the programs of the school board in general.

“I can’t remember the grade I was in when I read it, but I fell in love with it and it got me excited,” McManus said. “You gotta have things that will hook students to want to read more and more. And so I think that’s what Bookmarks and what our relationship with them is about. It’s about making sure that we’ve got great books, representative of all cultures, all races, all likes, all dislikes, just everything.”

Beyond the institution of the school board itself, the burden of providing great books to students rests with school administrators and teachers.

“Another area in this [discussion] right now is curriculum, and what choices, what teachers are using for supplemental materials in their classroom,” McManus said. “And some parents want to be able to look at that and then, if they don’t like it, they can challenge it.”

Such an option for parents is not new. The school board and its district have ensured that parents can engage with their children’s learning in a constructive way. Yet most parents do not choose to do so, simply because they agree with the teacher policies already in place.

“That’s always been able to be done,” McManus said. “I don’t think a lot of parents have chosen that option because I think teachers are trying to use things that are relevant. And times have changed. We gotta be relevant with the times. Look at everything happening now with AI and ChatGPT.”

Maintaining relevance in such a rapidly changing area demands cooperation. The tenor of conversations around books in school, particularly over which books are selected and why, can often reach a fever pitch.

“It should not be hostile,” McManus said. “We don’t get anywhere, you don’t get anywhere if they’re hostile back and forth. People just walk away from that.”

What is often lost in such a debate is the view of the children themselves. Parents have the ultimate say, of course, but the very option of a myriad of books is key.

“Kids need to be able to see themselves in books,” McManis said. “So we have to have options for all kids to be able to do that. That doesn’t mean that all books need to be checked out by all kids. And if a parent has a concern, then they need to make sure their child’s not reading a book that they don’t approve of.”

It’s critical that schools provide a wide range of books to students, enabling them to choose for themselves what their literary journey can look like. More than that, the policies of books in schools need to be detached from excessive politicization.

“It has become more of a narrative and it’s become almost politicized,” McManus said.

For the benefit of all of our students in this district, we must provide the ability for students to choose books they enjoy. The partnership between the school board and Bookmarks is a significant step to that end, while always keeping parent concerns. Providing books in schools, as the partnership does, is a critical way to foster a love of learning in children. That said, for students to enjoy a fuller education, and by extension a fuller life, books in schools must be depoliticized. Books must be picked not for conformity but for individuality, their contents reflecting the world in which they were written, and the one in which students live.