During my practicum, I taught “The Reluctant Journal of Henry K. Larsen”, a non-traditional text that is slowly becoming more popular in many school districts. While my students enjoyed reading the novel, I had some parent push-back because it was an unfamiliar text that deals with bullying and school violence. Even though justifying the book was nerve-wracking, it was worth the effort because my students gained valuable skills and had critical discussions through the novel.
Hey Joanne!
I’m just curious how parents voiced their concerns with you and maybe what some of their specific worries were. I have some anxiety about parent push-back over text selection. Like you said, we always have good reasons for choosing what we do, but it is still an unnerving situation. Having one’s judgment put under deliberate scrutiny usually doesn’t feel super awesome.
I mostly received the concerns by parents through email. One parent did come in after school. The parents were concerned that their children were being exposed to suicide, bullying, and the various levels of mental distress at such a young age (they were in grade 8). I ended up showing them the resources I was going to use to discuss mental health and connecting them with the school safety specialist who was going to be a guest speaker in my class.
Overall, it was a positive experience as the parents seemed more comfortable knowing that preparation and thought was put behind my planning. I also think it helped that my school was going through an anti-bullying initiative at the time.