This is Jennifer Gonzales welcoming you to episode 237 of the cult pedagogy podcast.

In this episode we're going to learn about others and ourselves.

Education professor Dr. Rudin Sims Bishop famously described it this way.

Quote, books are sometimes windows, offering views of worlds that may be real or imagined, familiar

or strange.

These windows are also sliding glass doors, and readers have only to walk through in imagination

to become part of whatever world has been created and recreated by the author.

When lighting conditions are just right however, a window can also be a mirror.

Literature transforms human experience and reflects it back to us.

And in that reflection, we can see our own lives and experiences as part of the larger

human experience.

Reading then becomes a means of self-affirmation and readers often seek their mirrors in books."

End quote.

For all three of these experiences to be available to us,

we need a wide range of books to read.

Stories that represent a whole spectrum of people and

lives. In many schools and classrooms, however, the offerings are far too limited,

too narrow. This may be due to laws put in place to make sure that many stories are intentionally

left out, or it may be because those in charge of choosing the books simply haven't been connected

to the voices and stories that would enrich their collections,

get more kids excited about reading, and offer far more of those windows, mirrors, and sliding glass doors.

Curating the kind of library that truly reflects the diversity

...