I would read this to children and elementary/middle school classes, but not without a corresponding story from the perspective of the Plains Indians, and not without asking children important follow-up questions to spark dialogue. Stories like the Ingallses's are history that cannot be changed or forgotten, but like all history should be constantly questioned. government telling the Ingallses to abandon their self-made cabin for the Indians, yet no one was outraged in the beginning when they arrived and no one was asked to question this. My third grade class was outraged at the injustice of the U.S. (I'm not at all surprised it was written in the 1930's.) The Indians are portrayed as mysterious savages who are ultimately given what actually belonged to the hard-working white family. They drove themselves there and expected the local Indians to like it or stay out of the way. Unlike immigrants of the time, American pioneers like the Ingallses were not driven to the new land by persecution or famine at home. WHY the Ingalls family felt the need to abandon their community and settle in what was in fact disputed Indian Territory other than out of a lust for adventure is insufficiently explained. That book, however, is NOT the famous one after which a television series was made. While much of the story focuses on a family's self-reliance on the Kansas prairie, the book preceding it - Little House in the Big Woods - does the same with the exception that the Ingalls family was integrated into a functioning Wisconsin community of relatives and neighbors. But it's for that very reason that the value of the book needs to be questioned. I read it for the first time in third grade because the pioneer-go-forth-and-push-westward philosophy is a central feature in the proud American mindset and heritage. Okay, it's a great American classic, I realize that.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |