Therese

Thank you BGenco for sharing your thoughts. I am also in the ambivalent school on this. My concern is that the award was named for her for her overall contribution and the contribution still stands. I am going to follow your trail and reread the Erdrich essay and the new biography.

Posted : Feb 15, 2018 03:32

Barbara Genco

Count me in as deeply ambivalent about this proposed change. Born in the early 50’s, I absolutely adored the Wilder books. They made me a book lover. I became tireless reader of historical fiction and this passion led to my abiding devotion to building collections that highlight quality informational books for kids and teens. I re-read The Long Winter regularly and even own a copy with the original Helen Sewell illustrations. I read everything I can about Wilder (including letters and journals, essays (pro/con), and meaning rich responses like Louise Edrich’s justifiably acclaimed The Birchbark House). But I still heart Laura Ingalls Wilder. I am now deep into the widely praised PRAIRIE FIRES: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder. By Caroline Fraser (Metropolitan Books/Henry Holt. $35). The book places Wilder in the context of American social history and does not shrink from exposing the deadly, soul killing, and abiding effects of American Exceptionalism. It also details horrors committed in the pursuit of American “Manifest Destiny”--the book opens with a violent and disturbing description of the 1862 Dakota War and the Mankato MN Massacre http://www.startribune.com/dec-26-1862-38-dakota-men-executed-in-mankato/138273909/ Yes, Wilder’s life and opus are products of our country’s sometimes brutal, sometimes courageous, history. Wilder is a product of her history, her time. I expect we all agree that history is messy, dirty, brutal, murderous. It can also concentrate our attention on resiliency and highlight transcendent acts of courage. Will retracting this ‘naming’ honor change the past? Today, I prefer confronting the past and developing and delivering strategies to expose kids to the brutal continuing costs of hate and fear of ‘the other’. Whatever the outcome, I have been an ALSC member for 35+ years. I will stay loyal and committed.

Posted : Feb 14, 2018 09:44

Sam Juliano

I would very much love to see the name of the award for Ms. Wilder remain AS IS.

Posted : Feb 14, 2018 04:51

Vicki Reutter

I don't think Wilder's moral character is in question, or in her presumably accurate portrayal of the frontier, but whether she should be the namesake for this particular lifetime achievement award. Here is a current statement about the ALA committee's concern: http://www.ala.org/alsc/awardsgrants/bookmedia/wildermedal/wilderabout. Like you, Roger, I haven't made up my mind, but I think it teeters on the edge of a larger lack of interest in literature discussion or analysis among ELA teachers. If we curate the entire historical literature canon for "today's" child, so they have no need for context, or to discover history's grittiness for themselves, it is a disservice. Also note In both of authors in consideration, Geisel and Wilder may only be known through their television or movie versions. Readers of Wilder's books would see a balance between Pa's respect and Ma's fear of the 'Indians,' and nuanced details such as Laura's noting how she could count their ribs when they came the house, and how they ate every crumb of cornbread. What reader wouldn't wonder why they were starving? Perhaps we don't give our children credit enough to ask questions about the past and, as educators, we don't think we have the time to entertain those questions.

Posted : Feb 14, 2018 03:07

Christine

This saddens me - Wilder wrote about American history as she and her family experienced it during frontier days. It is an abomination to try and erase history - peoples of other color have "complicated" ones too; MLK Jr. was a womanizer. Let him be banished from the pages of history in the onslaught of MeToo. Enough said.

Posted : Feb 14, 2018 04:20