Monday, May 10, 2021

Book Fair Equity

In Book fairs - unfair? From Blue Skunk Blog, Doug Johnson shares,

“In reality, book fairs will be just one of dozens of things that will bring the attention of children to economic inequity in our society.”

He asked for readers to share their thoughts about school book fairs. This is what I posted as my response:

I grew up as one of the kids who couldn't afford to purchase books at the book fair but my parents always gave me enough to get one book. When I became a teacher, I decided to let students go to the book fair and make a list of the 3 books they would want me to purchase for our class library. From that list, I would attempt to buy one book from everyone's list with my own money. Sometimes the kids had that same book on their list so that helped narrow the list down. Then I decided to do a book exchange at the time of the fair for kids who couldn't afford to get any books. I had colleagues and volunteers who were glad to get rid of their children's books that their own children had outgrown. I let my students get one book from the collection to bring home and when they returned it, they could get another one. They really enjoyed that.

It would be nice if every aspect of life would be equal but in reality it isn't. I don't believe that this situation should be made equal for all because it is just another example of real life. Some people can afford cars while others have to rely on public transportation. Do we stop selling cars because everyone can't afford to get one?

How would you respond? Please share.

Photo by freestocks on Unsplash

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