Egalitarianism in Children's Lit - with librarian Casey O'Leary
Breaking Down Patriarchy
Amy McPhie Allebest
4.9 • 654 Ratings
🗓️ 13 August 2024
⏱️ 74 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Amy is joined by school librarian, Casey O'Leary, to confront the alarming increase of book bans and challenges in recent years, exploring where these challenges are coming from, why parents are concerned, and how librarians and authors are pushing back again censorship.
Casey O'Leary is a K-12 school media specialist in Indianapolis, Indiana. She has a bachelor of science in elementary education and a master of library science, both from Indiana University. O'Leary served as a public children's librarian and manager for 10 years prior to moving into school librarianship. She is active in the American Library Association and recently served on the Children's Literature Legacy Award Committee and is also a reviewer for School Library Journal.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to Breaking Down Patriarchy. I'm Amy McPhee, All the Best. One common feature of repressive systems is the suppression of education. And it makes sense. If the masses start learning about the structures that are keeping them down, if they start having empathy and solidarity with other people who are experiencing similar injustices, then they may start |
| 0:22.7 | demanding better treatment. So, repressive systems are famous for restricting information, |
| 0:28.4 | and specifically for banning books. Here are some book titles in the U.S. that have been |
| 0:34.3 | banned in the last couple of decades. I know why the caged bird sings by Maya Angelou. |
| 0:41.4 | The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros. |
| 0:45.2 | Mouse by Art Spiegelman. |
| 0:47.4 | Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor. |
| 0:50.5 | The Absolutely True Diary of a part-time Indian by Sherman Alexi. |
| 1:12.0 | Bridge to Terabitia by Catherine Patterson. Are you there, God? It's Me, Margaret, by Judy Bloom. Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi, the Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime by Mark Haddon, The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien, the Golden Compass by Philip Pullman, |
| 1:18.2 | Beloved by Tony Morrison, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, the God of Small Things by Arundati Roy, the color purple by Alice Walker, and The Giver by Lois Lowry. |
| 1:24.0 | This is really just the tip of the iceberg. |
| 1:26.7 | There are so many books that have been banned over the |
| 1:29.4 | course of the last few decades in the United States. And the books titles that I just read are |
| 1:34.0 | ones that I consider an absolutely essential reading list. So I am really excited to talk about this |
| 1:39.9 | issue today, the politics of book censorship with teacher and librarian Casey O'Leary. Welcome, Casey. |
| 1:46.4 | Thank you so much. Thank you for having me. I'm a big fan of the podcast, so this is very exciting for me. |
| 1:52.7 | It's very exciting for me, too. This is such an important topic, and I'm so glad that this topic |
| 1:58.4 | kind of got brought to my attention. So really, really eager to hear your |
| 2:02.4 | thoughts and your personal experience. First, I'll read your professional bio, and then you can tell |
| 2:07.4 | us a little bit more about you. Casey O'Leary is a K-12 school media specialist in Indianapolis, |
| 2:14.0 | Indiana. She has a Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education and a Master of |
| 2:18.6 | of Library Science, both from Indiana University. Casey served as a public children's librarian |
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