Never Too Young: Why Kids Deserve Queer Friendly Libraries

Ashlie (she/her) is an educator, librarian, and author. She is dedicated to diversifying the studying lives of her college students and supporting fats acceptance because it intersects with different ladies’s points. She’s additionally perpetually striving to be taught extra about how she will use her many privileges to assist marginalized teams. Interests embrace studying methods to curler skate together with her native curler derby workforce, shopping for extra books than she’ll ever learn, climbing together with her husband and sons, and making lists to keep away from actual work. You can discover her on Instagram (@ashlieelizabeth), Twitter (@mygirlsimple) or at her web site, www.ashlieswicker.com.

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I labored with younger youngsters lengthy earlier than my first 12 months educating in 2007. I’ve three levels that qualify me to coach youngsters. Interacting with younger folks has been my biggest ability for so long as I’ve been an individual. My largest takeaway over the past, oh, 30 years? Kids won’t ever fail to shock me. It’s been confirmed to me time and again that youngsters know extra, really feel extra, and deserve greater than adults ever give them credit score for.

My newest lesson on this has been across the palpable reduction felt by my elementary college students once I labored to make my college library extra queer-friendly. This course of included no fanfare. I had already been including image books that challenged gender norms and center grade titles with queer characters and storylines for so long as I had been growing the gathering. But as I used to be working so as to add racial and bodily variety into my library posters and signage, I knew I needed to department out to ensure everybody felt welcome.

The first noticeable shift was once I adorned my door with a “This Classroom is for Everyone” sticker from the Etsy artist MegEmikoArt. The sticker is adorned with satisfaction flags and my college students buzzed as they got here into Media. Soon after, I purchased the “Libraries are for everyone” shirt in the identical design by the identical artist. A fifth grader who didn’t often cease to speak pointed to one of many flags on my shirt, grinned, and mentioned “That one’s me.” I used to be splendidly, pleasantly floored.

I assumed I used to be including extra queer flags, utilizing gender-neutral phrases, and that includes books with queer characters to assist them put together for the actual world. I assumed my college students must be uncovered to those issues in case they met queer folks or to make them extra comfy with queer household buildings. This was a condescending approach for me to consider my college students. Thank god the youngsters are smarter than me.

What truly occurred was that my college students thanked me. There was gratitude, pleasure, and reduction. My college students already knew methods to determine extra particular satisfaction flags than I did. They already knew that gender and sexuality are spectrums and every particular person is aware of what feels proper to them. I had college students with whom I had no earlier relationship sharing their pronouns. Our STEM constructing supplies had been used to construct and label completely different satisfaction flags. Requests had been made for the LGBTQ ebook part; the books had at all times been there. The youngsters simply wanted affirmation that it was secure to ask for them. My college students didn’t want publicity. They wanted a secure area.

I used to be nicely conscious that college students in highschool and even center college wanted queer-friendly libraries. Despite contemplating myself an ally and believing that I used to be doing every thing I may at my grade degree, I used to be exhibiting an absence of respect for my college students by pondering I wanted to introduce them to queer-friendly concepts. If I can perceive {that a} 10-year-old cisgender youngster can perceive heterosexual romance (featured in virtually each title ever), why does it shock me that queer youngsters are in search of the identical sorts of illustration? Most importantly, how did I let myself neglect the facility and company that younger folks have when they’re given the area to be comfy with who they’re?

In a local weather the place adults are always clashing over what youngsters must be taught, it’s vital to do not forget that youngsters are vastly extra conscious and in contact with themselves than we give them credit score for. I’m grateful to my wonderful college students for reminding me that past educating them, my first job is to present them a secure area to discover all of the amazingness they already possess.