Reblog: Ewww Michigan

So with the bad economy and government budget shortfalls many states have cut their funding for education.  It's the standard less teachers or aides with larger class sizes, less extracurricular activities, even worse special education, and sometimes closing and combining schools.  This has happened everywhere, from California to Maryland and unfortunately (and obviously) it means worse education for children. Currently Michigan is in the lead for horrific cuts. Gov. Rick Snyder released his plan in April and it contains an "unprecedented push toward for-profit schools, dubious online curricula, and budget cuts and anti-union measures that would make the public teaching profession ever more insecure."  Read the Mother Jones article Michigan's Radical Assault on Public Education for more information.

Personally I just can't wrap my head around the logic of defunding education.  It's a necessary service that when done well substantially improves not just the individual, but all of society.  Also we can look at history and other countries to see what happens when we fund, or don't fund education, and a lack of funding is never a good thing.  Or at least it's never a good thing in the long term or for the majority of society, short term it saves governments money and creates a poorly educated working force for cheap labor in factories/corporations.  Is that really what the majority of our states and politicians want?


By the way, I swear at some point I'm going to get back to book recommendations, and lists, and providing information of educational techniques and jargon.  There's just all these time sensitive things going on between politics and education that I feel needs to be addressed. 

Re-Blog - News on High Stakes Testing

Recently Marion Brady, a teacher, administrator, and curriculum designer wrote an article for the Washington Post When an Adult Took Standardized Tests Forced on Kids. In it she shares information she received from a friend who took the 10th grade test (this is the one that determines graduation, college potential, and of course teacher and administrator pay, and school funding).

The math section had 60 questions. I knew the answers to none of them, but managed to guess ten out of the 60 correctly. On the reading test, I got 62% . In our system, that’s a “D”... “It seems to me something is seriously wrong. I have a bachelor of science degree, two masters degrees, and 15 credit hours toward a doctorate."...“It makes no sense to me that a test with the potential for shaping a student’s entire future has so little apparent relevance to adult, real-world functioning. Who decided the kind of questions and their level of difficulty? Using what criteria? To whom did they have to defend their decisions? As subject-matter specialists, how qualified were they to make general judgments about the needs of this state’s children in a future they can’t possibly predict? Who set the pass-fail “cut score”? How?”“I can’t escape the conclusion that decisions about the [state test] in particular and standardized tests in general are being made by individuals who lack perspective and aren’t really accountable.”

In the article Marion Brady also discusses the recent New York Times story Principles Protest Increased Use of Test scores to Evaluate Educators by Michael Winerip.

"President Obama and his signature education program, Race to the Top, along with John B. King Jr., the New York State commissioner of education, deserve credit for spurring what is believed to be the first principals’ revolt in history.As of last night, 658 principals around the state had signed a letter — 488 of them from Long Island, where the insurrection began — protesting the use of students’ test scores to evaluate teachers’ and principals’ performance.Their complaints are many: the evaluation system was put together in slapdash fashion, with no pilot program; there are test scores to evaluate only fourth-through-eighth-grade English and math teachers; and New York tests are so unreliable that they had to be rescaled radically last year, with proficiency rates in math and English dropping 25 percentage points overnight.Mr. Kaplan, who runs one of the highest-achieving schools in the state, has been evaluating teachers since the education commissioner was a teenager. No matter. He is required by Nassau County officials to attend 10 training sessions, as is Carol Burris, the principal of South Side High School here, who was named the 2010 Educator of the Year by the School Administrators Association of New York State.“It’s education by humiliation,” Mr. Kaplan said. “I’ve never seen teachers and principals so degraded.”

Examples from Real Life

When I wrote about Reading Levels I explained that different children develop at different speeds and there is no one right level for a child to be on at a specific age or grade.  Now I work with children between the ages of 5 and 10 and see the reality of this every day.  Recently, I had my students make holiday cards for service men and women who would be over seas for the holidays. The results were both adorable and a good example of how children (even ones from similar backgrounds and educated by the same teachers) reach academic benchmarks at different times.

I selected a small collection of cards made by children from kindergarten to 3rd grade that demonstrate the different skills and levels children can be on, even when they are the same age or in the same class.

This card was made by one of my kindergarten students. I helped Megan spell "merry" and "Christmas" but didn't correct her formation of the letters or tell her which letters should be capitalized.  As you can see some of the letters are backwards and they vary a bit in size.  This is all pretty normal for kindergartners.  She did do a very good job writing in a straight line though; better then I would have at her age.

This card was made by another kindergartner.  He decided to interpret a holiday card for soldiers as a soldier card.  He also didn't want any help from teachers with spelling words, but decided to do some letters anyway.  As you can see the letters vary some in size and change between capitalized and lower case letters (pretty much based on his comfort level with writing the different letters).  The boy who made this card is best friends with Danniell, a 1st grader who made the next card.

Danniell didn't receive any help from teachers when making this card; the sentence structure, word choice, and spelling are all his own.  This shows he understands the form letters take, as well as basic spelling, punctuation, and grammar.  His only spelling mistake was "absolutley yors" which is pretty impressive.  Danniell is highly verbal, has an amazing memory, a love for science, and is self-motivated to learn new things. He hasn't had formal testing yet, but it's pretty easy to see he's in the gifted and talented range of academic abilities.  When talking with my teacher friends I often share stories about Danniell and call him my baby genius. (Last year he loved learning about weather and was very interested when we did a month long hurricane tracking project.  Months later he was the only students to retain the information about the general starting points for hurricanes during different times of the year.)

 Amanda, is one of my second graders and one of the less academically inclined of my students. Her penmanship is good for her age, she spelled everything correctly, and she reads within her grade range.  However, she isn't very interested in school or reading.  A lot of the children I work with enjoy reading and play school, Scrabble, and Banana-grams, or practice writing with the white boards, but Amanda doesn't find any of these things interesting.

Violet's in 3rd grade, or 3erd, as she spells it. She didn't receive any help from teachers and spelled "hollyday" the way it sounds, which if this was 300 years ago would have been academically acceptable.  Violet's a good example of an average 3rd grader.  She spells most words correctly, has legible hand writing, and just reached the point where she can read children's chapter books.  She doesn't mind reading or writing, but doesn't love it the way some of her peers do.

This last card is by Anna, another 3rd grader.  She didn't have any help from teachers and spelled "contrey" wrong, but like Violet she spelled it the way it sounds.  These types of misspellings are pretty standard for child in 3rd grade or beyond (unless they have ADHD, dyslexia or some other type of language based special need).  Her handwriting is a bit better then Violet's, and when it comes to reading she has a higher reading level, which is probably most related to her higher print-motivation.

I wish I had more examples from my older students, but they were less interested in completing this activity.  The school also starts tracking students in 4th grade and while my 4th graders have a range of interests, skills, and abilities the 5th grade students are all in the same levels and so are a less diverse example.

Education Comic

The Potential State of Libraries

Cities and states across the country are cutting their library budgets.  Currently the one getting the most media attention is Chicago.  Rham Emanuel's proposed 2012 budget would lay off 363 library employees and cut $11 million from the Chicago Public Library's current budget.  This would reduce the hours of operation for the city's libraries which provide necessary help to students, people searching for jobs, and run special programs that serve over 40,000 children per year.  The group protesting these cuts has a facebook page where you can get updates and offer support for their efforts.

But, as I said, Chicago isn't the only place with Library budget cuts.
Last year New York City Public Libraries lost over 200 employees, however they managed to block further budget cuts because of public support for the libraries and protests against the proposed budget cuts.
In Seattle budget cuts closed all branches of the public library for over a week.
Potential budget cuts of $2.5 million in Denver threaten to close half of the cities public libraries.
In Oakland, CA proposed cuts might result in 14 of the city's 18 public library branches being closed for good.
In attempts to keep open many libraries have had to find creative ways to raise money.

The American Library Association published their 2011 report on The State of America's Libraries.  They found that 65% of people use public libraries every year, 31% of adults and 38% of seniors rank public libraries as the top tax-supported service. 91% of people greatly value the educational and work related information provided at libraries.  93% of people believe libraries should be free.  However, in 2011 US City Mayors reported that cutting library hours, staff, and services was the second most popular way to enact budget cuts.

Public Libraries provide vital services to the community.  Besides housing millions of books for people to borrow or use as references for school work, libraries keep local city and town records of newspapers and politics for citizens to access.  They are often the only place that provides free internet access.  They have free community rooms of groups to use as meeting places.  They have specific resources for students and unemployed people looking for jobs.  Libraries have child services, and sometimes even provide short term child care during specific hours.  They can provide warm places for homeless people in winter and cooling zones during summer heat waves.

You can also visit this sarcastic (warning: uses swears) page for information about all the different things you can use the library for.  

A Child of the Library

Chorus:
I’m a Child of the Lib’ry, it made me who I am,
It taught me about freedom and the fellowship of Man
A sea of story waits for you behind the lib’ry door,
Don’t say we can’t afford them any more.

The Lib’ry’s where I made some friends I’ve known my whole life through
The Walkers and the Blacketts and the Pevensies so true.
Simp the canine cannonball, Galadriel the fair.
The daughter of a pirate king and Paddington the Bear

I’ve travelled South with Shackleton and all his gallant crew
And to the African interior that Mary Kingsley knew
I’ve rode the trackless prairie where the bison used to roam
An travelled round the Universe, not half an hour from home.

And as I grew the libr’y fed my curiosity,
All there for the asking. All of it for free.
It’s there I found the stories that I couldn’t find at home.
It’s where I learned I was myself and not my father’s clone.

So make friends with your library, don’t let it fade away.
Teach your kids the lib’ry’s where you go on Saturday.
Don’t let the bastards tell you they will cost to much to save
While they’re shovelling our taxes down the hole the bankers made

So make a stand for the lib’ry. Stand up while you can.
Stand up for your freedom. Stand for your fellow man.
Ignorance is never bliss, don’t close the lib’ry door.
For a lib’ry lost is lost forever more.

Lyrics © 2011 Piers and Gill Cawley
Music © 2011 Piers Cawley

Licenced under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA License.

Calvin and Hobbes - Testing

Spot on analysis of  the worth of testing the the first level of Bloom's Taxonomy.

Direct Action in the System of Education

First a video from NYC - Occupy the Department of Education

Maryland State Board of Education - Search for the new State Superintendent of Schools
Superintendent's dramatically shape the way education happens in schools.  They can support or suppress the Arts, focus on testing to the exclusion of other programs, support or end extended day programs, and so much more.  Maryland will soon hire a new State Superintendent, but first they're giving everyone a chance to voice what qualities they think the Superintendent should have.  People interested in directly participating in this can go online and complete the survey by November 18 2011, or attend a series of open forums held at 2:30 pm and again at 7pm at each of the following locations.

11/3 - Seneca Valley High School (Montgomery County) 19401 Crystal Rock Drive, Germantown, MD 20874

11/7 - Huntingtown High School (Calvert County) 4125 N Solomons Island Rd, Huntingtown, MD 20639

11/7 - Mountain Ridge High School (Allegany County) 100 Dr. Nancy S. Grasmick Lane, Frostburg, MD 21532

11/9 - Edgewood High School (Harford County) 215 Willoughby Beach Rd, Edgewood, MD 21040

11/10 - Baltimore Polytechnic Institute (Baltimore City) 1400 West Cold Spring Lane, Baltimore, MD 21209

Hey, Relentless Conservative, Did Our Time Together Mean Nothing to You?

For some reason the Relentless Conservative (RC) decided that 6 am on Sunday, October 16^th, the day after a Global Call to Action, was a great time to head down to Liberty Park to get his questions answered about Occupy Wall St.  And I suppose it is if you want to debate with sleeping or just woken people.  It certainly meant there were less people to challenge his classist opinions about bootstaps or call him out on his blatant lies.


However, around 8 am he did find me and my friend to talk to.  We’d been up for half an hour and just started on our tea and muffins which we’d bought from one of the food carts that line one side of Liberty Park (we decided we’d rather financially support these people than McDonald's).  We debated the RC for over half an hour; we told him about ourselves, explained why we participated in Occupy Wall St (making sure to discuss specifics), and our opinions about the police response to the protests.   He praised us for our knowledge and ability to articulate our views.  I (as someone who works in childcare and blogs about education and literacy) called him out when he displayed classism and belittled other protesters for the coherency of their arguments.  He ended up agreeing with me (at least at the time), made some patronizing comments about if we were his daughters, thanked us for the conversation, and left. 


 None of this interaction appears in his Oct. 19^th post, The Relentless Conservative - Occupy Wall Street at 6am. Apparently the RC didn't think our 30 + minute debate added anything to his story.  And considering how we made nearly point by point refutations of his whole post I can see why he wouldn't want to acknowledge our voices.  And certainly our existence as adult, employed, and middle class supporters and protesters dismantles his narrative of everyone being naive students or dirty, incoherent hippies.  I’m not OK with being silenced and I’m not OK with his assertions that “It seemed to me in the final analysis that their protest was about greed ... about what they didn't have rather than what they had. And in the end, there was a lot of petty jealousy on their part toward others…I asked all those who said "greed" was the reason they were there, if that wasn't silly, ‘that greed has always existed, why protest it now?’ None of them had anything other than a blank look on their faces. No cogent answers.”  Way to ignore our half hour conversation and my very existence, RC. 

But hey, he’s a blogger, not a journalist. And I’m a blogger too.  So here’s my account of the conversation with the Relentless Conservative and a response to the claims he made in person, and in his article.

First, his claims about OWS protesters assaulting a black police officer, which he also mentioned in our conversation. Is he aware the video he linked to shows a black officer punching a white man in the head? That's all the video shows, but the NYPD claim the protester (and others) assaulted the cop previous to the punching.  It's interesting that there are videos (from different angles) of the officer assaulting the protester, but absolutely none of the reverse.  But Certainly we can trust the NYPD to take police brutality seriously, after all Officer Bologna lost 10 vacation days for his unprovoked pepper spraying of multiple women. As for his complaint that the protester was HIV+  and still thought he had his First Amendment Rights of Assembly, does the RC still live in the early 1990s? I thought we were over our unreasonable fear of people with HIV.


Secondly, his anger at Hollywood supporting OWS and thinking they can be active in political movements. Does he remember who the hero of the Republican Party is?  Or did he just conveniently forget Reagan’s first career? And his idea OWS will turn on President Obama and House Minority Leader Pelosi like the French turned on Marie Antoinette shows both a pathetic understanding of history and an inability to listen to the people he speaks to.  Marie Antoinette was an Austrian princess and hated by many aristocratic and poor French from the beginning of her marriage to the then Dauphin of France. They never liked her; there was no turning of public opinion.  And many OWS supporters have already turned against President Obama and the majority of politicians in all parties.  We've realized the truth about corporate campaign contributions (one of the main points of Occupy Wall Street) and don't trust any of them to adequately support the needs of the 99% over their corporate masters. And it should be noted how quickly contributions have shifted since President Obama has even partially supported OWS. 

Now onto the Relentless Conservatives claims about his visit to OWS in the early hours of Sunday morning.  Really? You smelled urine while walking out of the subway, and decided to attribute it to the protestors who were over a block away?  Has he never taken the subway before? Is he even trying to make logical arguments?   And the supposed fight between a black man and a white man over cigarettes.  The image he provides as “proof” shows multiple feet of space between the three men, but (maybe it’s the lighting) they all seem white.  I don’t know why this was even included unless the RC is trying to portray OWS as actively racist (which is not to say the OWS is as diverse as it should be).

His complaints about the number of people seem specious, especially since he had the time to check the internet to find that “assault on an officer”.  Surely he’d noticed the 100 or more arrests that happened between Citibank, Times Square, and Washington Square Park?  A representative told me it seemed that the volunteer staff had been targeted and that the Media Team alone was missing about 12 staff members. And, oh my god, the only people awake before 7 am were too busy to talk to him or were incoherent.  What drugged out, lazy riff-raff!  I know all gainfully employed people are up and about by sunrise on Sunday, but let’s try to take into account that the Oct. 15th protest actions didn't end until after midnight.

As for the claims of drunk or high people, Occupy Wall Street has a policy of not allowing any drugs or alcohol at Liberty Park.  This has been agreed upon by the General Assembly.  So while some people might still do drugs it is certainly not the majority of protesters nor condoned by them.

The RC did ask us about the  political groups present at OWS, mentioning the Nazi party specifically.  We told him about the Socialist Party and how they waited for people to come up to their booth instead of actively hunting down potential recruits.  Of any Communist or Nazi Parties I saw not a hair, and considering the Nazi Party’s fascism, homophobia, and racism I really don’t see them being welcomed by people at Occupy Wall Street.  And his suggestion of the sometimes violent protests of Europe with riots and looting spreading to the US like the Ebola virus, it’s both a bad metaphor from a scientific standpoint (the Ebola virus is only communicable through liquid transfer and kills its host too quickly to seriously spread) and factually inaccurate.  I specifically contradicted his comparisons to London since those riots were sparked by police killing a young man of color and decades of police brutality and economic suffering of the people in the rioting neighborhoods. 


Now this point and the rest of our debate don’t make the article.  My friend and I never existed in the story by the Relentless Conservative.  We never discussed the slow destruction of Glass-Stegall under Presidents both Republican and Democrat. We never discussed that this allowed savings banks to act like investment banks (and the RC certainly didn't voice his main objection about this was the increased competition investment bankers would face).  We didn't agree upon the insanity of bailing out the banks in 2008 without earmarking how the money could be spent.  We never discussed how JP Morgan Chase donated $4.6 million to the NYPD and how this might affect the police response to protests against big banks. We never discussed toxic assets and how bankers should be investigated for fraud and criminal negligence.  We never discussed unemployment and how it's worse for young people. Or the fact that the average US household income has decline 10% in the last two years. We never discussed Citizens United.  We never shared personal accounts from our lives, like the fact that even though I’m employed full time in a job I love, I can’t afford health care (which I didn’t know desire for affordable health care equaled greed, but apparently it does in the RC’s world view) and I sometimes need financial assistance from my parents.

Also these words were never exchanged:

“I can barely survive.  I have little hope for my future.”

“So you’re a pessimist?”

“No.  I believe things can change.  That’s why I’m here.”

And I certainly didn’t call the Relentless Conservative out for his classist derision of the coherency and education of my fellow Occupy Wall Street protesters.

 

In reality, all that was discussed and I totally did. 

I explained that everyone here came from different experiences and therefore naturally had various concerns about politics and corporations.  I explained that the US was devaluing teachers and education.  (I offered to discuss this at length, for at least two hours, but the RC didn’t take me up on this for some reason).  I explained how not everyone has the privilege of a good education or is taught how to eloquently express their opinions on politics and finance and we can’t belittle people for the negative effects of poverty and poor education when the political and financial institutions in place exacerbate these problems (hey, another goal for OWS).  He tried to reference the exceptional people who have risen above these hardships to attend Harvard.  I countered that all these exceptions proved the rule since they had unusual support from adults who pushed them.  He agreed that all these people cited some amazing teacher who inspired them to academic achievement and that maybe I was right about all this.  I finished this aspect of the discussion by explaining that just because people don’t have the correct jargon to express their feelings it does not diminish the importance of their experiences and opinions.

But none of this fits the narrative constructed by the Relentless Conservative so I presume he deleted my salient points and his agreement from his consciousness when it came time to write the article. 

We finished up the conversation with the RC complimenting my friend and I on our political knowledge and ability to articulate our views.  He suggested we not spend our time eating breakfast, but rather spend it in front of the cameras.   Which really, he wants to tell me how to best help a cause he wants to see demolished?  And the best way to do that is to ignore my bodily needs? But I suppose he thinks he has the right to tell women how to behave.  The Relentless Conservative certainly felt he had the right to tell me and my friendthat we reminded him of his daughter and how he’d never allow her in a place like this.  Thereby suggesting that if he were our fathers he’d somehow keep us from coming out to Liberty Park.

Which by this point my friend and I decided he was a troll and I told him that was incredibly demeaning.  I much prefer my father’s response when I told him I was coming to OWS and might get arrested:

“Awesome, I always wanted to bail one of my kids out of jail.” 

My father said this because I’m an adult and he knows he doesn’t have the right to stop me from doing anything.  My father said this because, unlike the Relentless Conservative, he isn’t patronizingly sexist nor does he think his grown daughter needs protection from a democratic protest.  My father sees me as an individual, capable of independent thought, which is more than the Relentless Conservative acknowledged in any of us at Occupy Wall Street.  

Re-Blog - Occupy Wall Street and Education

I've been very into the Occupy Wall Street movement recently.  I've spent an hour or two a day reading articles on it, re-posting them and commenting on social media to spread the word.  I've gotten into some adamant debates with libertarians and neo-liberals/conservatives.  I attended Occupy Wall Street last weekend.  But I haven't written about the movement here.  I felt there was a relationships between education and the economic injustice that OWS is protesting, but I wasn't certain how to write about the two.

Luckily Nicholas D. Kristof did and his Op-Ed for the New York Times Occupy the Classroom addressed this relationship.

"One common thread, whether I’m reporting on poverty in New York City or in Sierra Leone, is that a good education tends to be the most reliable escalator out of poverty. Another common thread: whether in America or Africa, disadvantaged kids often don’t get a chance to board that escalator."

No Child Left Behind Comic

"But if everyone doesn't take the exact same test how can Assessment be fair?" The supporters of NCLB cry.  Completely ignoring the differences in in mental abilities (schools can only not test/provide accommodations for 10% of students, despite the fact that ~25% of their students will have some type of special need.) Fluency in English (after 2 years in public schools children have to take NCLB tests in English, no matter what their actual fluency level is) familial support, background education (have they transferred schools a lot? Remember some child transfer almost every year and so might miss sections because schools are on different schedules) school resources (something tells me Montgomery Country, richest county in the country, schools have more to spend on computers, text books, lab equipment, field trips and teachers then Baltimore City, majority of schools have 90-100% of students living below the poverty line.)

But hey, the government said this was fair and then Secretary of Educations Margaret Spellings lack of experience in schools and nonexistent Education Degree totally made her a good judge.

Book List - Banned Books Week

So this past week (Sept. 24 - Oct. 4) has been Banned Books Week.  As the site will tell you Banned Books Week, organized by the American Library Association, started in the 1980s when the rise of neo-con, religious values lead interest groups to protest books with queer, sex-positive,  non-Christian, "witch craft", "racist", and overtly political messages.  I wrote witch craft and racist with quotation marks because these reasons have been used to ban Harry Potter and The Adventures of Huck Finn, which is especially troubling since Huck Finn might use the n-word but it's actually pointing out the wrongness of racism. The habit of banning books for racism when really they are criticizing racism in society has happened again in 2010.

This month's book list is the Top Ten Banned Books of 2010.  The majority of these are YA novels, the most banned book is for young children, and one book is a non-fiction book aimed at adults (though appropriate for YA audiences as well).

The Top 10 Banned Books of 2010

1. And Tango Makes Three by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson is an adorable book about two male penguins raising a baby penguin in a zoo.  I recommended this book for Pre-K/K aged children in my Book List - Gay Pride Month post in June.  It was banned for homosexuality, religious view point, and having material unsuitable to age group.
2. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie is a YA book and story of a 14 year old Spokane Indian boy who transfers from his reservation school to a rich, white school. It's semi-autobiographical and deals with family death, reservation life, and questions of community and identity.  This book was banned for racism, offensive language, religious view points, sex education, violence, being sexually explicit, and for being unsuited to age group.
3. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley is a classic sci-fi book suitable for YA and Adult readers.  It portrays a distopian world similar to that of The Giver where there is no violence, crime, poverty or individuality.  It's a critique of society and a warning to us on par with 1984 and Fahrenheit 451.  It was banned for insensitivity, offensive language, racism, and for being sexually explicit. 
4. Crank by Ellen Hopkins is a semi-autobiographical YA novel similar to Go Ask Alice.  It deals with teenage drug addiction and rape in a relatively realistic and completely unglamorized manner.  It was banned for drugs, offensive language, racism, and for being sexually explicit. 
5. The Hunger Games Series by Suzanne Collins is the YA story of Panem, a distopian future US where children fight gladiatorial games, and Katniss Everdeen the girl who volunteered to take her sister's place and challenged the government by refusing to play by their rules.  I reviewed it here.   The series has been banned for violence, being sexually explicit, and unsuitable for the age group.
6. Lush by Natasha Friend is a YA book where a 13 year old girl struggles to deal with her father's alcoholism and pressure from her mother and grandmother to hide it from everyone. It also deals with more typical teenage problems like crushes and puberty,  It was banned for drugs, being sexually explicit, offensive language, and unsuitable for the age group.
7. What My Mother Doesn't Know by Sonya Sones is a YA book about a typical teenage girl dealing with relationships, crushes, issues with Mom, and understanding the difference between love and lust.  It's poetic and emotionally intense and banned for sexism, being sexually explicit, and unsuitable to age group. 
8. Nickle and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America by Barbara Ehrenreich is a famous non-fiction book about the author trying to survive on minimum wage in different parts of the country.  It examines the unfairness in the US, especially for women, and explains how important Welfare and a living wage really are.  It's been banned for drugs, inaccuracy, offensive language, political viewpoints, and religious viewpoints.
9. Revolutionary Voices by Amy Sonnie is a YA anthology of stories by queer and young writers. It's autobiographical for the various writes and wonderfully edited by 22 year old Amy Sonnie.  It's been banned for homosexuality, being being sexually explicit. 
10. Twilight (Series) by Stephanie Meyer is the incredibly popular YA series about the age old tale of love between a human girl and a 100 year old sparkling vampire.  While I have objections to the series (like the quality of writing) they're a bit different then the reasons it was banned; violence, being sexually explicit, religious viewpoint, and unsuited to audience. 

Now I have two reasons I have problems with the list.  The lesser one being some of the books banned for being sexually explicit don't portray anything more intense then kissing and cuddling, the ones being banned for racism are attacking and exposing racism, and the idea that people ban books for positively portraying queer characters is offensive.  

But my main objection to this list is that it exists at all.  Books should not be banned, it's an issue of free speech and access to opposing speech and stories.  The idea of institutionally stifling or hiding voices that portray something different or something that some people find objectionable is repugnant.  This is especially true when these voices portray the experiences of real people or are something that many people face or deal with.  Teenagers go through puberty and the majority of them experience desire.  Addiction and rape happen (to adults, teenagers, and even children).  Not everyone is straight and queer people are victimized and bullied.  People of Color experience racism.  To ban books at all is wrong, but to ban them for showing the world as it really is, instead of how white, conservative Christians want it to be, is inexcusable. 

To See Where Books Are Being Banned Near You

Gay Characters in Young Adult Fiction

Over the last couple of weeks the Literary/Gay blogosphere has focused on the inclusion (or lack there of) of LGBT characters and protagonists in young adult fiction.  It began when two authors, Rachel Manija Brown and Sherwood Smith, came out about how an agent for a major publishing house told them to remove the gay point of view/relationship from their sci-fi novel.

The Post That Started It All - The two authors wrote about an experience they had while trying to publish their joint post-apocalyptic novel Stranger.  There are five POV characters, one, Yuki, is gay and his relationship is important to the plot of the story.  One, unnamed agent from an unnamed, but major, publisher told them to remove the gay POV (along with at least one other POV) and references to his relationship.  The authors refused and the agent suggested that he could be revealed as gay in a sequel.  The authors refused and some time later decided to write about their experience and use it as a jumping off point to talk about queer inclusion in YA fiction.

Several days later an agent from the publishing house, but not the one Brown and Smith were in talks with, presented the publisher's side of the story. She called Brown and Smith liars, but didn't contradict most of what they were saying, and provided justifications for why Yuki should not be a POV character and his relationship, with another boy, be removed from the novel.

Other authors, and people in publishing, speak up.  Some relate their similar experiences with "straightwashing" while others call YA the most gay-inclusive area in fiction and claim nothing so homophobic could happen in YA fiction, or publishing in general. Two bloggers address the the various points people raise and provide links to a bunch of other posts. General Summary/Points and More Points.
Meanwhile Malinda Lo addresses the claim that YA in queer inclusive by breaking down the stats and percentages on the publishing of LGBT novels in the last 50 years.  She finds there has been a general increase in characters, but that less then 1% of published YA novels have a LGBT protagonist or supporting character. Of this 1%, half are male gay characters, and a quarter are lesbians.  Transgender people makes up only 4% of all LGBT characters in YA novels.

AfterElton, a gay media site, weights in on the topic, as does writer Sarah Rees Brennan.

Now, in case it needs saying, I'm all for the inclusion of queer characters in fiction, especially YA fiction.  I think all forms of media needs to get better at portraying LGBT(QIA) folk.  Several months ago I did of Book List with children and YA books with queer characters/protagonists, which you can find here.  I agree with this post on Where Change Must Come From. It isn't enough to say readers need to buy more LGBT books, or authors need to write more, or publishers need to publish more.  All these things must happen together.  And, in my humble opinion, publishers are the ones with the most power to enact change.  I can only buy LGBT books if they publish them, and my favorite authors (some of whom self publish) whose books I buy as soon as they come out, write books with queer characters.  And I wish there are more queer books, especially ones with bi-sexual and trans characters, I want these stories, for myself, and all the children out there.  And as this event, and others before it, shows, some authors are writing books with LGBT characters, and they're being told to remove the story lines (for marketing reasons).  Until this stops, and publishers have more then 1% of their total books include prominent LGBT characters (I refuse to believe only 1% of all YA books submitted have prominent queer characters and are of quality) then the vehicle for significant change rests with the publishing houses.

Multiple Intelligences

In 1983 Dr. Howard Gardener developed the idea of Multiple Intelligences.  The idea is there are a varieties of areas that people can be smart/skilled in and that our method of IQ testing and education does not address all these different areas.  Dr. Gardner came up with eight different types of intelligence, of which seven are discussed and used by psychologists and educators.

These multiple intelligences are:

Linguistic - Linguistic Intelligence means being smart/skilled with reading, writing, and speaking.  Authors, public speakers, news reports, and comedians all need a high Linguistic Intelligence.

Logical/Mathematical - This type of intelligence means being number smart.  Scientists, mathematicians, and chess masters all have high Logical/Mathematical Intelligences.

Musical - Musical Intelligence is, perhaps obviously, being smart/skilled in music.  This relates to singing, composing music, and playing an instrument.

Intra-Personal - Intra-Personal Intelligence means being smart about yourself.  Poets who focus on emotions, many psychologists, actors, and people like Siddhartha and Thoreau all have high Intra-Personal Intelligence.

Inter-Personal - This type of intelligence means being smart about other people.  Psychologists, motivational speakers, and people like Machiavelli all have high Inter-Personal Intelligence.

Bodily/Kinesthetic - Bodily/Kinesthetic Intelligence refers to being smart about bodily movement.  Actors, gymnasts, dances, and other athletes, along with soldiers and fire fighters all have high Bodily/Kinesthetic Intelligence.

Spatial - This type of intelligence means being picture and space smart. Artists, pilots, and race car drivers all need a high Spatial Intelligence.

Everyone is skilled in one of these areas of intelligence and many people will be smart in multiple areas.  People like actors, poets, psychologists, and Air Force pilots need to be skilled in two or three intelligences to  succeed in their professions.

However, schools often focus on the Linguistic and Logical/Mathematical Intelligences, sometimes to the exclusion to the other types. This has become more frequent with the advent of high states testing and NCLB.  If children do receive education in the other types of intelligences it is often through extra-curricular activities like art, music, and gym, and these extra-curriculars are the first to go when there are problems with budgets or schools need to pull their test scores up. Intra and Inter-Personal Intelligences often aren't addressed in schools and are rarely, if ever, actively taught to children.

Ideally schools would have the funding and time to address every type of intelligence and work the different types into the same lessons so that all children have access to areas they succeed in, and learn material in a method that increases their chances of true understanding.  When learning anything classes can read about the lesson (linguistic), learn equations or logical expressions for it (logical/mathematical), observe charts (spatial), listen to or write songs about the material (musical), how what the class is learning affects people (inter-personal), and apply the learned material to the body/themselves (bodily/kinesthetic and intra-personal).  When all the types of intelligences are worked into the lesson every child in the class has a higher chance of success.

Getting Kids Ready For School

Recently I've been busy getting my program ready for the start of school. Teachers, parents, and students the country over have been buying and organizing supplies and making a variety of plans.  You see plenty of tips about what classroom supplies to buy kids, but the most important aspect of preparing children for school happens in the years before kindergarten.  Prenumeracy and Preliteracy skills are necessary for a successful start to school and are learned at pre-schools and homes in a variety of ways.

Prenumeracy and Preliteracy skills are necessary for children to learn math and reading and range from sorting materials, having a conversation, and holding a pencil.

This being a literacy blog I'll focus on explaining the 6 main preliteracy skills and how to develop them.

Vocabulary
Knowing the names of things is an important precursor to reading.  Most children enter kindergarten knowing 3,000 - 5,000 words.  The more words a child knows the more prepared he or she is for school and the easier reading will be. 

• Using precise language when talking to children helps expand their vocabulary.  Instead of pointing and saying "Bring those here" use object and place words like "Bring the plates to the table." 
• Make sure children spend time outside of the house and point out the names and titles of the animals, people, buildings, and objects you encounter.
• Read a variety of fiction and non-fiction books with your child.  Some books, like Fancy Nancy are created to expand children's vocabulary.
• When speaking to your child occasionally use words they don't know.

Remember children can't expant their vocabularies unless they encounter new words through conversations and experiences.

Narrative Skills
Being able to understand and tell stories and describe things, narrative skills, are necessary for children to understand what they are reading.  Being able to differentiate between the beginning, middle, and end of events and to explain this are important for reading and other cognitive functions.

• Ask children questions about their day.  Help them find and explain the sequence of events by asking questions like "What did you do first?" and "What happened next?"
• When reading to children, or watching a TV show or movie, ask children to summarize the story and explain their favorite parts.

Print Motivation
Print motivation is the interest in and the enjoyment of books.  Some children naturally have a higher print motivation, but it is something that should be fostered in all children. A child with print motivation will play with books, pretend to read, and enjoys being read to and trips to the library.  Between natural inclination and my parents reading to me a great deal my high print motivation kept me liking books despite my learning disabilities and helped me (eventually) become an avid reader.

• Point out and read words everywhere you see them, on signs, cereal boxes, newspapers and everything else.
• Take children to group stories times at libraries and book stores.
• If possible make story time and every day activity.
• Take children to the library and help them find stories they'll enjoy.
• Make sure to keep reading enjoyable by not forcing children to sit still for longer then is natural for them.

Print Awareness
Print awareness is knowledge of how books and writing works.  Children with print awareness know that text is read from left to right and that pages are read top to bottom.  They know that the print on the page matches up with what is being read to them.  Over time children will learn that capital letters signify names and starts of sentences and that punctuation ends a sentence.

• Point to words when reading them.  Make sure to do this with text outside of books to.
• During story time run your finger along under the words so your child sees how words match up with what you're saying.

Letter Knowledge
Letter knowledge means learning the alphabet.  Its learning the names and sounds of individual letters.  You can start teaching letter knowledge to babies before they begin fully talking.

• There are a variety of books and activities made to teach letter knowledge.  Letter blocks, carpets, and alphabet books are ways to introduce your child to letters as babies and toddlers.
• Describe the shapes of letters: B has two bellies, M is two mountains.  Make sure to find ways that make sense to the individual child.  You can also ask kids what they think the letters look like.
• For pre-schoolers try drawing letters in the sand, snow, flour, or while playing with markers and chalk.
• Remember to keep things fun.  The point is to get children comfortable with letters.  Few children have the patience or ability to learn actual spelling befor turning 5 and entering kindergarten.

Phonological Awareness
Phonological awareness is knowing the sounds that make up words. It includes being able to hear and create rhymes, to say words with sounds left out, and putting two words or word parts together to make another word.

• Play silly word games that makes use of rhyming. Like "Anna, bananna, fe fi fofanna". 
• Lots of children books are written in rhyme, make sure to read some with your child.
• Say words with pauses between the syllables. "Rab" - "It" "Wat" - "Er"

Atlanta School Cheating Scandal

I'm sure most U.S. residents with an interest in education have heard about the cheating scandal in the Atlanta school district.  I've been meaning to write about it for several weeks, but I've been unable to form coherent thoughts that address what happened in Atlanta.  Part of that is how the administrators and press discuss the issue verses the way I (and everyone I know who works in education) see the matter.

The facts are these:
In the beginning of July Georgia Governor Nathan Deal released a report that found that erasure cheating on the 2009 state tests occurred in 44 out of 56 elementary and middle schools. Erasure cheating is when teachers correct wrong answers on a test after students have finished, by erasing wrong answers and filling in the correct ones.  The cheating was discovered when test graders noticed suspicious patterns in erasures what were not found in other districts. 178 teachers, principles, and administrators are charged with actively cheating, encouraging it, or ignoring the signs of cheating.  An Interim Superintendent, Erroll B. Davis Jr, has been appointed.

Davis, and most of the media*, suggest that the cheating was caused by a lack of ethics in individual teachers coupled with the pressure exerted by then Superintendent Dr. Beverly Hall to have high test scores or face termination.  From reports it seems that Davis thinks ethics training and "a more open, transparent and empowering culture," will fix the problem.

When I think about the issue and discuss it with my friends in education we all reach the conclusion that teachers' salaries and retention were based on test scores.  When more then 3/4ths of the schools are effected its a systemic problem, and unlikely to be created by one bad superintendent and some unethical teachers.  In fact, when taken in context, with the economy being what it is, if test scores are tied to a teacher keeping their job cheating, instead of being the easy option, might seem like the only option.

After all it isn't only in Atlanta schools where cheating on high stakes test occurs, Washington D.C. and Pennsylvania,  are under investigation as well.  And erasures aren't that most common form of cheating.  Teachers are much more likely to help students while the test is going on by correcting their answers in class or allowing them to have calculators when the test specifies otherwise.

The system (with No Child Left Behind) has set impossible goals, like the requirement that 100% of students are "proficient" by 2014.  Teacher and principle salaries, bonuses, and retention are often determined largely on Adequate Yearly Progress in state test scores.  Furthermore school funding is also tied into AYP.  Campbell's Law states that "the more any quantitative social indicator is used for social decision-making, the more subject it will be to corruption pressures and the more apt it will be to distort and corrupt the social processes it was intended to monitor." 

I've heard teachers in this country likened to delivery people.  The standards, curriculum, and assessment methods are determined by the state and federal government.  Many teachers have little time to educate students in areas of interest or provide special lessons or help to students who need them.  Strict schedules and teaching to the test are what education has become in the United States.  The test themselves rarely go beyond assessing rote memorization and a students ability to quickly fill in bubbles.  There's no deeper meaning or higher level learning, and since it's not on the test it isn't being taught in classrooms either.

The countries with the best elementary and secondary education in the world don't oppperate this way.  Scandinavian countries are some of the highest performers on global education assessments.  Currently Finland is the highest. 

• All three Scandinavian countries have quality public pre-schools that stress social behavior and personal responsibility, as well as pre-numeracy and pre-lieracy skills.  This helps students develop intrinsic motivation, which experts agree is generally better then enternal motivation (which is what high stakes testing does in the U.S). 
• Students don't begin formal schooling untill they are seven (the age when most children have mastered gross motor skills and can now sit and focus for longer periods of time.)  They also have limited grading and don't track students untill they are in 9th grade.  After this about half the students attend academic heavy high schools (with the idea of going on to college) while half attend vocational and trade schools.  Also, Finland does not negatively judge people who attend vocational schools.
• Universities and polytechnics run by the government provide free higher education for any student who completes high school and/or passes the traditional matriculation exam.
• Finlands curriculum, as defined by the state, totals 10 pages.  Future teachers attend a rigorous and exclusive program and at the end are trusted to know how to educate their students and to pick the appropriate material for age and grade level. 
• All schools recieve the same amount of funding.  In the U.S. (local and state) funding is determined by property taxes of an area and voter turnout.  Areas with more expensive property and higher voter turnout have more money to spend on education.  The differences can be several thousand dollars per child.

We need to change the education system in the U.S. Right now far to many children are falling through the cracks.  But the way to do this isn't yearly state standardized tests that determine student achievement, and teacher ability, and teacher and principle saleries and retention, and federal funding.  We need to have the people determining education standards, curriculum, and assessment methods to be actual educators instead of lawmakers. Margaret Spelling, the one time Secretary of Education who helped creat NCLB, did not study education or child developement and has never worked in that field.  Yet the State of Texas and U.S. government somehow found her qualified to reform education. 

We need to go back to trusting teachers to know who to teach without the government beathing down their backs.  We need to stop seeing students and education as products.  We need to stop applying capitalistic and corporate principles to schools.  If we can do this, and take a lessons from Finnish schools, we might (30 years down the road) have a populace with knowledge, creative thinking skills, and personal responsibility.  Think about how much better the U.S. would be like that.

*Not all the media does this. The Huffington Post and The Week address the systemic issues.

Reblog

Shakesville: Educate the People - But Not So Much That Corporations Can't Still Exploit Them, Obviously

One of the topics at the Clinton Global Initiative Conference was on Education, specifically in relation to corporations.   Shakesville's creator and several other writers attended the Conference and this is one of their summaries on this topic.

"After more than an hour, I was left wondering: Who is education meant to benefit, and whose interests is educational reform meant to serve in this country? ... Strange how that works. One group—those making millions (billions? Bieberillions?) of dollars think education is important because at the end of the day, it benefits them. The other group—those slogging away, educating children, doing the so-called "dirty work" on the ground think education is important because it empowers the individual receiving the education to have some control over hir life's destiny. "

Unfortunately it's the model of children being future workers for corporations that dominates in many schools right now.  Jonathan Kozol's Shame of the Nation: The Restoration of Apartheid Schooling in America discusses this at length, and provides many examples.  Many children, especially those in inner city, predominately POC, schools are taught to follow directions without question, recall, recitation.  They're not taught how to actually read and write and develop and explain their own thoughts.  They pick out vocabulary and understand it only in the exact was they were taught.  They summarize, but never critique.  So few students learn higher order thinking skills, and a lot of that has to do with the fact that pencil pushers and factory workers don't need to know how to critique and judge the worth of things.  They don't need the learning levels of Synthesis and Evaluations, in fact, it's easier for corporations if their workers don't have these skills.

Book Review - The Demon's Surrender by Sarah Rees Brennan

The Demon's Surrender is the last book of the Demon's Lexicon Trilogy (reviewed here).  The trilogy follows the adventures of Nick and Alan Ryves, siblings Jamie and Mae, and Sin (Cynthia Davies) as they struggle with and against magicians and demons.  Each book has a different narrator, the first is Nick, second is Mea, and Sin is the narrator in The Demon's Surrender.

The whole trilogy emotionally focuses on family, especially siblings as each main character has at least on parent who has died or they're emotionally distant from.  This continues with Sin who is the main caregiver for her two younger siblings and partway through the book has to chose between staying with her sister or her place in the Goblin Market, of which she is the main demon dancer and presumed heir.

The content and reading level is still Young Adult, but The Demon's Surrender is a little bit more sexual then the previous books.  A lot of this comes from Sin having to use her beauty to attract clients.  Some also comes from Sin being mixed race and therefore having to deal with more street harassment and objectification then Mea.  I really liked how Rees Brennan addressed this in the book.  It's, realistically, a daily part of Sin's life, but her race is by no means her defining characteristic. 

This book also most closely addressed Alan's limp with Sin being more bothered by it (because of her career as a demon dancer) then Nick or Mea is.  It also is better about showing Alan's own relationship with his disability since he and Sin have several conversations about it.   

There are also two scenes of graphic violence that could easily be disturbing to readers.  Both involve torture and one includes self mutilation.  I think Rees Brennan handled them well, but they were a bit more intense then other scenes with violence in The Demon's Surrender or other books in the trilogy.   There is a bit more violence in the book over all as it has the final battle between the main characters and magicians, and Sin, like Alan and Nick, has basically grown up fighting.

Anyway, I completely loved this series and think it's a great book to introduce boys and girls to fantasy.  Also Sarah Rees Brennan has written several short stories in the Demon's Lexicon universe.  You can find them here.

Book List - Gay Pride Month

June is Pride Month in the US and in honor of that here is a list of books featuring gay characters and themes.  As with other book lists I wanted the themes/morals of the stories to be secondary to the characters.  After all if books have well developed gay characters then they'll naturally raise awareness about gay people and the issues they face.  Some of the books listed with have a primary focus of gay characters and issues while other's will be stories that happen to have gay characters.  Also a lot of the gay rights movement and Pride focus on white men to the extent of silencing or ignoring women, people of color, and other people on the LGBTQ spectrum.  The counter this I tried to find several books that focused on or included characters that were POC and LGBTQ.

Book's I have read are marked with an *.

P-K/Kindergarten
* And Tango Makes Three by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell  (The charming story of Roy and Silo, two boy penguins who fall in love and are given an egg to foster by their zoo keeper.)

Daddy, Papa, and Me by Leslea Newman (A Pre-K boardbook about a young toddler playing and daddy and papa and the activities they get up to.  The writing is in short rhymes.  It also has a companion Mommy, Mama, and Me.)

King & King written and illustrated by Linda de Haan and Stern Nijland.  (This is a story of a prince who is supposed to find a princess to marry, but falls in love with a prince instead.  This book has been translated into several languages and has a sequel King & King & Family.)

The White Swan Express by Jean Davies Okimoto and Elaine M. Aoki.  (This is the story of four Chinese baby girls and the people who adopt them. One family is a lesbian couple, and another person is a single mom. )

1st - 2nd Grade
Anna Day and the O-ring written and illustrated by Elaine Wickens and Alyson Wonderland. (Evan, his two mom's, and their dog Anna Day are getting ready for Evan's birthday party when the O-ring for the tent goes missing.)

Mom and Mum Are Getting Married! by Ken Setterington.  (Rosie's mom's are getting married and she wants to be the flower girl and take care of the wedding rings.  But are Rosie and her brother Jack mature enough?)

One Dad, Two Dads, Brown Dad, Blue Dads by Johnny Valentine.  (A Dr. Seuss like rhyming book about a brown boy, Lou, answering his friend's questions about Lou's two blue dads.)

3rd - 5th Grade
* The Skull of Truth by Bruce Coville.  (Charlie, a chronic lier, finds a skull (that used to belong to Shakespeare!) that makes everyone around it tell the truth.  A sub-plot of the book has to do with the revelation that Charlie's favorite uncle is gay)

Young Adult
* Demon's Lexicon by Sarah Rees Brennan.  (Jamie, one of the main characters of the series, is gay.  Several secondary characters are as well.  The main focus of the story is on magic and family, though additional content on Rees Brennan's web-page shows more from Jamie's, or the secondary characters, perspectives.) Reviewed by me.

The House You Pass on the Way by Jacqueline Woodson.  (Bi-racial Staggerlee has felt even more confused and different ever since she kissed her best friend Hazel.  Luckily she has a kindred spirit in her cousin Trout.)

The Pride Pack by R.J. Hamilton.  (A mystery series about gay teens and adults.  The first two books in the series are Who Framed Lorenzo Garcia? and The Case of the Missing Mother.)

* Rainbow Boys by Alex Sanchez.  (The story of Kyle, Jason, and Nelson, three gay teens growing up and falling in love in a conservative town. There are two sequels Rainbow High and Rainbow Road.  All of the books have some sexual content. Not the best written series ever but it really focuses on gay characters and themes and the later books have other LGBTQ characters.)

Awareness and Aid

Last month the Book List was for Autism Acceptance and I wish this event was happening then.  On May 12 at 7:30 pm Wretches and Jabbers will be shown in 100 cities across the United States.  The movie is about two men with autism, who were excluded from public schools as children, who travel the world and meet other people with Autism Spectrum Disorder.  Here's the web page with city listings.

The PepsiRefresh Project gave a grant to a gentleman who is using it to provide books to public schools in Chicago.  People can vote for the PepsiRefresh Projects they like and the more votes the projects get the larger their grant funding.  You can vote for this project here.

A friend of mine, Elizabeth Handel, runs a literacy program for inmates and their children in Massachusetts.  It's called A Book from Mom/ABook from Dad and was started in 2004.  They take donations of used books to prisions for parents to give to their children when they visit.  If parents can't meet with their children some prisions allow them to record themselves reading the book and then send the book and recording to their child.  It's very local with Handel sorting and delivering most of the books herself, some information about the program is available here.  Sadly A Book from Mom/A Book from Dad is not set up for internet donations.  But if you're in MA look out for bookstores and schools who work with this organization and donate through them

Book Review - The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins is the first book in the Mockingjay Trilogy which follows the story of Katniss Everdeen as she attempts to survive in the post-apocalyptic world of Panem.  Panem is the remains of a war torn North America and is separated into twelve districts and the Capitol.  It experiences class and wealth divides with the Captiol having a extreme wealth and plenty of resources, while many of the districts surviving on little.  Approximately 100 years ago a war was fought over this set up.  This civil war resulted in District 13 being "obliterated" and the yearly gladitorial Hunger Games where two children of each district fight.  Katniss volunteers to take the place of her younger sister and immediately becomes a figure of interest in the year's Hunger Games.  Her attempts to survive and save the lives of other children in the games leads to political instability which becomes the major plot points of Catching Fire and Mockingjay.

I devoured the Mockingjay series in about a week.  The writing is good, most of the characters are well developed, and the themes, sometimes shown only by small details, are deep and relevent.  They are also rather adult.  This book is considered Young Adult, but I think part of that classification comes from the ages of the characters.  Katniss starts the series as the age of 16. 

However the book portays the brutal death of multiple children and teenagers.  It also deals with PTSD, alcohol and drug addiction and contains multiple cultural critiques such as classism, racism, and an entertainment obsessed culture.  It's incredibly deep. 

While I think teenagers can read and appreciate The Hunger Games and the rest of the trilogy I think they have to be emotionally mature to do so.  A twelve-year-old might understand the words and follow the story, but this series is more on the sixteen-year-old end of the YA classification. 

This is certainly a series that leads to discussion.  It's great for a book club or for parents and teens to read and discuss together.  This is also a way for younger teens to read the book and gain understanding of the more mature themes in the book.

As a YA book The Hunger Games is for Self Extending Readers and ones at the higher end of the level.  Readers definately need some background knowledge on Roman history and the geography of North America to understand the layout of Panem and the significance of gladitorial games.  To catch the classism and racism that is portrayed readers obviously need to have some understanding of these issues and how the manifest in small ways.  Even then some readers are likely to miss that the poorer discricts and people are more likely to have darker coloring as this is something that Collins portrays through character descriptions, but doesn't explain the significance of.

As a side note there is a movie of The Hunger Games and I imagine it will be very popular.  It will still be some time before the film comes out.  I'm always in favor of reading a book before seeing the film and I think it's good to see how the different mediums seek to tell the same story. The Hunger Games will be especially interesting in this regard as Suzanne Collins is helping to write the script.