Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Using Lit to Teach Kids Why Rape is Never Okay

Here is a very good blog posting by another teacher of frosh, one who is fighting the good fight and using literature to teach kids what really matters in life. It's so important to connect literature to real -world stories such as Steubenville (it helps to remind people why we read!).

I wonder if Accidental Devotional's author ever gets attacked for being a blogging teacher?  God apparently told this blogger to blog. Hmm. (See below):

As is mentioned in the article, Laurie Halse Anderson's novel, Speak, is a good teaching tool to use to help kids learn about rape (but it's pretty vague, to be honest--and some kids don't seem to get it). 

Still, some people need more--more discussion, more debate, more material to help them understand why rape is always wrong.

Rape is a difficult topic, but novels and news stories like the Steubenville case give us the opening to actually talk in a constructive way, in a dialogue. 

And until every kid "gets" that no, it's not okay to rape a drunk girl, or an unconscious girl, or a girl who is wearing either a mini-skirt or a burqa--it's not okay to rape ANY girl--then we still need to read these works in school. We need to discuss what the literature teaches us about life.

Hiding from the topic because it's awkward is not the answer.

Girls, too, need to understand that it's not acceptable to blame the victim. Anyone who participated in disseminating mortifying pictures of the victim online or commented disparagingly about her basically raped her all over again--and rape, if it wasn't apparent before, is a heinous crime.


  1. A good point. The horrific case in Ohio greatly illustrated the magnitude of the problem.

  2. Agreed. It seems like people didn't think enough about this issue until Steubenville came to light.

    What I find really shocking is that people see what they want to see re: Steubenville.

    Nothing disgusts me more than the callous use of social media to shame victims.

    Thanks for reading.