Tag: Students

Start Off Black History Month With a Book From the Rolling Thunder Book Bus!

Black History Month is here! Starting the month off on a good foot (or tire) is a book bus offering lots of books to a school in Oklahoma. The Rolling Thunder Book Bus is offering tons of new books donning the faces of several important figures in black history such as Frederick Douglass, Martin Luther King Jr., Booker T. Washington, Harriet Tubman, W.E.B. DuBois, and many more.

 

image via nba

 

Many second graders in the school waited patiently as NBA player Dennis Schröder was on the book bus helping students pick two books each. You can check out quotes from the students and Schröder himself here.

 

 

One child asked if Schröder had any Michael Jordan Books, which prompted him to find the book for the student aboard the bus. Schröder stated, “Just to be with kids, it makes me happy.”  A second-grade teacher, Berna Johnson, emulated civil rights hero Rosa Parks as she conducted students on and off the bus.  Students were referring to her as Ms. Parks the entire day.

 

image via nba

 

Having Dennis Schröder on the bus distributing books could serve as an example to the students to love reading. Berna Johnson said, “It will sure help the teachers because we can always say ‘you know, Dennis Schröder was on the bus, he loves to read.’  That’s all it takes.” Having a sportsman promote reading reminds children that it doesn’t have to be one or the other.

 

 

If you’d like to read books from important black history figures, the links for them are at the top!


Bookstr is community supported. If you enjoy Bookstr’s articles, quizzes, graphics and videos, please join our Patreon to support our writers and creators or donate to our Paypal and help Bookstr to keep supporting the book loving community.
Become a Patron!

 

Economists Agree, ‘Our Economy Needs More English Majors’

According to The Washington Post, fewer people are majoring in English than ever before, despite the fact that enrollment in higher education is at an all-time high.

 

 

This is likely the result of the United States’ turbulent economy, and a rising need for job security. Right now, more people are choosing to study STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math), for the sake of a career path. More often than not, people believe that studying STEM leads directly to getting a good job more often than studying anything related to the humanities. Or, at the very least, college students fear the idea of a useless, $40,000 degree.

 

Image result for Robert Shiller
Image Via Town Hall Seattle

 

However, Robert Shiller, economist, author, and Nobel Prize winner, believes that English majors are more necessary to our struggling economy than ever before. In his new work, Narrative Economics, Shiller argues that the ways people talk about markets, and the stories we write about them, can have a huge impact on markets themselves.

 

 

For example, Shiller cites the phrase “anyone can be a homeowner” as a key contributor to the housing bubble. He writes:

“Traditional economic approaches fail to examine the role of public beliefs in major economic events – that is, narrative. Economists can best advance their science by developing and incorporating into it the art of narrative economics.”

The Washington Post cites several other economists with opinions similar to Shiller’s, but the most damning evidence comes from The National Center for Education Statistics. Data from this source shows that while a computer science major might make more money than an English major directly after graduation, English majors ages 25 to 29 had a lower unemployment rate than both math and computer science majors in 2017.

 

Image via ClickUp

 

On top of this, English majors tend to have skills that are less affected by the passage of time, than those who major in anything related to science or technology. The Washington Post’s Heather Long explains:

“After about a decade, STEM majors start exiting their job fields as their skills are no longer the latest and greatest. In contrast, many humanities majors work their way to high-earning management positions. By middle age, average pay looks very similar across many majors.”

 

Image via Inside Higher Ed

 

So, feel free to show your dad this article the next time he complains about your degree in medieval literature. You’ll be grateful for it in your forties!

 

 

 

Featured Image via Medibank

LGBTQ Books Are Being Censored and Authors Are Fighting Back

According to Entertainment Weekly Middle Schools across the country are resisting teaching LGBTQ material in the classroom. One incident occurred with an author called Jen-Petro Roy, who had booked a trip to Texas in order to talk with students about her book, P.S. I Miss You.

 

P.S. I Miss You

Image Via Goodreads

 

The novel follows an eleven year old girl who begins questioning her faith and sexuality, discovering she may not be straight and what that means for her identity. But, out of the blue, the school cancelled the scheduled visit.

According to Roy, the school had decided that by featuring her work, they’d be promoting an LGBT ‘agenda’ and she didn’t end up going to Texas after all. This is only the latest in a long string of controversies in children’s literature. Despite children’s books pushing forward with progressive attitudes, many LGBTQ voices are being silenced.

 

Image via Entertainment Weekly

Authors all over the country have noted they are suffering from being banned from even discuss LGBTQ material and many feel like they’re being gaslit. Schools often give excuses for teachers writing this material to not appear, making excuses that include scheduling conflicts or students study time. She describes this practice as ‘soft censorship’ and notes its really quite troubling, essentially enacting a ban on what literature young people are exposed to. She discovered parents had become upset at her for featuring pride flags on social media and they complained to the school, which likely helped make the decision.

 

Renegades

Image Via Amazon

 

The author further noted that bans might get more attention for the schools, making it extra motivation to allow them to get media attention they wouldn’t otherwise receive. Anonymous employees for schools revealed they had pulled books they did not ‘line up’ with school values, with nearly one third being tossed out or banned. For example: Renegades was banned because the main character has two dads.

The authors noted that kids are suffering the most for this and that this banning of content will ultimately hurt kids in the future. What do you think of these schools and their policies? Tell us in the comments.

 

 

 

Featured Image Via Barnes And Noble 

‘Harry Potter’ Prequel Series Coming to Television!

Starved for more Harry Potter content? Well look no further, Potterheads, as exciting news as been unveiled today! According to Book Riot, Warner Brothers is in the very early stages of developing a Harry Potter prequel series for TV. The series will be attached to Warner Brothers’ upcoming streaming service. The series will occur mostly at Hogwarts, according to the press release, as well as occasional visits to other parts of Europe. While the Harry Potter franchise is already packed to the brim with novels, video games, board games, movies, comics, and Broadway plays, we can’t help but be excited for this latest addition to the ever popular young adult fantasy series!

 

Image via Harry Potter wiki

 

More news has been released, including that the show will center around new characters (although if it’s at Hogwarts we can bet you’ll see cameos of fan favorites like various professors and administrative presences in the Wizarding World). However, being in the early stages of development, the plot, the premise, and even the characters themselves haven’t been announced yet for obvious reasons. But we can always speculate about WHAT will happen in this prequel series.

 

 

Here are a few premises we’d love to see in the show:

+ A show about a new batch of students dealing with the ins and outs of daily life at Hogwarts with no overarching main villain. One of the greatest strengths of Harry Potter was its relatability for young people about the hardships of growing up and schoolwork. No need to thrust Voldemort 2.0 in there, fretting about O.W.L.S. is drama enough.

+ A flipped premise, showcasing the POV of the teachers instead of the students and pulling back the curtain to give us a behind the scenes of Hogwarts.

+ An anthology series, showing different stories about Hogwarts, with a different premise and storyline every week. One week you’d have a student, one week you’d have a teacher, maybe the following week someone gets lost in the Forbidden Forest, and maybe one week it could center around some of the ghosts that haunt the school!

 

Image Via Pottermore

 

What premises would you personally like to see in this show? Are you excited to see a Harry Potter television series? Let us know in the comments! And keep an ear peeled for further news, we’ll let you know when we hear anything more!

 

 

Featured Image Via Harry Potter Wiki