semi related to that last reblog (about how difficult books for kids should be opt in) but I see this argument a lot that like, it's good for kids to read about abuse etc because a lot of kids are being abused and need language to put around it and to not feel alone.
and I do generally, overall agree with that!!
when i was an abused kid and we read books about abuse in school, the way it was handled really did further traumatize me!
bc the expectation was always that no one in the class needed even a warning. that we were all discovering the concept of abuse for the first time and had no personal experience with it. it was treated as an abstract and interesting and honestly titillating topic, not something that might possibly make one of the students spend the rest of the week dissociating.
and like frankly your average English teacher has not learned to sensitively have these conversations, or at least none of the teachers I had, had.
like i remember fighting the need to throw up in a classroom full of two dozen kids and an adult i could not trust when out of nowhere there was a passage in a book I was required to read for school in which an adult man describes in graphic detail why he likes to sexually abuse little girls.
and there was no evidence that it had occurred to the teacher that considering the statistics, that classroom had multiple children actively being sexually abused at the time.
To illustrate just how ill equipped that English teacher was to support her students experiencing abuse, that same teacher later actively shouted at me and punished me for having a panic attack in front of her as a 14yo whom she had been informed had mental health issues. She was outraged at what she immediately assumed was an attempt to manipulate her, refused to accept my apology and said basically I needed to grow up, and sneered whenever she spoke to me for the rest of my time at that school, which was absolutely crushing to experience in contrast with how warmly she'd treated me before that, especially as she was at the time one of only two adults who did treat me warmly.
So, like. Not the most supportive environment for an abused child to unexpectedly have to discuss child abuse in front of two dozen of her peers!
Those books are important, and I strongly agree that children should be allowed to read them. But when kids are forced to read those books, especially by adults who are in no way equipped to discuss sensitive topics in a supportive way, that can be one of the worst possible reading experiences to have.
Kids deserve to be warned, at a minimum, and ideally to make their own decisions about whether they're ready to handle a potentially emotionally difficult work.
And extremely importantly, teachers, especially those who plan to discuss topics like abuse, suicide etc., should have training on how to talk about these topics in ways that aren't dehumanizing or voyeuristic or otherwise incredibly fucking unkind to the victims who are sitting right there in the room, and they should also be trained on how to offer support to children who may be currently suffering abuse or still traumatized from past abuse.
