Teacher Told to Stop Reading Dr. Seuss’ Book During ‘Planet Money’ Podcast

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Mandy Robek had only read a few pages of Dr. Seusss The Sneetches and Other Stories when her third-grade students began to take an interest in its themes.

Some Sneetches had stars on their bellies, while other Sneetches did not. The Star-Belly Sneetches threw picnics, parties, and marshmallow toasts, but the Plain-Belly Sneetches were never invited.

Robek, a teacher at the Lewis Center in Ohio, just north of Columbus, was reading the book as part of a lesson plan given to her for an episode of the NPRs Planet Money podcast focusing on lessons in economy for children. As she continued, a student named Noah spoke up.

It’s almost like what happened back then, the way people were treated, the student said, his classmates audibly agreeing. Like, disrespectful. Like, white people were disrespecting black people, but then they could stand out in the book.

Shortly after Noah’s comment, a school administrator who had attended the lesson asked Robek to take a break from reading the book, saying she wasn’t sure if she was there. comfortable with the subject.

I just feel like it doesn’t teach anything about economics, and it’s a little bit more about differences with race and all that stuff, said Amanda Beeman, assistant director of school district communications to Robek .

The exchange was recorded and included in the episode of the podcast, which aired Friday, about a month after Planet Money reporter Erika Beras visited the school. In the episode, Beras says The Sneetches, which discusses supply and demand and other related topics, has been recommended by several economists so that third-graders can learn how the economy exists around the world. .

It was the last book of the day for the Robeks class. But instead of ending it, Beras says in the episode: Our last lesson ends abruptly.

Some Dr. Seuss books with racist images will be out of print

In recent years, activists and scholars have criticized Dr. Seuss’s books for being rooted in racist stereotypes that harm people of color. Dr. Seuss Enterprises has decided in 2021 to cease production of six of the authors’ titles.

But The Sneetches was not one of them. Beras said on the podcast that she cast it for the Planet Money episode because of its references to class, entrepreneurship, discrimination, and game theory.

Beeman told the Washington Post that some student conversations about economics weren’t included in the podcast because a third of the story is on my interjection.

Beras and Planet Money did not respond to a request for comment late Wednesday.

The idea for the episode was for Beras to call economists, ask for recommendations for children’s books on economics, and then try to teach lessons from the books in real life, according to the podcast.

That’s when I found this article that Mandy Robek had written a few years ago for an educational site about how she uses storybooks to teach economics to third graders, Beras says in the episode. So I came to see her with a proposal.

The final lesson plan developed by Beras and the local school district of Olentangy included six books by authors including Dr. Seuss, Shel Silverstein and Eric Carle, Beeman said. From credible engagement to job matching, the books were meant to cover real-world concepts that adults struggle with, according to the podcast episode.

Before it was taped, Beeman said, the district requested that the stories focus only on economics and financial literacy, with no political themes or topics.

School book bans and challenges, at record highs, rise again

On December 13, check-in day at Shale Meadows Elementary, Beeman sat in the classroom while Robek read each book.

She was not heard from in the episode until she asked Robek to take a break from playing The Sneetches about 24 minutes into the 30-minute podcast.

Beras asked him to reconsider: I mean, here we have a list of everything: preferences, open markets, economic losses.

Yeah, I just don’t think it’s appropriate for the third-grade class and for them to have a discussion about it, Beeman replied.

After the exchange, the episode features Betsey Stevenson, professor of economics and public policy at the University of Michigan, one of the economists who recommended The Sneetches. She tells Beras that the book contains a nice amount of economics and that the plan to exclude politics from the lesson was not going to work because economics is politics.

When she got the call from Beras explaining what happened while reading the book, Stevenson told the Post, it was disappointing to hear.

The fact that most children have a natural tendency to think that excluding people on the basis of superficial characteristics is unfair and that now seems too burdensome for a school district, that some parents would not want their children to express these ideas , for me, it’s a bit sad, she told me.

A few days after Berass visited Ohio, she says in the podcast, she asked Beeman what happened with the latest book.

Beeman responded that the district chose the podcast in good faith to showcase a positive education story.

My role in our district is to protect staff and students from misrepresentation in the media, she wrote in the Dec. 19 statement. We shared with the students’ parents that the books would teach lessons about economics. When the book began to address racism, segregation, and discriminatory behaviors, that was not the conversation we had prepared Ms. Robek, students, or parents would have.

Beeman told the Post that the district promotes important discussions and does not suppress any views.

I was just going back to the purpose and objective of the podcast, she said.

I’m disappointed that the focus is now on my choice to end the book early, Beeman added. And not the phenomenal conversations and learning that took place in Ms. Robeks’ class.

When Robek stopped reading the book that day, Shale Meadows students asked how The Sneetches ended.

I didn’t know what happens in the story, said a student.

Me neither, another echoed.

You know what? Beeman replied I think that’s a question that maybe we can ask, you know, with our parents back home.

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