After two picture books (including one listed among the New York Times’s top 10 illustrated books of 2015) were criticized on “ racial insensitivity” grounds for depictions of smiling and compliant slaves, one book was pulled from the shelves, and the author of the other apologized and said she would donate her writing fee to charity. I wish this beautiful and inspiring book was around when my daughter was young, but fortunately there were plenty of cool children around today who will devour what Inno is serving up!” —Dan Zanes, Grammy Award-winning artist of Catch that Train! Aristotle was concerned with raising good citizens, sound of body and mind, willing to defend the polis from its enemies and able to reflect dispassionately on social and political issues.Our pedagogues have a different purpose in mind.The citizens they wish to create are agenda-driven ideologues who believe their own country, to quoteNew York governor Andrew Cuomo, "was never that great" – indeed, it is the sum of all evil – and that what we may call "identity tribalism" is the road forward to true egalitarianism. There has been in the last two years just an enormous outpouring of hysteria, vitriol – the same sort of thing that we’re seeing in the news, we’re seeing coming through children’s books,” Meghan Gurdon, the Wall Street Journal’s children’s book critic, told the Fox News host Laura Ingraham in December.

A is for activist : Nagara, Innosanto : Free Download, Borrow A is for activist : Nagara, Innosanto : Free Download, Borrow

No one’s advocating for ‘never do this’,” said Innosanto Nagara, author of the hit alphabet book A is for Activist. “I’m not an absolutist about it. I do believe in creative freedom.” We teach at Kendall Demonstration Elementary School (KDES), which is a federally funded school serving Deaf and Hard of Hearing students from birth to 8th grade. KDES is located on Gallaudet University’s campus in Washington D.C. Our curriculum follows a bilingual approach that uses American Sign Language (ASL) and printed English as the languages of instruction. Over 70% of our students are of color, and we have several students whose home language is not English or ASL, including but are not limited to Arabic, Urdu, Spanish, Farsi, and Chinese. I have to agree with other people here... this book is really for the adults who want to feel good about themselves. Dan Zanes(maker of 21st century all-ages music and the Grammy Award winning album Catch that Train!): I wish this beautiful and inspiring book was around when my daughter was young but fortunately there are plenty of cool children around today who will devour what Inno is serving up! Inno continues to do creative cultural activism through graphic design, visual communications, and cultural strategy projects (as an advisor to reSet). He is also very active in the broader children’s book world. Inno serves on the Editorial board of TheBullHorn.org, an online magazine dedicated to social justice-themed children’s books and their creators. He is a regular collaborator with and advisor to Wee the People in Boston. And he is involved in local Bay Area organizing and skill-sharing for #OwnVoices authors and illustrators.By the time they reach university, a staggering number of them are fundamentally dysfunctional, devoid of basic knowledge and convinced they must repudiate and undo the presumed sins of their fathers.They cannot write a coherent English sentence, will agitate for LGBTQ rights, will shout down conservative speakers and denounce "white supremacism," will don masks and battle gear to disrupt public events, and profess a passionate dedication to the most destructive of political philosophies: universal socialism.K-12 is a slough of didactic despond, turning out largely illiterate and innumerate fodder for the universities and foot soldiers for the coming revolution.Its charges consist of not pupils, but recruits. Hill, Corey (2012-11-14). "A is for Activist by Innosanto Nagara". Yes! Magazine . Retrieved 2017-06-01.

A is for Activist by Innosanto Nagara: 9781609806934

She works for Tandem, Partners in Early Learning, a Bay Area not-for-profit that helps supply classrooms with multicultural and multilingual children’s books. Since learning faces is a key part of early childhood development, representation is particularly critical there. The number of minority characters and authors has been steadily climbing since 2014, with authors of color winning a growing number of awards, including the Newbery medal and the National Book award for young people in 2018. A is for Activist thus became our big project for 2020 that would eventually serve as “one common resource” for the entire school, while instilling pride and motivation in our middle school students. In addition to making this video for our school to use, one big bonus that came out of this project was that we were able to create an ASL accessible resource for other schools, educators and students to use as well.I'm so left wing that it hurts sometimes, but I found this book very uncomfortable to read because it is so preachy. It definitely has an "us against them" feel, and comes out of a lot of anger towards racism, sexism, environmental harm, inequality, etc., which is felt in the book.

A is for Activist TeachingBooks | A is for Activist

The rule of thumb for conservation educators and teachers is that up to grade 4, we teach children the GOOD only. The wise mentors teach to love all critters, the earth, and treat all living beings (including humans) with respect. In this vulnerable age, we do not brainwash them with terminology they do not understand or tell them what is the right opinion to have on an issue (whether it's an opinion we support or disagree with). We raise them to be their purest, kindest, and most wise selves. Children will naturally be empathetic, compassionate, respectful, and kind hearted with proper mentorship and without the need of ideological suggestions at such a young age. Tomas Moniz(writer/editor rad dad zine, a zine on radical parenting): A is for Activist is a welcome addition to the family of kids books that speak to the possibilities of change, of proactive parenting, of creating community, of celebrating the powerful everyday people we have in our lives and in our collective histories. This book is rad!

Other books by Innosanto Nagara

As the National Coalition Against Censorship's statement (see below)concludes: Freedom of expression ensures that we can meet the challenges of a changing world. That freedom is critical for the students who will lead the world in the years ahead. We must fight to defend it. #BooksNotBans I’m so disappointed because I’d seen this book on someone’s (real) shelves and jumped to reserve it at the library to see if I’d want this for giving new baby gifts. What a great idea!