Talking Democracy and Dissent in the Library

Aug 30

2 min read

“If everybody agrees with the government, democracy is working.”

This was my opening question to my older students in the library this past week.

I wondered how to open out our collection of books in which people, including children, have used their voices to question, to disagree, to dissent.

Dissent is the bedrock of democracy. I wondered if, through our discussion and our book collection, children could begin to understand this.

Our library period is a space where we can read, think and talk. As a Library Educator, I’m always looking at planting a tiny seed...a thought and opening out the collection in a way that might encourage children to pick up and read texts they may never have bothered with before.

Given the range of texts, across genres, around this theme, the idea was to help children see that, from time immemorial, people have used their voices in different ways to question what is, imagine what could be, and speak up when something feels wrong.

Kripa’s Art is a Voice was the perfect match for this session.

After I read out the poem, we discussed the different forms of art that have been used across history to dissent. How they ‘spoke up’ in different creative ways.

Children began thinking about the ‘art’ in which they had noticed this. They shared that song, dance, theatre, writing, poetry, drawing and comics could all be used to do just that. Through the art featured in Kripa’s book, they discovered many more...murals, photography, sculpture, installation art, graphic art and more.

I was spurred to plan this session when we received the Independence Week copy of The Hindu’s Teen Digest. It was chock-a-block with thought-provoking articles nudging readers to think about how we arrived at our ‘freedom’, what it means to be ‘free’, and how art poetry, songs, slogans, street plays and paintings were used to inspire people to dream of freedom.

It is no different today. We have simply made space for more modern forms of ‘art’...memes and reels, for example.

The issue featured historical protests, shining a light on the revolutionary spirit in Indians, and prompted some deep thinking through articles about the meaning of ‘freedom’.

I chose to read aloud to my 8th, 9th and 10th graders an open letter featured in the paper, beseeching young readers to develop certain traits…the freedom of expression, and the courage to speak up when something is wrong.

The session had children think about the freedoms they enjoyed in the school they were in. To appreciate the true democracy that allowed them to speak freely to their teachers, principal and management.

But also to reflect on how little we can sometimes be aware of what lies beyond our own little, comfortable sphere.

Reading is a means to go beyond.

To encounter voices that are not our own.

To question.

To listen.

To disagree.

And perhaps, most importantly, to find the courage to speak.

Because a democracy where everyone agrees is not necessarily a democracy that is working.