Several months ago, a Manor third-grader, Skylar Brown, wrote her teacher, Ms. Erika, a letter about some books in their class, the biography series Who Was…?
Skylar noticed that there were twice as many titles about men compared to the number of books about famous women.
After talking with the class and agreeing this was unfair, Ms. Erika wrote a letter and sent it with Skylar’s letter to the publisher in New York.
This past Wednesday they heard back from the publisher, who was “delighted to hear from the students” and said they are “working hard to expand the Who Was...? list to continue to include more underrepresented famous people from history, especially women.”
They added, “Thanks for alerting us to the problem!” and promised to send Ms. Erika’s class a set of all their Who Was…? books about women.
Kudos to Skylar and Ms. Erika for making learning real and for standing up for what is right. Bravo!
