Review: The Little Red Schoolbook

 

The Little Red Schoolbook was written in 1969 by Danish educators influenced by the youth radicalization and counterculture of the period. It was soon translated into many different languages and published in many countries -- and also banned in many countries, as described by The Children's '68.

Its purpose was to encourage pupils to question authority and learn how to organize and stand up for their rights, just as their older counterparts at colleges and universities were doing. It also aimed to give them information that they wanted and needed which was typically being embargoed from them on topics such as sex and drugs.

Although I learned of its existence a few months ago while researching Beatrice Faust, the Australian civil liberties and women's rights campaigner who contributed to that country's edition of the book, it's an American edition that I recently finished reading.

The book goes into considerable detail describing how schools work and the role of the different actors such as teachers, principals, and school boards. It describes how to engage constructively with these, especially teachers who have power over students but little control of their own situation, as well as how to turn to outside forces such as the press when this is unsuccessful.

It also provides accurate, non-judgmental information about sexuality, including homosexuality, and tells girls how to avoid unwanted pregnancy as well as how to seek an abortion. One section that falls a little short is three paragraphs about "Child molesters or 'dirty old men.'" It begins, "In the old days people used to talk about 'dirty old men.' Children were told they were dangerous. This is very rarely true. They're just men who have nobody to sleep with."

While it's true that they're very rarely dangerous, they're not simply men who have nobody to sleep with. It's now understood that both men and women vary in their sexual age orientation just as they vary in their sexual gender orientation. Although most minor-attracted people don't harass children or youth, those who do do so because these are the people to whom they're attracted. They may well, and often do, have someone adult to sleep with, but that's not what they actually want.

The conclusion of this section is also problematic. It states, "If you see or meet a man like this, don't panic. Go and tell your teachers or your parents about it." This assumes a child wouldn't be interested in sexual activity with an older person, which isn't always the case. It also doesn't make sense, given not only that they're rarely dangerous, but especially in light of the fact, mentioned in the preceding sentence, that in the rare cases they become violent "it's usually because the man has got scared." In that case, it should be obvious that spreading around the advice that follows could only make violence more likely rather than less.

There's also a major section on drugs, with accurate information about a great variety of them with respect to both their affects and their hazards and without regard to whether a particular drug is "illicit" or "licit," such as tobacco or alcohol -- one of the things that made the book controversial.

Although I only learned of this book recently, reading about it in its historical context has prompted me to comment on the article I linked to above, as follows:

I only learned of this book a few months ago and subsequently read it. But the culture of that period had a profound effect on me, even though I only turned seven in 1968, thanks to my having Old Left parents who were friends with hippies. When I was eight years old and starting to form a perspective on the world beyond my immediate experience and what attitude I should take toward it, the adult conversations I sat in on when we had visitors and the "underground" papers and comics that lay around formed me as essentially radical several years before I actually got involved with politics. It was only natural that as I sat in a police station that same year after running away from home, I imagined myself tearing down the "Wanted" poster for Angela Davis -- so the police couldn't use it to help them catch her. And that when the Pledge of Allegiance was introduced in 10th grade, I refused to say it, even though some classmates initially forced me to my feet for it. (Ironically and tellingly, before the end of the semester no one in my home room was saying it, including those students.)