English literature needs to expand beyond Western canon
Written By:
Asher Price / Austin American-Statesman | 11:00 am, Mar. 10, 2021 ×
Lorena German, an English teacher and co-founder of Multicultural Classroom, at her home in Austin on Jan. 21, 2021. Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman/TNS
AUSTIN, Texas –Lorena Germán, an Austin teacher who has worked to revamp the traditional English class reading list, has a saying: It s one thing to take candy from a baby. It s another to take a classic text from an English teacher.
As a member of the collective #DisruptTexts, Germán is on the vanguard of a national reexamining of classroom book lists, one that presses teachers to set aside the stalwarts of the Western canon in favor of more contemporary, diverse authors.