Paul Laurence Dunbar

[Georgia Richards <garlic@MIND.NET>]

        I am the new media specialist in a K-5 and haven't yet fully explored the
collection.  One of the faculty has handed me a book of poetry from our
collection with the suggestion that I weed it out.  I have not heard of
this poet, Paul Laurence Dunbar. Every poem in it is written in what I can
only describe as "dialect" which is extreme enough that most of our
students would have difficulty deciphering it. My question is should I weed
it out because
1. I really don't like things written in "dialect".
2. I doubt most of our students can read it.
3. It has been checked out 4 times since 1981, and that was to teachers not
students.

Or do I keep it because
1. It was written by a very remarkable young man, the son of a former
slave. It was first      published in 1895 though this is the 1968 edition.
2. According to the jacket "blurb" it is written "in this fine Negro poet's
own soft dialect".
3. I really like his imagery and wish the poems were easier to read. If it
was written in something closer to standard English I would keep it for at
least another year and encourage the teachers and students to use it.

Georgia Richards Library Media Specialist
Walker Elementary School
Ashland OR
(home) Garlic@mind.net

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