Was Social Justice Part of Your Favorite Children’s Book?

Not likely, according to a research project I saw today on the UIUC Quad during a Social Justice Day Fair. Two students reported research showing that 87% of popular children’s books lack diverse characters and social justice themes such as rich and poor parts of town.

My favorite children’s books taught me to stereotype people. With this in mind, I was about to ask, “Are you education majors?” I caught myself in time, and asked an open-ended question. Sure enough, one student is studying crop science, the other engineering—both are women in male-majority fields.

This got me to thinking about my favorite book—and I hope you will, too!

Mine was Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel.

Looking back, I see how the book might have cultivated my professional interests. Mike and his steam shovel, Mary Ann, had plenty of work until they were displaced by younger workers with diesel-powered, bigger earth movers.

I guess that accounts for my arbitration work with the coal mining industry.

Mike was laid-off. He had to adjust to economic competition.

Hmmm, sounds like my fascination with industrial unions in the 1980s through the present.

Mike moved to a small town and found a new opportunity— digging the foundation for a town hall. The book never mentioned that he was paid less; but I got the point that Mike wanted and needed to keep working, so he was pretty desperate.

Mike’s project had 100 protesters. I guess Mike worked non-union. I’ll simply say that my tenure research dealt with strikers and picketing. (Thank you, Mike, for my lifetime job!)

Mike failed to build a ramp to take Mary Ann out of the pit. Kids in the town suggested that Mary Ann be converted to a boiler, and that Mike switch jobs, becoming a janitor.

Okay, retraining for an older worker.

Maybe I got the point that Mike needed a job; that his identity was tied to his work; and that technology offered a mix of progress and dislocation. Oh, you think that’s a stretch? Probably, but maybe it helped to whet my appetite for Uber and other gig work that shuffles people lower in the deck of economic cards, like Mike.

So, I think that very young kids should read more about diverse peoples and more about climate change and more about income inequality and more about intolerance—that is, if we believe that children’s books make lasting impressions. This “Mike” thinks that’s true. PS: I think Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel is a social justice book.