Solstice - Hope, Light, and Change

by Suzanne Morgan Williams

Today is Solstice and cultures and people around the world welcome the return of longer days, or in the Southern Hemisphere the change to shorter ones. Today marks change, and hope.

These days communications are instant, reading competes with streaming video and online games, and facts are questioned for their political overtones, yet we continue to read and write historical fiction. Some people would say historical fiction is out of touch or old fashioned. Literary agents often tell writers it’s a hard sell. But to me, understanding and connecting with the past is necessary and writing historical fiction is hopeful. I hope young readers will be touched by something that might have happened hundreds of years ago but rings true to them today. I hope that children will develop a taste for, even a passion for history. Knowing our past can inform our future.

“Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” – Winston Churchill and George Santayana

In order to ignore or fail to learn from history you must first know something about it. Since “No Child Left Behind” days, the push toward educational basics and skills assessment has shrunk the time dedicated to teaching history in the middle grades. With the advent of “Common Core,” one could imagine an emphasis on nonfiction historical works, but teachers were often bogged down in analysis of details and themes rather than talking about what history actually  meant to the people who lived it. The shift to nonfiction texts and primary resources, in many classrooms, made reading historical novels a luxury.

It is, indeed, time for a change. Let's see Civics, Citizenship, and History (not just U.S.) taught in every school. Our children need to understand the workings of our government, our Constitution, the free press, popular movements, and their role in these. They need to know that even at ages 9, 10, or 11 they are affected by history and politics. They deserve the truth - our democracy has been hard won and they, as citizens, can support it, change it, or let it shrivel away. They need history. As historical fiction authors it’s our job to hook them on MG history.

We keep writing. We keep reading and sharing. On this Solstice that gives me hope.