On Wednesday, July 8th, the Chapel Hill Public Library will inaugurate its Between the Lines forum with a discussion about how diversity is taught to school-aged children. Panelists will include FPG scientist Kathleen Gallagher, and the forum will feature Omar Currie, former teacher at Efland Cheeks Elementary School, who will read the picture book King and King.

Currie recently was the center of debate over the appropriateness of reading the book, which features a romantic relationship between two men, to his third-grade class in Efland. He has since resigned.

During news coverage of the controversy, the number of checkouts and holds spiked for the Chapel Hill Public Library’s copies of King and King.

“Any time there is a surge of attention toward a book, we are interested, as is our community of readers,” said the library’s director, Susan Brown, who will moderate the public talk. “So many people are interested in this book, its contents, and in the teacher who ultimately resigned over reading it, that we thought we’d pull together an event to focus on the issues at hand.”

FPG’s Gallagher, a researcher on early care and education programs, focuses her work on the design, implementation, and evaluation of evidence-based approaches that support the learning and well-being of young children, families, and early childhood professionals. She was the author and speaker of “The Healthy Child: Assembly Required,” the most popular TED talk from UNC this year, which reveals the lasting power of high-quality early education.

Chapel Hill Mayor Mark Kleinschmidt will join Gallagher on the panel, as will Brian Sturm, Vice Chair of the library’s board and an expert on childhood literature from UNC’s School of Information and Library Science. The program begins at 6:30 PM.