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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I started this thread with ambivalence; TKAM is a good book that helped move the race conversation along during the 1960s-1990s, but had no problem if schools want to replace with another worthwhile book.

[b]But now, seeing that the most strident defenders of TKAM here are openly arguing for confederate soldier statues and taking other similarly offensive positions,[/b] I realize that if people like that are promoting TKAM, it’s probably no longer representative of the race conversation our country should be having. This has allowed me to rethink my earlier ambivalence and shed some of the nostalgia the book carries for me.

I’m thinking time has passed TKAM by. While it was a powerful book for where our country was in the decades after its release, and therefore moving for many of us who read it as children in that era, it’s now a lot less foreword-thinking in light of where our national conversation on race has grown. So it’s more of a historical artifact of the past, and offensive in lots of ways, sort of like Gone with the Wind. [/quote]

First of all, I didn't see anyone defending keeping up Confederate Statues who also defend TKAM.     I am one of those people who think it is a worthwhile read and also agree that the Confederate statues, names of streets, buildings etc have to go.
By not reading this material or talking about slavery does not mean that it did not happen.  Black men were murdered because of being Black.  I think by studying it does not mean you think it was a positive experience!  It happened and is history.  We should know our history or we are doomed to repeat.[/quote]

Of course we should teach about slavery and reconstruction. The question is whether a book that describes racism from the point of view of white people, and has the white characters as the savior of black characters, is the best way to do that. Maybe read some original texts (people describing their own experiences, like memoirs) or novels that are written from the perspective of the people enduring the injustice?

My kid’s school decided to teach TKAM this year and he read it. The teacher said she was teaching it because it wasn’t part of the IDARE curriculum, but simply taught as literature. In this hard year she already had full lesson plans that spanned months for discussing and illustrating plot, symbolism, character development, vocabulary, etc. So rather than reconstructing her entire lesson plan plus figure out DL she taught it. I think and hope she’ll work toward replacing it for future years. [/quote]

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