So wait. We pretend that the last 400 years of this country don’t exist? Sorry, do we not read the Bible either since there is all sorts of racist and homophobic info in there? What about Holocaust books? Or books about the Exodus, since Jews were slaves for how many years? I don’t believe in banning anything unless content is not age appropriate. I do believe in full balance and excellent teaching. A great teacher can navigate this with balance and care, as suggested above. Toni Morrison was brilliant, and fully agree with that choice AS WELL. Or THUG. Maybe a compare and contrast! So many other options besides excluding for archaic and offensive perspective.

My kids were in DCPS and so read a lot of diverse fiction (almost exclusively) and talked a lot about race in the U.S., and also were in book clubs reading Ghost Boys, Just Mercy (youth version), etc. But TKAM really sparked the conversations about race, justice, perceptions based on fear, social roles and rules, personal ethics, author bias, etc. Of all the books, this one really seemed to make the kids think hard. There is just something about it that really gets under kids' skin. It is one of many books in the curriculum; not the only book. I think it still has a place in a well-rounded curriculum.

Anonymous wrote:I would like to provide some food for thought on the matter for those who have a problem with this. Imagine being a black student and constantly reading these "classics" which shows a history of time, in which blacks were treated sub-human and the author makes no apology, but writes it from a perspective of it is what it is. Page by page, you have to read words that cut deep to your race. However, rather than an awakening of morale taking place, you have an educated white lawyer that takes on a case because of his daughter. The poor uneducated black is once again saved by the educated white man, who takes pitty on him. But wait, this is a classic, to hell with others, it's written well.

np But in the book the white man is unable to save the Black man. Maybe you didn't read it either?

Anonymous wrote:Actually, he’s not saved.

I think you miss the point of the pp. It's the male white savior narrative. He clearly didn't have a female, black, Hispanic, and or Asian lawyer.

Actually, he’s not saved.

I would like to provide some food for thought on the matter for those who have a problem with this. Imagine being a black student and constantly reading these "classics" which shows a history of time, in which blacks were treated sub-human and the author makes no apology, but writes it from a perspective of it is what it is. Page by page, you have to read words that cut deep to your race. However, rather than an awakening of morale taking place, you have an educated white lawyer that takes on a case because of his daughter. The poor uneducated black is once again saved by the educated white man, who takes pitty on him. But wait, this is a classic, to hell with others, it's written well.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In all fairness TKAMB is taught in DCPS middle schools. That said, there is quite a range of literature being taught. The schools should be making sure the books covered are written from various point of views and are not a white wash of history or perspective. I remember my daughter reading a book that described slavery as a well intentioned institution that granted Africans subsequent citizenship. History can not be told from one side.

Yep, my kid is in DCPS and is reading TKAMB right now. But I guess it's okay since the teacher is black and the class is highly diverse.

+1 They also teach TKAM at our kids' extremely diverse charter school. Maybe just majority white private schools feeling guilty about reading it and trying to be "antiracist"? Diverse schools seem to be able to glean the important lessons from the story without offending anyone.

Anonymous wrote:In all fairness TKAMB is taught in DCPS middle schools. That said, there is quite a range of literature being taught. The schools should be making sure the books covered are written from various point of views and are not a white wash of history or perspective. I remember my daughter reading a book that described slavery as a well intentioned institution that granted Africans subsequent citizenship. History can not be told from one side.

Yep, my kid is in DCPS and is reading TKAMB right now. But I guess it's okay since the teacher is black and the class is highly diverse.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP. IMHO, there are plenty of great books to teach, far more than any student could reasonably unpack in a high school career. Mockingbird is one of them, but there are lots of others. If a teacher or a school wants to replace this one with another great book, I’ve got no problem with that. FWIW, I’d dump some of the dense and unrelatable old stuff first - Beowulf, Canterbury Tales, maybe Austen - but there’s plenty of territory to cover. By the same token though, it think Mockingbird is an excellent book that’s got a lot of great lessons even in this more enlightened era, and maybe especially in this era as a demonstration of the bridge from the pre-Brown era to today. What’s more important than any of these books IMHO is what the teacher is able to draw from them.

You, my dear, are obviously neither an English major, nor an English scholar, nor an English educator.

Sorry. Not only a major but came a hair away from doing a grad program. That stuff is worth reading about 20 pages just to understand the rhythms and see how writings evolved. But it’s just too unreadable for its own good. Might as well waste your time wading through Finnegans Wake. To be fair, I can respect someone who wants to take on the challenge as an expert with more patience than I. (I spent a lot of time on early 20th c poetry, which I know drives many people batty.) But for a high school survey course? Seems a waste of valuable time.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:+1. Our school dumped Macbeth for The Bluest Eye. Just silly.

Have you ever read The Bluest Eye? It's a really good book.

Great. So read it at your ladies’ book club. You don’t dump the centerpiece author of the English language for the last 500 years for a trendy title, if you are trying to educate young students.

LOL at the idea that a novel from 1970, by a Nobel Prize-winning author widely recognized as one of the great American writers, is "a trendy title."

+1. Tho not laughing. Most likely from ignorance, but nonetheless insulting.

Anonymous wrote:NP. IMHO, there are plenty of great books to teach, far more than any student could reasonably unpack in a high school career. Mockingbird is one of them, but there are lots of others. If a teacher or a school wants to replace this one with another great book, I’ve got no problem with that. FWIW, I’d dump some of the dense and unrelatable old stuff first - Beowulf, Canterbury Tales, maybe Austen - but there’s plenty of territory to cover. By the same token though, it think Mockingbird is an excellent book that’s got a lot of great lessons even in this more enlightened era, and maybe especially in this era as a demonstration of the bridge from the pre-Brown era to today. What’s more important than any of these books IMHO is what the teacher is able to draw from them.

You, my dear, are obviously neither an English major, nor an English scholar, nor an English educator.

NP. IMHO, there are plenty of great books to teach, far more than any student could reasonably unpack in a high school career. Mockingbird is one of them, but there are lots of others. If a teacher or a school wants to replace this one with another great book, I’ve got no problem with that. FWIW, I’d dump some of the dense and unrelatable old stuff first - Beowulf, Canterbury Tales, maybe Austen - but there’s plenty of territory to cover. By the same token though, it think Mockingbird is an excellent book that’s got a lot of great lessons even in this more enlightened era, and maybe especially in this era as a demonstration of the bridge from the pre-Brown era to today. What’s more important than any of these books IMHO is what the teacher is able to draw from them.

This is about Stone Ridge asserting it's anti-racist bona fides. This is grandstanding, pure and simple. There are many great works of American literature that we can include or not include for all sorts of reasons, but to spotlight TKAM in this way is a DEI circle jerk. Make no mistake, this will continue. I fully expect the new Head of MS to be fully versed in the DEI religion.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:+1. Our school dumped Macbeth for The Bluest Eye. Just silly.

Have you ever read The Bluest Eye? It's a really good book.

Great. So read it at your ladies’ book club. You don’t dump the centerpiece author of the English language for the last 500 years for a trendy title, if you are trying to educate young students.

LOL at the idea that a novel from 1970, by a Nobel Prize-winning author widely recognized as one of the great American writers, is "a trendy title."

Or that Harper Lee is "the centerpiece author of the English language for the last 500 years"

oops - misread the quote - yeah - Shakespeare is the guy . . .

Anonymous wrote:Can't a book like To Kill a Mockingbird be used to teach all of the issues being brought up against it? Seems like a very good platform to approach all these issues.

I agree with this. We read primary texts from different periods in history in order to have a lens on those time periods. Why not read TKAM and Bluest Eye? And discuss how TKAM gives only the white characters a voice and significant agency. More enlightening, IMO, than tossing the book out entirely.