Mississippi School District Pulls "To Kill a Mockingbird" from Shelves

[wonder whisper]

They weren't force fed.

That sounds like code for "mandatory reading assignments are torture."

That may true in the hands of some hack instructor, but in the hands of a talented, intuitive teacher, you would be surprised at the results of taking the students through a proper journey of all that "old, onerous literature." Or put another way, there are ways to get around the short attention span, what-just-happened-on-facebook-3-minutes- ago mindset and develop an appreciation of prior eras within young minds.

And I've seen it done. It just takes having the right people with the right talents in place.

 

[amberpi]

I must be one of the few who actually ENJOYED The Scarlet Letter. I found it fascinating, but concede it was tedious to read in many chapters.

I wrote a paper in HS comparing Hester Prynne and Roderick Usher from Edgar Allan Poe's The Fall of the House of Usher, then turned in the same paper with some minor modifications in a college literature course. Got an A both times.

There hasn't been a book mentioned here I didn't like. Even Ethan Frome, which I admit there could be better choices, was a book I enjoyed. So, it really is personal opinion.

 

[EveDallas]

Awww! I thought about adding that one, but, to be fair, it's not incredibly well written. Have you ever noticed how nearly everything green is "emerald green"? And my goodness, the later books get unwieldy, with regards to plotting, pacing and flow.

But the world Rowling created was wonderfully rich and immersive, and it's grown so very far past the books themselves. The characters are compelling and iconic. I think Harry Potter well deserves to be considered a classic. But, do we teach it in school? I'm not sure.

Pretty sure several million people would disagree with you about the HP books not being well written.

 

[Southernmiss]

http://www.sunherald.com/news/local/counties/harrison-county/article179408296.html

Here's an update from the local paper and school board meeting.

 

[luvsJack]

That sounds like code for "mandatory reading assignments are torture."

That may true in the hands of some hack instructor, but in the hands of a talented, intuitive teacher, you would be surprised at the results of taking the students through a proper journey of all that "old, onerous literature." Or put another way, there are ways to get around the short attention span, what-just-happened-on-facebook-3-minutes- ago mindset and develop an appreciation of prior eras within young minds.

And I've seen it done. It just takes having the right people with the right talents in place.

With some books yes. Some are torture to read. Sorry it's just a fact.

The discussion that follows and the teacher having the talent to bring it to life is a wonderful thing and yes I have seen it too as have all of my kids. But the physical reading of the book for the students wasn't any less boring to them. And many of them just don't bother.

I would rather see a kid actively engrossed in a book and enjoying it than one just sitting there waiting for the discussion.

A talented teacher also knows her/his audience and will quickly know what will capture the attention of the class. And if that doesn't include required reading of old books, so be it.

You act like having a choice is the downfall of education. It's not.

Curriculum changes all the time. Taking this book from the list and replacing it with something else isn't going to be the downfall of these student's education either.

 

[Jennasis]

One of my favorite moments on Family Guy was the scene where Nathanial Hawthorne is sitting at his desk, writing furiously. Off camera his wife calls out "Nathanial...whatever are you doing?"...Nathanial laughs and answers "Ruining 9th grade for everyone!"

 

[sam_gordon]

That sounds like code for "mandatory reading assignments are torture."

That may true in the hands of some hack instructor, but in the hands of a talented, intuitive teacher, you would be surprised at the results of taking the students through a proper journey of all that "old, onerous literature." Or put another way, there are ways to get around the short attention span, what-just-happened-on-facebook-3-minutes- ago mindset and develop an appreciation of prior eras within young minds.

And I've seen it done. It just takes having the right people with the right talents in place.

Yes, mandatory reading assignment CAN be torture. And they were torture in the 80s when I was in school. Well before the "what happened on facebook 3 minutes ago" mindset. I don't care how good a teacher you are, if I'm not interested in the story, it's torture to read. You can't MAKE me interested.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

With some books yes. Some are torture to read. Sorry it's just a fact.

The discussion that follows and the teacher having the talent to bring it to life is a wonderful thing and yes I have seen it too as have all of my kids. But the physical reading of the book for the students wasn't any less boring to them. And many of them just don't bother.

I would rather see a kid actively engrossed in a book and enjoying it than one just sitting there waiting for the discussion.

A talented teacher also knows her/his audience and will quickly know what will capture the attention of the class. And if that doesn't include required reading of old books, so be it.

You act like having a choice is the downfall of education. It's not.

Curriculum changes all the time. Taking this book from the list and replacing it with something else isn't going to be the downfall of these student's education either.

Amen! Honestly, I couldn't care less how well-written a book is considered to be. If the subject matter doesn't trip my trigger, I'm out. That's why as a kid who typically took 2+ weeks to plod through a book, I zinged through Where The Red Fern Grows in 2 nights. That's why I've read Death In The Long Grass at least 30 times. CJ Box's Joe Pickett books are often a single sitting for me.

The Scarlet Letter OTOH was like a 20-hour dental visit. I just don't think people who are true book fanatics "get" what it's like for the rest of us.

 

[Magpie]

Pretty sure several million people would disagree with you about the HP books not being well written.

Don't get me wrong, I love Harry Potter!

The books have got brilliant world building (just don't ask too many questions about how the world actually works), charming characters and are incredibly engaging. That said, however, the word-smithing leaves a great deal to be desired, and Rowling's lack of an editorial hand really shows in the later books. (She had an excellent editor for the first book.)

I can make similar arguments for the Lord of the Rings. Brilliant books, but they don't really work as novels. I mean, really, who wants to spend pages slogging through the marshes?

Some books have a cultural impact greater than the sum of their parts.

 

[ELKA]

Amen! Honestly, I couldn't care less how well-written a book is considered to be. If the subject matter doesn't trip my trigger, I'm out. That's why as a kid who typically took 2+ weeks to plod through a book, I zinged through Where The Red Fern Grows in 2 nights. That's why I've read Death In The Long Grass at least 30 times. CJ Box's Joe Pickett books are often a single sitting for me.

The Scarlet Letter OTOH was like a 20-hour dental visit. I just don't think people who are true book fanatics "get" what it's like for the rest of us.

As a reader and one who really likes to read almost anything, I won’t finish a book I don’t like. There has to be something that keeps me interested. Although, when I was in high school, I was given Hamlet in two classes about the same time. One teacher was really good about explaining it and the other, had us memorize to be or not to be.

 

[amberpi]

As a reader and one who really likes to read almost anything, I won’t finish a book I don’t like. There has to be something that keeps me interested. Although, when I was in high school, I was given Hamlet in two classes about the same time. One teacher was really good about explaining it and the other, had us memorize to be or not to be.

I mentioned taking AP Shakespeare...we had to learn 10 monologues or sonnets per semester on top of our coursework. It was actually super fun. Before the winter holidays, the entire class did Sonnet 18, just to mess with our teacher, as you can imagine, that was a boring class of 12 kids reciting the same thing back to back. Its kinda neat now to see how much I can still remember.

 

[sailorstitch]

I must be one of the few who actually ENJOYED The Scarlet Letter. I found it fascinating, but concede it was tedious to read in many chapters.

I wrote a paper in HS comparing Hester Prynne and Roderick Usher from Edgar Allan Poe's The Fall of the House of Usher, then turned in the same paper with some minor modifications in a college literature course. Got an A both times.

Now, you see I LOVE The Fall of the House of Usher! I'm a big Poe fan. But The Scarlet letter still makes me gag.

I think what made it even worse for me was that my teacher required us to read something like 5 chapters at a time. I'm a slow reader and when I don't understand something I'm even slower. My parents broke down and bought me the cliff notes. I was told the proper way to use the cliff notes was to read the chapter(s), read the cliff notes and then reread the chapter(s). I tried that... once. It took me 3 or 4 hours. I didn't have that kind of time to spend on one subject. I had homework for other classes too. After that I didn't hardly use the book. I just read the cliff notes.

http://www.sunherald.com/news/local/counties/harrison-county/article179408296.html

Here's an update from the local paper and school board meeting.

Now, this is a COMPLETELY different issue! This is a case of a teacher not having control of her class. (Like most of my middle/high school teachers....) I don't have a problem with the word being taught in school, but the word needs to be respected. When the lesson only teaches kids to use the word to taunt their peers, the lesson needs to go!

 

[wonder whisper]

You act like having a choice is the downfall of education. It's not.

No, I said having people remove content because of their subjective viewpoint on what is and isn't "offensive" is a corrosive, slippery slope of censorship, whose apologists want that done under shallow guise of making literature study more"palatable" to short attention spans and narrow minds. As for choice, as I previously stated no one is telling students they can "only" read specific books - again, what I am railing against are the intentional blacklisting of books due to the the endlessly growing list of things that someone somewhere has subjectively decided are "offensive."

Or put another way, people need to be reminded that our bill or rights does not contain any clause whatsoever stating there is a right to "never be offended."

 

[superme80]

I never read to Kill a Mockingbird in high school, but I did read it in college. I loved it. I understand wanting something contemporary, but I love the classics. I firmly believe they should always remain in the curriculum. The last article makes me think it is more of a discipline and respect issue than the book. Just because a book says a word, does not mean the word needs to be used in every day language. The kids using the N word need to be talked to and probably disciplined if they are using it.

 

[luvsJack]

No, I said having people remove content because of their subjective viewpoint on what is and isn't "offensive" is a corrosive, slippery slope of censorship, whose apologists want that done under shallow guise of making literature study more"palatable" to short attention spans and narrow minds. As for choice, as I previously stated no one is telling students they can "only" read specific books - again, what I am railing against are the intentional blacklisting of books due to the the endlessly growing list of things that someone somewhere has subjectively decided are "offensive."

Or put another way, people need to be reminded that our bill or rights does not contain any clause whatsoever stating there is a right to "never be offended."

And they still can CHOOSE to read this book. It is not banned from the shelves. If the media would have just shut up it would have stayed pretty much a non issue.

Biloxi school district still has required reading lists. They just removed one book. That's it. I am sure other books have been removed in the past. Times change, people change, book lists change. It's ok. (My child did not have a required reading list per se and yet has a 3.8 GPA at the moment, who woulda thunk it)

How long do you think it should be before a school replaces one book with another? 50 years? 100 years? I mean a lot of books have been written since TKAM. Are you seriously saying that none of them have been as good or as teachable or as valuable?

I didn't even read the last article from the Sun Herald but apparently some parents thought there was a problem that the book was causing. Maybe these particular kids are too immature to handle the subject of the book. I don't know, not their teacher.

I personally, am not offended by the book. I don't know why they are as I didn't read the last article. But until they start actually banning the book or burning it, I still remain amazed that we are even having this conversation.

The list for this one class cannot possibly include all of the classics. Put another on that list and put TKAM in a later grade. Gee Whiz. Mountains out of molehills.

ETA: Ok, I read the article. So these ladies complained about a situation and the child was given alternative material. They thought it was done. Obviously there is more to the story. Maybe other complaints. Maybe after discussing it with the teacher they decided it was better to pull it.

I still maintain that if it was any other time, in any other state, it would remain a non issue.

 

[L&Lfan]

I am prepared to be flamed but I think banning the n word....not even being able to write it in a non pejorative context, but having to refer to it forever as the n word, has given that word MORE power, not less.
I'd be anxious to hearing others' thoughts.
I think the fact that it's forbidden causes many, some students in this case, to act immaturly when they see it in print. As with most things, I could be wrong.

 

[luvsJack]

I am prepared to be flamed but I think banning the n word....not even being able to write it in a non pejorative context, but having to refer to it forever as the n word, has given that word MORE power, not less.
I'd be anxious to hearing others' thoughts.
I think the fact that it's forbidden causes many, some students in this case, to act immaturly when they see it in print. As with most things, I could be wrong.

I think you are probably right.

Banning the word, being upset or offended by the word gives it power. But I am not sure how we back up now and take the power out of that particular word.

 

[BrianL]

http://www.sunherald.com/news/local/counties/harrison-county/article179408296.html

Here's an update from the local paper and school board meeting.

So, reading the update, there sounds like there is a problem with the way class is conducted, but that's not really the fault of the book. We read it in my classes and never said the word in question once. It was talked about in a very professional manner. This is in fact poor teaching.

 

[luvsJack]

So, reading the update, there sounds like there is a problem with the way class is conducted, but that's not really the fault of the book. We read it in my classes and never said the word in question once. It was talked about in a very professional manner. This is in fact poor teaching.

May I ask what grade you were in when you read it?

These are 8th graders. I can't imagine any situation where a normal 8th grader talks about ANYTHING in a "professional" manner.

 

[scoutie]

These are 8th graders. I can't imagine any situation where a normal 8th grader talks about ANYTHING in a "professional" manner.

I teach 7th and 8th grade, and in my experience.......8th graders are amazingly articulate and thoughtful, and can talk about nearly everything in a professional matter. I prefer discussions with middle schoolers compared to many adults.

My classes are starting to read Fahrenheit 451 soon, and I do some mini-lessons on banned books. I'm using this article in our discussions.