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

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.

Then they can remove the book from the curriculum because they want to teach fresh material. However, what a school cannot do is allow parents to dictate curriculum because a particular word makes them uncomfortable. If kids are laughing at an inappropriate word and the teacher isn't able to get control of their class, perhaps they need more training.
 
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.

Best way to get them interested - tell them it's banned :)
 
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.

Not saying they can't be just that many times they choose not to be. IME comparing 7th and 8th graders to say 9th graders is like comparing apples to rocks. Very different creatures with little age difference. Maybe because in our schools, one school ends at 8th grade and they move on to 9th at a different school. Perhaps its that "king of the mountain" attitude. Not saying they aren't good kids, of course they are.

In another post you mentioned AP eighth graders, is that what you teach?
 
Then they can remove the book from the curriculum because they want to teach fresh material. However, what a school cannot do is allow parents to dictate curriculum because a particular word makes them uncomfortable. If kids are laughing at an inappropriate word and the teacher isn't able to get control of their class, perhaps they need more training.

Couldn't say, don't know the teacher, don't know the class. Maybe it wasn't even said while actually IN her classroom. Maybe she didn't hear it and it wasn't brought to her attention. I couldn't say.

The parents didn't dictate the curriculum. They brought a concern to the administration. They were ok with the alternative materials. The administration made the decision.
 


In another post you mentioned AP eighth graders, is that what you teach?
I teach all Honors ELA classes this year, but I've generally taught one block of "regular" middle school ELA my whole career. Honors or not, most middle schoolers can have in-depth and meaningful discussions.
 
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.

7th I think, but I meant the teacher was professional and didn't tolerate any nonsense.
 
I'm curious about the logic behind the removal because from what I've seen with my teens and their peers, this is still very much a book that they can relate to and "see" the world as it was through Scout's eyes. My daughter hated Huck Finn, my son hated Their Eyes Were Watching God, etc. In fact, I think TKAM and 1984 occupy unique space as required reading that they both enjoyed, engaged with, and got something out of. So I am a bit skeptical of the idea that there's another book that raises the same themes and questions as effectively.

There are plenty of places where I think most high school curricula could be changed - seriously, why do high school Brit Lit classes only "count" brooks published a 150 years ago or more? I can think of a half-dozen classics by British authors that would be more accessible to kids than the standard fare of Beowulf, Shakespeare, and Dickens! But I'm not really convinced by anything I've read about this case that the content of the class isn't diminished by the loss of TKAM from the curriculum, especially if, as has been, stated parent complaints about racial language are part of the rationale for the removal, because that would also exclude most other works dealing with similar themes.
 


I teach all Honors ELA classes this year, but I've generally taught one block of "regular" middle school ELA my whole career. Honors or not, most middle schoolers can have in-depth and meaningful discussions.

Oh, I don't doubt they can. Its not the ability some lack its the want to. Look, typical jr high kids can be a bit rowdy. The boys can be a bit obnoxious. The girls a bit catty. But, hey, I love that age group. I think they are funny and can be very interesting when someone takes the time to talk to them. I am not downing the age group of kids. Just, after years of working in the educational field I have never, not once heard 8th graders referred to as "professional". This is a first, I must say.
 
I would LOVE to see a school make Harry Potter required reading. Then I would sit back and watch all the conservative parents scream about how "The school is teaching witchcraft!" :rotfl2::stir:

A teacher at my DD's middle school tried to use Hunger Games and the parent reactions were just priceless... Parents I know full well let their kids play Call of Duty and Battlefront talking about how those books were too violent and disturbing for 12 & 13yos. That ended up becoming a with-permission book club too, and it is a shame because there are interesting jumping off points in that book for some great discussions about economics and how societies are structured.

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

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

It sounds like maybe the teacher, not the book, needed to go. I can't imagine any teacher I know allowing that behaviour in class.
 
I'm curious about the logic behind the removal because from what I've seen with my teens and their peers, this is still very much a book that they can relate to and "see" the world as it was through Scout's eyes. My daughter hated Huck Finn, my son hated Their Eyes Were Watching God, etc. In fact, I think TKAM and 1984 occupy unique space as required reading that they both enjoyed, engaged with, and got something out of. So I am a bit skeptical of the idea that there's another book that raises the same themes and questions as effectively.

There are plenty of places where I think most high school curricula could be changed - seriously, why do high school Brit Lit classes only "count" brooks published a 150 years ago or more? I can think of a half-dozen classics by British authors that would be more accessible to kids than the standard fare of Beowulf, Shakespeare, and Dickens! But I'm not really convinced by anything I've read about this case that the content of the class isn't diminished by the loss of TKAM from the curriculum, especially if, as has been, stated parent complaints about racial language are part of the rationale for the removal, because that would also exclude most other works dealing with similar themes.

Just to make things clear... 1. I enjoyed To Kill a Mockingbird. 2. I think it can be used effectively as part of a curriculum. 3. I suspect the School Board President is either a big ol' weenie for caving to parents who don't like the n-word, or passive aggressively trying to stir up controversy.

But, I'm puzzled by your argument that TKaM is unique in its ability to raise these themes and questions (by which I assume you mean themes and questions around race and prejudice).

TKaM is about a heroic white lawyer who resists threats and racist social pressures to try to defend an innocent (if somewhat uneducated and not terribly bright) black man from a false accusation of rape. The point of view character is his little white daughter, who is resisting social pressures in her own way by wearing jeans and climbing trees. Plus something something disability don't judge something Boo Radley. (He always freaked me out a bit, when I was a kid.)

It's a great story! But is it really the only way to effectively raise themes and questions around race and prejudice? What if the young people in your class are black? How will they feel about a story in which a white man tries (and ultimately fails) to save a helpless black man? What lessons are they to take from this?

Of course it can be done, and done well. But, I find it hard to believe that all literary lessons centered around race and prejudice are diminished without TKaM.

What about this book, instead? It's about the civil rights movements of the late 60's.

51MCCDyGVjL._SX334_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg


Or this book:

41l48G0I-rL._SX334_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg


And if you're looking to teach the history of slavery, there's this one...

41XhTLCtftL._SX324_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg



And on the black experience of segregation...

51ICzAaldML._SX328_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg


Yes, you might be able to come up with an argument why each of these is in some way substandard to To Kill a Mockingbird. However, I'm also sure any decent library or bookseller could come up with dozens more. Books are not exactly in short supply!
 
I'm curious about the logic behind the removal because from what I've seen with my teens and their peers, this is still very much a book that they can relate to and "see" the world as it was through Scout's eyes. My daughter hated Huck Finn, my son hated Their Eyes Were Watching God, etc. In fact, I think TKAM and 1984 occupy unique space as required reading that they both enjoyed, engaged with, and got something out of. So I am a bit skeptical of the idea that there's another book that raises the same themes and questions as effectively.

There are plenty of places where I think most high school curricula could be changed - seriously, why do high school Brit Lit classes only "count" brooks published a 150 years ago or more? I can think of a half-dozen classics by British authors that would be more accessible to kids than the standard fare of Beowulf, Shakespeare, and Dickens! But I'm not really convinced by anything I've read about this case that the content of the class isn't diminished by the loss of TKAM from the curriculum, especially if, as has been, stated parent complaints about racial language are part of the rationale for the removal, because that would also exclude most other works dealing with similar themes.

But, just because your kids both got something out of it doesn't mean other kids will. My book-obsessed teen hated it and specifically thought the entire story around Scout ruined the book. There's no telling what will or won't make someone like a book. Same daughter rates And Then There Were None as one of her all-time favorites, but absolutely hated Murder On The Orient Express.

You just never know.
 
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.

I get it. There were plenty of other classics I couldn't stand reading. I just happened to like that particular book.


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. :crazy2:

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.
!

I think we read The Scarlet Letter in short spurts, over the course of a whole quarter or marking period, which may have been why it wasn't tedious for me. The teacher probably recognized assigning too much at once wouldn't work for the majority of the class. We read other books and did other work in between.

Another author I liked while many others didn't is Ibsen, in particular Hedda Gabler and A Doll's House.
 
But, hey, I love that age group. I think they are funny and can be very interesting when someone takes the time to talk to them. I am not downing the age group of kids. Just, after years of working in the educational field I have never, not once heard 8th graders referred to as "professional"
Got it! I misunderstood. I always feel like I have to defend middle schoolers. They are pretty awesome people in general. :)
 
One that I can't put down. One that the writer engages me in the story and characters and I am eager to read. TKAM did not do that for me.

Such as? Can you list some titles?

I think that is up to the school and even if they decide to read something else that has nothing to do with any of those things it is still not the end of the world. TKAM has never been required reading for every single school district in the nation so thousands of students through decades have never read it in school, or maybe not at all. I'm sure those students in this school will end up just fine reading something else.

As long as it's not another white man's angst book...

I have to agree with this as well.

I can think of few books that should be on ones reading list over it.(IMO)

Oh and I am another one who hated the Scarlet Letter. Maybe it deserves to be in there with To Kill a Moking bird, Cather in the Rye, OF Mice and Men, Shakesphere,Twain but only one that I really hated it.

Catcher in the Rye? That book is a hot mess of white male angst. At least the Scarlet Letter gets conversations going about sexism and shaming. Of Mice and Men, more male angst, the only woman is a stereotype. I have my opinion about Steinbeck's personal life, but it's probably not fit to mention on the Dis.

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.

Why? What was it about the Scarlet Letter - female centered? See, I know how you feel, because for too long we've been pushing white male authors, white male protagonists on our kids. Sure, the white male kids will read it, but the females, the minorities? You have to pull teeth to get them involved. I wonder why? Shakespeare, Dickens, Twain, Poe, Steinbeck, Fitzgerald, Hemingway, ugh.

A teacher at my DD's middle school tried to use Hunger Games and the parent reactions were just priceless... Parents I know full well let their kids play Call of Duty and Battlefront talking about how those books were too violent and disturbing for 12 & 13yos. That ended up becoming a with-permission book club too, and it is a shame because there are interesting jumping off points in that book for some great discussions about economics and how societies are structured.



It sounds like maybe the teacher, not the book, needed to go. I can't imagine any teacher I know allowing that behaviour in class.

We read Hunger Games in 10th grade - it fits every MCAS writing prompt they've thrown at us so far. And the kids stay engaged through the discussions. We compare the book to some classics, other books we've read, etc. Sometimes it's the only book they actually read :rolleyes:
 
I mean those are the books I read in HS. Or at leas the one I remmeber, toss in Old Man and the Sea. Cantebury Tales, Clock Work Orange, The Stranger, Lord of the Flies and 1984 and I think that was most of what I remember being forced to read. Enjoyed them all except for Scarlet Letter.
I would put To Kill a Mocking Bird close to the top of that list. Went to All boys school so we we might have had more youn man angst then other schools.
 
I mean those are the books I read in HS. Or at leas the one I remmeber, toss in Old Man and the Sea. Cantebury Tales, Clock Work Orange, The Stranger, Lord of the Flies and 1984 and I think that was most of what I remember being forced to read. Enjoyed them all except for Scarlet Letter.
I would put To Kill a Mocking Bird close to the top of that list. Went to All boys school so we we might have had more youn man angst then other schools.

Did you read the Old English version of Canterbury Tales? The sexual innuendos and double entendres are much better in the older version! That would have been great for an all boys school!

Lord of the Flies, Catcher in the Rye - did you read A Separate Peace too? It's like the perfect trilogy of young white man angst!
 
Did you read the Old English version of Canterbury Tales? The sexual innuendos and double entendres are much better in the older version! That would have been great for an all boys school!

Lord of the Flies, Catcher in the Rye - did you read A Separate Peace too? It's like the perfect trilogy of young white man angst!

No separate peace was that the one about the students in a military school? Somehow I think I read Barchestear Towers instead.
My hatred from Scarlet Lettter is just the way it was written. I think authors from that time period aside from (Troloope, Stevenson, and Poe I do not like).
 
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Just to make things clear... 1. I enjoyed To Kill a Mockingbird. 2. I think it can be used effectively as part of a curriculum. 3. I suspect the School Board President is either a big ol' weenie for caving to parents who don't like the n-word, or passive aggressively trying to stir up controversy.

But, I'm puzzled by your argument that TKaM is unique in its ability to raise these themes and questions (by which I assume you mean themes and questions around race and prejudice).

TKaM is about a heroic white lawyer who resists threats and racist social pressures to try to defend an innocent (if somewhat uneducated and not terribly bright) black man from a false accusation of rape. The point of view character is his little white daughter, who is resisting social pressures in her own way by wearing jeans and climbing trees. Plus something something disability don't judge something Boo Radley. (He always freaked me out a bit, when I was a kid.)

It's a great story! But is it really the only way to effectively raise themes and questions around race and prejudice? What if the young people in your class are black? How will they feel about a story in which a white man tries (and ultimately fails) to save a helpless black man? What lessons are they to take from this?

I think the reason TKaM is such a great part of the middle or high school curriculum is because it is more than a book about race and prejudice. To use a terribly overused cliche of our time, it is intersectional - there is the big overarching story about race, but also the lesser stories that raise conversations about gender and disability and other forms of prejudice. That creates a springboard for talking not only about racism in the historical context, but also how certain groups can be simultaneously privileged and discriminated against, both perpetrators and victims of prejudice, and how there are degrees of bias but all inflict harm. But a big part of my skepticism about how it will be replaced has to do with the specific situation being discussed - a teacher so passive or so powerless that s/he cannot prevent a discussion from devolving into juvenile humor about a forbidden word, and a district that responded to a parent complaint by pulling the book rather than addressing that in-classroom issue. That signals, to me, an intention to avoid the tough conversations because it is easier than demanding they be handled with mutual respect.

I definitely see your point about how it might be taken in a majority-minority classroom, though. It certainly has a strong element of the "white saviour" narrative, even though Atticus ultimately fails, and Tom Robinson is not exactly a strong character.
 
Why? What was it about the Scarlet Letter - female centered? See, I know how you feel, because for too long we've been pushing white male authors, white male protagonists on our kids. Sure, the white male kids will read it, but the females, the minorities? You have to pull teeth to get them involved. I wonder why? Shakespeare, Dickens, Twain, Poe, Steinbeck, Fitzgerald, Hemingway, ugh.

Why? It was just painfully boring. And it wasn't just because I couldn't identify with the characters. I didn't like The Chocolate Wars, either.

On a side note, I get the impression my reading list would be your do not read list :rotfl2:
 
No separate peace was that the one about the students in a military school? Somehow I think I read Barchestear Towers instead.

A Separate Peace was about boys at a boarding school, during WW2 I believe, and one of them decides they need to 'train' to be ready to enlist. Phillips Exeter was the model for the school, I think.

Why? It was just painfully boring. And it wasn't just because I couldn't identify with the characters. I didn't like The Chocolate Wars, either.

On a side note, I get the impression my reading list would be your do not read list :rotfl2:

Sorry your teacher sucked at teaching the Scarlet Letter - mine definitely did not let it be boring. We had some animated conversations about sexism, stereotyping, and symbolism.

Guessing from your list of books you prefer white macho male angst. Have you read The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber?
 

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