Tuesday, November 17, 2020

Clearly, Education Is Needed

To Kill A Mockingbird.  It's a story so powerful that years ago I bought the DVD so my son and I could watch it together.

Wasn't the whole point of the story the truth's triumph over racism, that even in injustice we can know the truth, and that it will eventually win out?  Not to clueless people.  No, the point is that racism is bad and children shouldn't read about it:

Schools in Burbank will no longer be able to teach a handful of classic novels, including Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, following concerns raised by parents over racism.

Middle and high school English teachers in the Burbank Unified School District received the news during a virtual meeting on September 9.

Until further notice, teachers in the area will not be able to include on their curriculum Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men, Theodore Taylor's The Cay and Mildred D. Taylor's Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry.

Four parents, three of whom are Black, challenged the classic novels for alleged potential harm to the district's roughly 400 Black students.

Next up:  Jews complain that children read Anne Frank's Diary and Elie Wiesel's Night in school.

What's at least as discouraging as the clueless parents is that the school district caved in to them.

1 comment:

Auntie Ann said...

My alma mater:

https://www.wisn.com/article/shorewood-high-school-cancels-production-of-to-kill-a-mockingbird/23726536

Makes me so proud. [snark]