I've just come back from a vacation/ hurricane evacuation (more on that later) but I wanted to get your thoughts on this:
Biloxi Mississippi, the place my husband works, one town over from where I live just removed To Kill a Mocking Bird from the school reading list because...
“There were complaints about it. There is some language in the book that makes people uncomfortable, and we can teach the same lesson with other books..."
I'd really, really love to get your thoughts on this. If you could leave me your comments here, that'd be swell. Please, and thank you!
2 comments :
I'm very upset with this. In my opinion, this is a high-school appropriate book. I would let my eighth grader read it as well. There will always be offensive language around us, in literature and film and society. The word I've seen blamed for the discomfort is one teenagers throw around as a "bro" stand in, one used in music daily. The difference is the intent, and the intent in the big is to use it in the way 98% of the population views it: as racist. This book has undeniable lessons that are, admittedly, dealt with in other books. But it handles racism, justice, integrity, mental illness and other themes in a way many books do not. TKAM packs a punch. It gets under your skin, and irritates you raw. It makes you uncomfortable because it's too easy to be complacent. This book actually makes you think and feel, and that's what we need, especially today. That's why people are upset. We like to sweep our problems under the rug and pretend they aren't there, but they are. And TKAM makes it obvious that we haven't seen yhe end of racism as we like to pretend.
It needs to be required reading, not banned.
I saw a comment on Twitter to the effect that, "if TKAM makes you uncomfortable, you *should* read it and consider why."
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