Skip in Skip x Embed x Share CLOSE Shortly after the surprising release of 'Go Set a Watchman,' the iconic novel 'To Kill a Mockingbird' is headed to Broadway.
The Biloxi School District pulled Harper Lee's 'To Kill a Mockingbird' from an 8th-grade lesson plan after hearing complaints about the book's language. (Photo: Amazon)
BILOXI - The Biloxi School District got complaints about the wording in “To Kill A Mockingbird” — an American classic being taught in 8th grade English Language Arts classes — and pulled it from the curriculum.
It was an administrative and department decision, a member of the school board said, and not something that the school board voted on. It happened Wednesday or Thursday.
Kenny Holloway, vice president of the Biloxi School Board said, “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.
“It’s still in our library. But they’re going to use another book in the 8th grade course.”
When asked Thursday morning if the book had been pulled from the course, Superintendent Arthur McMillan issued a statement five hours later that said: “There are many resources and materials that are available to teach state academic standards to our students. These resources may change periodically. We always strive to do what is best for our students and staff to continue to perform at the highest level.”
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McMillan did not answer any questions on the issue.
Sun Herald received a email from a concerned reader who said the decision was made “mid-lesson plan, the students will not be allowed to finish the reading of ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’ .... due to the use of the ‘N’ word.”
The reader said, “I think it is one of the most disturbing examples of censorship I have ever heard, in that the themes in the story humanize all people regardless of their social status, education level, intellect, and of course, race. It would be difficult to find a time when it was more relevant than in days like these.”
The current themes for 2nd term language arts classes in Biloxi this year are the Golden Rule and taking a stand. With “To Kill A Mockingbird” specifically, the teens were slated to learn that compassion and empathy are not dependent upon race or education, according to the school’s website.
The book is listed on the curriculum as core text for 8th grade ELA, the Common Core state standards for English Language Arts.
One 8th grade teacher on the school website described it as: “Compassionate, dramatic, and deeply moving, “To Kill A Mockingbird” takes readers to the roots of human behavior — to innocence and experience, kindness and cruelty, love and hatred, humor and pathos. Now with over 18 million copies in print and translated into 10 languages, this regional story by a young Alabama woman claims universal appeal. Harper Lee always considered her book to be a simple love story. Today it is regarded as a masterpiece of American literature.”
A Southern gothic novel, it was published in 1960, won the Pulitzer Prize in fiction the next year and was adapted into an Oscar-winning film in 1962.
The plot deals with rape and racial inequality in a small Southern town. The events and characters are loosely based on author Harper Lee’s observations of an event that happened near her hometown of Monroeville, Alabama, in the 1930s, when when she was young.
Monroeville has recently looked at ways to develop new attractions and draw more tourists based on its association with the book.
The American Library Association lists “To Kill A Mockingbird” as No. 21 in the most banned or challenged books in the last decade.
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UpAndComingNobody on October 14th, 2017 at 17:49 UTC »
What angers me is ONE parent writes in and the district just JUMPS to please this person? Midway through the book?! I'd be the parent that writes in to say you have no right to force my child to read an approved list from some RANDO in a PUBLIC school no less !
Phillip_Pirrip on October 14th, 2017 at 17:04 UTC »
It was taken out of the hands of students midway through their study of the book because a parent was "uncomfortable" with the n-word.
I don't want to get into defending To Kill a Mockingbird specifically, though it's a great novel with a lot of merits.
This is simply not how academic decisions should be made- one or two vocal, "uncomfortable" parents can be accommodated in other ways, like giving their kid an alternative book. Pulling it out of all the other kids' hands amounts to imposing the ultra conservative values of the few on the educational quality of the many.
Know what else is uncomfortable? American History. The American Present. All kinds of stuff. But we don't pull it from the curriculum therefore.
Edit: to those claiming I was wrong to blame "ultra conservative values" without knowing the parents involved, you're right; I don't know what's up in Biloxi. It might just be liberal snowflakes doing the whining. I hope we can agree it doesn't really matter who is "uncomfortable" - they need to get over it.
But I can tell you that in my ten years teaching high school English in PA, every single parent complaint we've had about a novel was grounded in a conservative religious argument about what morals are being taught by "liberal" teachers. Progressive parents seem, on the whole, less uptight about the content of the books we read.
I'm just one guy, with a relatively short teaching career to base my perspective on, so take it as the anecdotal, small evidence that it is.
rageagainstthehobbit on October 14th, 2017 at 17:03 UTC »
I just feel like Mockingbird has too important of a context to not be taught in the US. And to people saying that 8th grade is too young to read this, I’d say that kind of defeats part of the purpose. The thing that the book rails against is the indoctrination of racism into everyday life, the normalization of it, and that generally happens when you’re young. If you go through school without becoming aware of the dangers of that, then schools have not done their jobs. I realize there are other books that cover this topic just as well, but it’s such a necessary undertaking as a teacher. You can’t just cower away from controversial topics because of what parents might say