It takes a lot to shock me, it really does, but this one was a doosey. I was reading an article from The Courier Journal in Louisville Kentucky that talked about how a school pulled a book when the students were more than half thru reading it. It wasn’t until the last oh say 30 pages of the book when the parents decided to intervene on their seniors education and complain about Toni Morrison’s “Beloved”. Granted, there are a few harsh words, which you would expect from Morrison, and it is about “antebellum slavery depicted bestiality, racism and sex”.
The school in Louisville has never had a policy on censorship and banning certain books. The school board has to create a policy because they had more than two parental complaints about the book and its vulgarity. Here is an interesting quote from the principal of the school and what he has to say about the complaints and the book.
However, of “Beloved,” Sexton said he believes “some of the language and some of the points made, from this principal’s perspective, are hard to have in high school.”
Sexton said that in 18 years, he’s only had four complaints like the ones about “Beloved” — and one of them was about a different Morrison novel.
Yes, some books are going to be a little rough for a high school class, but we as readers have to know that this is actually a college level class. This is a senior AP English class, one that is supposed to prepare the 150 students in the class, for college. Unfortunately, the book they resorted to, in place of “Beloved” was “The Scarlet Letter”. This is a book that is read in freshman and sophomore English classes. I don’t see how this is supposed to prepare AP students for the test they will be taking to get college credit.
“At one point, it’s talking about a plantation. And there’s no females. So the men resort to bestiality,” Leo Comerlato said, adding that he didn’t object because “we’re in a college-level class.”
But the novel is “quite appropriate for Advanced Placement high school students,” said Pat Scales, a former member of the library association’s Intellectual Freedom committee, who criticized Sexton’s move.
“The book is extremely important. The best literature may make us squirm a little bit … but it makes kids think more. And that’s what we want,” she said.
It is one thing to stop students from reading a book that is coming up in the future. Even if it has only been challenged 4 times in 18 years, but there is no point to stop the students from reading a book when they have 30 pages left. The challenge is causing some problems in the school because now they have to create a policy just in case parents complain again. The principal even said that they may teach it again, but they just can’t teach it now. I’m sorry, but I just don’t see the point at all.
Novel yanked from class
Handful of parents objected to content
By Chris Kenning
ckenning@courier-journal.com
The Courier-Journal
hpiette said
Hi Nicole,
This article you found is really interesting for a few reasons. It is amazing to see what lengths parents will go to in order to cause some turmoil within a public school system. I can understand, as I’m sure the rest of us can that parents are worried about what their children are reading and the effects the reading will have on them. But in reality, the line needs to be drawn but necessarily on what are children are reading. I say this because students at this adolescent age are being exposed to several aspects of our culture which are not too dissimilar from what they are reading in texts. Only when they are reading for class doing so provides a safe environment for these students to learn from what is being said. Also, the fact remains that many of the texts which students read now, say from the literary cannon have several different aspects of this same material. But like I said, where do we draw the line? Why not ban all of literature? We would not do such a thing because classrooms are where students can learn from these situations. AP English seniors are going to be the students who can handle learning and reading these situations in a more adult manner, so why are we stopping them with 30 pages to go? In short I agree with you in saying I don’t see the point.
jauntypag said
Nicole,
I can completelty understand how outraged you were to read such an article, it is absoultely ridiculous that a school would do this! First, I think it is amazing that the parents did not speak up about the book untill the student were almost finished with it. It seems like if they wanted to do something about it, they should have spoken up before that. But that is not even the main point. I think it is remarkable that teachers do not have as much say as they should on what they choose to teacher. The material taught in school is selected for a certain reason, it is not like the teacher decided to pick a book to read just because. It would be nice for the school to consider what the students are getting out of the assigment. Although I can understand that parents do not want their children to be exposed to vuglar langauge and ccontroversial issues the fact of the matter is that this was an AP english class. These students are allready on their way to getting into college where they will be introduced to even more controversial issues. The teacher was only trying to prepare them for what they will face in college. Interesing post!
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Alex said
Thank You
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