Authors, educators debate controversial classics

For decades, “To Kill a Mockingbird” has been taught as a coming-of-age tale of a young girl’s awakening to the racial inequality that haunts her small town in the Depression-era South, influencing generations of Canadian readers.

But now, Harper Lee’s Pulitzer Prize-winning 1960 novel and other school reading list staples are coming under scrutiny from authors and educators who question whether the cultural values in certain canonized works have withstood the test of time.

Ontario’s Peel District School Board made efforts this year to update its English curriculum to prioritize books by diverse writers, mandating that “To Kill A Mockingbird” not be taught in the district unless instruction was presented through an “anti-oppression lens.”

In a June document sent to English department heads, the school board said “To Kill A Mockingbird” is one of many white-authored classics that are “violently racist” in their depictions of black people.

“The idea that banning books is about censorship and that censorship limits free speech is often decried as a poor reason to keep the novel on schools’ reading lists as its racist themes make it violent and oppressive for Black students,” the board said.

The board’s move turned up the heat of a debate in writing and educational circles about the role of the classics in the classroom, with some saying these touchstone titles can exist in conversation with more modern texts, while others argue antiquated works should be replaced.