Banning classic books a mistake
Re: Surrey schools pull To Kill a Mockingbird and other books from recommended reading curriculum.
There is no logical reason to remove Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird from the Surrey school district's list of recommended books. While novels such as Toni Morrison's Beloved and Colson Whitehead's Nickel Boys are excellent, why can't classics and contemporary books coexist on the same curriculum?
Nickel Boys and To Kill a Mockingbird both deal with racial profiling and injustice, and include graphic language and mature subject matter. In a senior English class, students could do a comparative study of the two books, examining the historical/social context in which they were both written. They would note the absence of a white saviour in Whitehead's novel, and this could result in a meaningful discussion.
Let's not deny classroom teachers the opportunity to draw from a diversity of authors and texts, enriching their students' learning experience.
Natalie Hryciuk, Surrey
Twenty years ago I taught To Kill a Mocking Bird to students who had no idea regarding the racist history. Before teaching, I explained how hurtful and damaging language like the N-word is and this language had no place in any classroom.
I simply don't understand how this book that is clearly anti-racist could be construed to be harmful.
Patti Milsom, Vancouver
The argument for removal of the classic novels like Mockingbird, and Of Mice and Men and others, is that it is to avoid trauma in reading offensive messages. These standards keep shifting, which limits necessary exposure in the expected protected environments of school.
My view of such censoring of potentially difficult topics is it shouldn't go ahead, but such reading should be reasonably open in schools for proper discussion of modern thinking in context of past standards.
The reality of negative life events and future experiences needs to be drawn out in safety, discussed fully and options brought forth in dealing with them. How else will one face the challenges of the future?
No matter what we try, there are always going to be difficult subjects and experiences, and we need to inculcate in the developing students healthy ways of coping with such. John de Couto, Burnaby