A group of progressive teachers fought to “ban” Harper Lee’s novel “To Kill a Mockingbird” from being included in classroom curricula amid left-wing criticism of parents protesting sexually explicit books at school. .
The Washington Post published a report Friday about how educators in the Mukilteo school district in Washington fought to “protect students from a book they considered outdated and harmful.”
The Pulitzer Prize-winning book “To Kill a Mockingbird” follows the story of a young woman growing up in the American South during the Great Depression as her father defends a black man wrongly accused of raping a white woman, leading to to both legal and physical demands. clashes.
The four teachers, according to The Post, “launched a years-long quest to ban any teacher in the largely liberal Mukilteo school district from assigning ‘Mockingbird.’ And it started with a formal challenge for a book at the end of 2021: the first in 20 years and the first from teachers.”
“To Kill a Mockingbird centers whiteness,” the teachers wrote in their formal challenge to making the book mandatory in the school curriculum, also asserting that it “presents a barrier to understanding and celebrating an authentic Black point of view.” in the literature of the civil rights era. and it should be eliminated.”
Woke teachers are trying to ban “To Kill a Mockingbird” in schools. The Washington Post via Getty Images
Ultimately, a committee voted to remove the book from the school district’s list of required ninth-grade novels, while still keeping it on the list of approved novels, a decision ultimately supported by the school board.
The result was not entirely satisfactory to the professors who pushed to eliminate the book entirely.
“Each said it’s good that freshmen no longer have to read the book,” the Post wrote. “Each said they believe students will be harmed because the book remains a teaching option.”
The Post article noted that while most battles over books in schools are led by conservatives, these teachers felt their cause was “necessary” and “urgent.”
“Across the country, those who opposed the books came mostly from the right. But at Mukilteo, the progressive teachers who complained about the novel saw themselves as part of an urgent national reckoning with racism, a necessary reconsideration of what we value, teach, and commemorate in the wake of George Floyd’s murder. summarized The Post. “They weren’t asking to take the book out of the library, just to stop forcing it on students. “They believed they were protecting the children.”
The irony of progressives pushing to remove a book from the curriculum entirely was not lost on conservative commentators.
Many responded by juxtaposing how conservative concerns about sexually explicit material are framed in comparison to progressive concerns about sensitivities about “classic novels.”
“Liberals are banning ‘To Kill a Mockingbird.’ Conservatives are restricting pornography. We are not the same,” Chris Rufo, a critic of far-left radicalism in education, posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.
“When conservatives call for pornography to be removed from schools, they are accused of ‘banning books,’” the 1776 Project PAC noted. “When left-wing professors ban classic novels like To Kill a Mockingbird, the media praises them.”
When conservatives call for pornography to be removed from schools, they are accused of “banning books.”
When left-wing professors ban classic novels like To Kill a Mockingbird, the media praises them. https://t.co/cfhPNJeY7G
— 1776 PAC Project (@1776ProjectPac) November 3, 2023
“Getting rid of gay porn is ‘banning books,’ but actually banning a classic novel like To Kill a Mockingbird is ‘protecting students,’” wrote Greg Price of the State Freedom Caucus Network, mocking the Post article’s narrative.
“Is this a book ban? Please advise,” The Spectator contributing editor Stephen L. Miller joked.
“Just think of the absurd leftist logic here: Parents who oppose real pornography in school libraries want to ‘ban the books,’ but that’s ‘protecting students from outdated and harmful material’ if they ban them from reading Killing to a mockingbird,” Texas Youth Summit founder Christian Collins wrote.
Twitchy’s Doug Powers posted: “When the left does it, they’re ‘protecting students’ and when the right keeps porn off high school shelves, they’re ‘banning books.’”
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Source: vtt.edu.vn