Students need more exposure, not less.

To Kill a Mockingbird the movie could start some lively discussions in class, and it wouldn't seem like such a chore that reading the book (and writing a book report) might become. American students need to be familiar with the book because it's one of the foundation stones of our American literature. Educators would be remiss if they failed to teach this book to high school-aged kids. But perhaps the classic movie of To Kill A Mockingbird - watched in class and carefully discussed - might be enough to achieve that.

LIVE with it, and IMPROVE things.

I hadn't read Mockingbird until a few months ago, once I got started I couldn't put it down. And yes, the racism and use of the word "n_____" made me uncomfortable, but I suppose we need to feel uncomfortable to gain at least a very small understanding of how things are for other people.

And I have to admit to having mixed feelings about other classic authors using "n______" as well, Mark Twain and Ernest Hemingway come to mind. Hemingway's use of the term, especially, seems to normalize a word that's no longer acceptable among decent people.

is that the book made Black students uncomfortable and one White student used it as her excuse to use a racial slur in class. Did I misunderstand?

gg

That is perhaps what is *alleged* as a motivation for the banning attempt. The long article is in the Washington Post from Hannah Natanson. It's paywalled so *I* haven't read it. However, as a black person who has been in front of middle or high school students every school day for the last 15 years or more, I call BULLSHIT straight up. The article is captioned "the blowback was fierce" -- rest WELL assured, I AM that blowback, And You Should Be Too.

I was asking if I was correct in my reading; that the students voicing their discomfort were of color. That's all.

It's not your decision as to what I should feel. I'm a person of color who can think for myself.

gg

The woman who said she was taught only “feel good history “ in school, like Columbus discovered America and George Washington chopped down the cherry tree.

It does kids today a huge disservice - IMO - to gloss over the painful truths in our nation’s history. Why is the fear of making them “uncomfortable “ so pervasive?

One teacher said most of her incoming students never heard of Jim Crow laws. I think that stuff needs to be taught.

That said, perhaps reading a more contemporary book on racism as well as TKAM and compare and contrast racism in America then and now. Nothing wrong with making kids think about things like this and understand where it came from.

in the past, so we don't let those social conditions develop again. They were wrong then, but they were accepted. Still remember trying to understand how, in the Iliad, it was a-ok that a young woman is captured and kept like a slave/war trophy. The truth of history is often uncomfortable. But so is learning math (speaking for myself).