A group of progressive teachers is fighting to “ban” Harper Lee’s novel “To Kill a Mockingbird” from being assigned to classroom curricula amid left-wing criticism of parents protesting sexually explicit books in schools.
The Washington Post published a report on Friday about how educators from Washington’s Mukilteo School District are fighting to “protect students from books they see as outdated and dangerous.”
The Pulitzer Prize-winning book “To Kill a Mockingbird” follows the story of a young girl growing up in the American South during the Great Depression as her father defends a black man unjustly accused of raping a white woman, leading to both legal and physical confrontation.
The four teachers, according to The Post, “launched a years-long effort to ban any teacher in the largely liberal Mukilteo School District from assigning ‘Mockingbird.’ And it starts with an official book challenge at the end of 2021 — the first in 20 years, and the first to come from a teacher.”
“To Kill A Mockingbird centers on whiteness,” the teachers wrote in their official challenge to the book being required in the school curriculum, also claiming that “it presents an obstacle to understanding and celebrating an authentic Black point of view in the literature of the Civil Rights era and should be removed. “
Vigilante teachers are trying to ban “To Kill a Mockingbird” in schools. The Washington Post via Getty Images
A committee ultimately voted in favor of removing the book from the school district’s required ninth-grade list, while still keeping it on the list of approved novels, a decision ultimately upheld by the school board.
The results did not fully satisfy the teachers who insisted on getting rid of the book completely.
“Each said it was a good thing all freshmen no longer had to read the book,” The Post wrote. “Each said they thought students would be harmed because the book remained a teaching option.”
The Post article notes that while most of the battle over books in schools is led by conservatives, these teachers feel their cause is “necessary” and “urgent.”
“Across the country, book challengers mostly come from the right. But in Mukilteo, the progressive teachers who complained about the novel see themselves as part of an urgent national reckoning with racism, a necessary reconsideration of what we value, teach and remember in the wake of George Floyd’s murder,” The Post summarized. “They’re not asking to pull the book from the library — just to stop forcing it on students. They believe they are protecting children.”
The irony of progressives pushing to completely remove a book from the curriculum is not lost on conservative commentators.
Many responded by juxtaposing the way conservative concerns about sexually explicit material were framed against progressive concerns about sensitivity to the “classic novel.”
“Liberals ban ‘To Kill a Mockingbird.’ Conservatives block pornography. We are not equal,” Chris Rufo, a critic of far-left radicalism in education, posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.
“When conservatives call for removing pornography from schools, they are accused of ‘banning the book,'” 1776 Project PAC states. “When left-wing gurus ban classic novels like To Kill a Mockingbird, they get praise from the media.”
When conservatives call for removing pornography from schools, they are accused of “banning the book.”
When left-wing gurus banned classic novels like To Kill a Mockingbird, they were applauded by the media. https://t.co/cfhPNJeY7G
— 1776 Project PAC (@1776ProjectPac) November 3, 2023
“Getting rid of gay porn is ‘banning books’ but actually banning classic novels like To Kill a Mockingbird is ‘protecting students,'” wrote Greg Price of the States Freedom Caucus Network, mocking the narrative in The Post’s story.
“Is this a book ban? Please advise,” quipped The Spectator contributing editor Stephen L. Miller.
“Just think of the absurd left-wing logic here: Parents who oppose actual pornography in school libraries want to ‘ban the book’ but ‘protect students from outdated and dangerous material’ if they ban them from reading To Kill a Mockingbird,” Texas Founder Christian Collins Youth Summit writes.
Doug Powers Twitchy posted: “When the Left does it they ‘protect the students’ and when the Right blocks high school bookshelves they ‘ban the book.’
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
