The articles for this week really got me thinking. Censorship in the classroom has never been so apparent to me. I always read what I was told to read in school and never questioned why the teacher was giving an assignment. I always knew there was a reason for every task. My parents did not censor my reading either. They knew my teachers at school just wanted us to be well-rounded students and think critically. I have not heard about any censorship with literature at my school. We read novels like The Scarlet Letter, To Kill a Mockingbird, and Of Mice and Men. I learned lessons from the stories and enjoyed reading most of them. I never heard a complaint. I understand why parents are concerned about certain topics being taught in the classroom. I would want my own children and students to be able to think critically and learn from literature though. I would not want my own head to “be on the chopping block” for teaching literature that is controversial. As much as I want my students to be experienced with the classics and issues raised in many different novels, I cannot say that I would risk my job over it. There were two ideas that I thought were a good solution to the controversial novels in the classroom. Kara teaches a specific novel to her class. If a student is not comfortable with the material though, she will give a substitute reading to the student for that unit. I think that this is reasonable for the classroom. That way no student is forced to read something if they do not want to, but the majority of the students are reading the assigned material. The other idea I liked reminded me of how students pick their reading material for literature circles. Gary is a teacher who played it safe. He only gave five options for students to pick their novels from. This may be “playing it safe” but I believe that it is still a wise choice. Not only will the students be picking the topic they want to read, but they will have the responsibility of choosing it. This is a tough topic to talk about. I completely agree with what Noll wrote. “They become caught in the middle between a desire to teach according to their beliefs on the one hand and pressures to conform and use ‘safe’ literature on the other” (Noll 63).
The article about teaching Huckleberry Finn in the classroom had me anxious to ever teach it!! At the middle school level though, I would not teach it. It is very important for students to learn about racism, slavery, and many other issues, especially through literature. I think that those kinds of topics can be taught and seen through literature in a way that a history class and sometimes even films could not explain. It is interesting how the use of the “n-word” gets African American students more uncomfortable when it is a white person saying it but not when an African American person does. I also thought it was fascinating that the African American students felt more comfortable with other African American people in the room, even if it was just a guest speak or the teacher. I can understand why they can be uncomfortable, with other students staring at them and discussion of black people and slaves in the classroom. I feel like I was lucky because I attended a school with such a wide diversity of students. My school was almost half African American student population and half white student population, as well as many Asian and Indian students. Because I was so acquainted with many different types of people, and we all got along in some way, the issues that may have been brought up in the literature we read did not seem like such a big deal. When I read To Kill a Mockingbird in high school, not even any African American students complained about the topics raised. If we would have had Huckleberry Finn in our curriculum, I think there may or may not have been some issues raised. The African American students at my school would call each other the “n-word” and would let certain white people to say it too. I feel it would depend on the student population and the area of the school district whether certain novels like Huckleberry Finn could be taught. There will always be some kind of controversy in any school. Like Noll discussed in her article, the controversy and criticism of certain literature in the classroom will only get worse.
Although I believe students have the right to read anything they choose, there will always be literature censored in the schools. Some parents will always fight for what they do not want their child to read or issues in the material that they do not want their child to know about. It may be imperative to have a “representative committee to consider book selection procedures and to screen complaints.” Having this option in the schools can give ease to the teachers, knowing that others are handling the literature allowed in the classroom and complaints by anyone. The downside to this is that the teacher can be restricted to what she teaches if it is something she desires to teach but is not approved by the committee.
