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http://www.startribune.com/dul...urriculum/473208003/

Duluth schools remove 'Huckleberry Finn' and 'To Kill a Mockingbird' from curriculum

The district made the decision to remove the two classics in an effort to be considerate of all its students.

Students in Duluth will no longer automatically get schooled in “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” or the trials of Atticus Finch in “To Kill a Mockingbird.”

In an effort to be considerate of all students, the two novels, which contain racial slurs, will no longer be required reading in the district’s English classes next school year. They will still be available in the schools for optional reading, however.

“The feedback that we’ve received is that it makes many students feel uncomfortable,” said Michael Cary, director of curriculum and instruction for the district. “Conversations about race are an important topic, and we want to make sure we address those conversations in a way that works well for all of our students.”

Cary said the decision, made as a group by district leaders and leaders in Duluth’s secondary schools, came after years of concerns shared by parents, students and community groups. The change was announced to district staff members late last week.

Stephan Witherspoon, president of the Duluth chapter of the NAACP, called the move “long overdue.”

The literature has “oppressive language for our kids” Witherspoon said, and school should be an environment where children of color are learning equally. There are other novels with similar messages that can be taught, he said.

“Our kids don’t need to read the ‘N’ word in school,” Witherspoon said. “They deal with that every day out in the community and in their life. Racism still exists in a very big way.”

The classic novels will be replaced with other, yet-to-be-determined books.

Harper Lee’s Pulitzer Prize-winning 1960 novel, “To Kill a Mockingbird” tells of a white Depression-era lawyer in a small town in the south who defends a black man falsely accused of raping a white woman. It was typically taught in 9th grade in Duluth schools.

Mark Twain’s 1885 novel, “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” the story of a white boy becoming friends with a runaway slave as they escape down the Mississippi River, was taught in 11th grade.

Controversy over the classic literature isn’t new in Minnesota or nationally, where their use has been debated in school districts across the country.

Carey said Duluth teachers will be “key” in helping to select new texts.

“We’re doing this out of consideration of the impacts on our students and specifically different groups of students in our schools, and especially our communities of color,” Cary said.

It's bullshit.

UN-FREAKIN'-BELIEVABLE! Can the left become anymore absurd?

"Hiel Hitler!!" The left is, are and forever will be the fascist!


ARman

OMG What's Next?
The Story of
Little Black Sambo by Hellen Bannonerman

Sambo is a South Indian boy who lives with his father and mother, named Black Jumbo and Black Mumbo, respectively. While out walking, Sambo encounters four hungry tigers, and surrenders his colourful new clothes, shoes, and umbrella so they will not eat him. The tigers are vain and each thinks he is better dressed than the others. They chase each other around a tree until they are reduced to a pool of ghee (clarified butter). Sambo then recovers his clothes and collects the ghee, which his mother uses to make pancakes

quote:

“Our kids don’t need to read the ‘N’ word in school,” Witherspoon said. “They deal with that every day out in the community and in their life. Racism still exists in a very big way.”

Every. Day.

From WHO/WHERE?

What are you doing/saying/writing right now that will offend people in 150 years? Let's apply the future morals, attitudes and acceptable behavior of 150 years from now to your life. Go ahead, let's see you do that. Well, what are you waiting for?

These people are so myopic, they qualify as legally blind.

Never mind Twain's irony that the man they derided as "Nigger Jim" was the finest human being Huck met in all his travels. No student could ever learn anything from that! The censors in Duluth certainly did not.

quote:

Originally posted by whanson_wi:
No student could ever learn anything from that! The censors in Duluth certainly did not.

Silly person, schools are no longer about education, they're solely focused on indoctrination. Young people need only function as the useful idiots Vlad Lenin envisioned.

Shouldn’t they ban rap music too cause of the racial slurs? Someone missed the lessons in those books.

They could not film the movie Blazing Saddles today. It would probably be called Blazing Social Justice Warriors if they tried, filled with environmentalists wackos, me too type, and tide pod eating nut jobs.

Those were actually good books. Pull "Catcher in the Rye" if you're going to ban a book.

Because why educate when you can censor?

These books could be used for a "teachable moment."

Factual discussions of the language used, the culture and norms at the time of the book's setting, etc.

But no, instead they choose to cover up history and pretend that it never happened.

How do we learn where we are if we do not know how we got here?

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:
These books could be used for a "teachable moment."

Factual discussions of the language used, the culture and norms at the time of the book's setting, etc.

But no, instead they choose to cover up history and pretend that it never happened.

How do we learn where we are if we do not know how we got here?

That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons of history.
-Aldous Huxley

quote:

Originally posted by bigdeal:

quote:

Originally posted by whanson_wi:
No student could ever learn anything from that! The censors in Duluth certainly did not.

Silly person, schools are no longer about education, they're solely focused on indoctrination.

This ^^^^^

Another example of why I'll never again vote for a public school millage. Not even renewals of existing millages.

Twain was writing about racism. Racism is ugly, and uses ugly language. In the pervasive cultural racism of the times, slaves were called "niggers." It would really be ridiculous if his characters suddenly turned PC and called Jim a "negro" always-- or maybe anticipating Jesse Jackson, an "African American." Was anybody hurt in the steamboat explosion? "No, m'am. Kilt an African American."

Riiiiight.

Not only with racial slurs, but in every possible way, Twain recreated life as it actually was in the middle of the 19th century: how people dressed, how they lived, how they talked. When Huck presents himself to a stranger disguised as a girl, for instance, Twain describes the lady's household furnishings-- down to the wallpaper pattern.

If you want to know what racism was like in America in the 19th C, read Huckleberry Finn. Get a copy before the thought police confiscate them all.

I have an idea.

Why not close the public schools and have parents educate their children as they see fit, with the numerous private organizations which would spring up to meet the demand?

quote:

Originally posted by BamaJeepster:
“Our kids don’t need to read the ‘N’ word in school,” Witherspoon said. “They deal with that every day out in the community and in their life. Racism still exists in a very big way.

They sure do deal with it everyday. Because black kids use the "N-word" with each other every fuckin hour.