(ConservativeHub.com) – According to a recent report from The Washington Post, four progressive teachers previously sought to remove “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee from the school curriculum.
In the report, it was noted that the educators believed the Pulitzer Prize book to be “outdated and harmful” due to complaints they heard from students. The book depicted the story of a white man, a lawyer, defending a black man who had been accused of having raped a white woman. The story takes place during the Great Depression in the American South.
The four teachers reportedly launched the challenge against the book in late 2021 to have the book prohibited from being taught in their district. This is the first formal book challenge against the book in 20 years and it was the first time that teachers launched such a challenge.
In the formal challenge, the teachers argued that the primary focus of the book is on “whiteness” and as such it was blocking people from gaining an understanding of the “authentic Black point of view” during the Civil Rights period. As such, the book needed to be removed from the curriculum.
The committee ultimately decided that the book would be removed from the curriculum for ninth grade and would no longer be considered required reading, but that it would remain on the approved novels list. While this conclusion was supported by the school board, the teachers were concerned that some students would still be harmed if the book was available for educators to teach.
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