School District Removes 'To Kill A Mockingbird' From Required Reading List

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School District Removes 'To Kill A Mockingbird' From Required Reading …

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The Mukilteo School District in Washington has voted overwhelmingly to remove To Kill a Mockingbird from their mandatory reading list; however, instructors can choose to maintain the novel in their curriculum.


On Monday, after several months of discussion, the district board validated the requests from students and parents to remove the novel over concerns about the perpetuation of racism. Most of the concerns stemmed from the frequent racial slurs and contentious character tropes in the novel. The students and board members specified the book’s use of the n-word as the primary cause for the book’s removal. 


A junior at Kamik High School, Esaw Adhana, recalls her uncomfortable experience reading the novel: “I want to learn and get a good grade in this class but it's also kind of weird to be talking about this. It's not just language, but it's also, like, the sort of white savior complex. I think the lessons and ideas of racial injustice are super important, TKAM, at least how we teach it, is not the best sample. The way we teach it now is just really uncomfortable and almost invasive.”


Although this novel has maintained its enormous appeal, it has cemented its status as one of the most divisive works of American literature.


This decision comes amid the current crisis in the removal of classical literature in schools. With concerns over politics and religion, parents seemingly appear to be cooperating to remove specific books from school curricula across the nation. 


Gahagan, one of the board members of the district, states, “It’s a very difficult book and a lot of thorny subjects are raised and we felt that some teachers may not feel comfortable guiding their students through it. It deals not only with racism, but it reflects a time when racism was tolerated.”


School Board President Michael Simmons emphasized the difficulty of this decision. He wanted to clarify that ultimately, the board members made the right choice for students. He continued to state, “At the end of the day, the recommendation from the instructional materials committee was such that each of us voted to affirm that recommendation.”


By Emilie Chi 

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