Today in the Detroit News there was an interesting article. Here is some of it:
(A Clawson mother) refuses to allow her 13-year-old daughter to read an assigned book she considers pornographic. She is even considering pulling the girl out of Clawson Middle School if she cannot reach an agreement with the district.
Her daughter was assigned to read "My Sister's Keeper" by New York Times bestselling author Jodi Picoult, in an eighth-grade girls literature class.
It is a novel, available in the adult fiction section of libraries, about a young girl who sues her parents for the right to make her own decisions about how her body is used when a kidney transplant is planned to potentially save her older sister. The book includes some descriptions of sexual activity.
Reading the Amazon.com reviews, I gathered several impressions. First, this book is about female empowerment, and many reviewers said that girls would particularly like it. Several times it was mentioned that this book would be great for a Lifetime movie- that's programming for women. This doesn't necessarily mean it's a bad book to read, just because it is targeted for girls and female empowerment- but it does mean that it should likely be balanced out with a male-targeted book about war or fishing or hunting or something, that teaches values about being a strong male. I highly doubt the district balances this book in its curriculum.
The other thing I gather about this book is that there are several graphic scenes depicting underage sex. The mother objects to having her child read these as part of a state-endorsed curriculum for 8th graders, and who could blame her. The question you have to ask yourself is do you really know what you son/daughter is reading in school right now? Do you know if there are sexual situations presented, and if so, how are they handled? Gone is the days of reading Shakespeare, Beowulf, or Greek playwrights- in today's educational environment, students read contemporary novels depicting underage sex, and that's education.
Lastly, after reading the reviews, I walk away unimpressed with this particular book. Most reviewers commented that out of all of this authors books, this one was one of the less good ones- that the characters weren't fully developed, the ending was bad, etc. It leads me to question why this particular book was chosen to be required reading in this district. If it was the author and her style, there are other better books by this author. If it was the topic, I would question why an English class is focused on this particular topic. If was just a general 'controversial' book, there are other, better, more famous examples out there. Why was this book chosen?
These are relevant questions to ask, because they deal with key issues in public education- who is choosing the curriculum and why are they choosing that curriculum to teach all students using public tax money? Now, as a teacher, I can tell you why- one of the teachers liked the book and liked the message in the book, and wants her students to read it so she can talk about it with them and have them learn the message of the book. In a world of self-constructed knowledge and collective ignorance, Clawson school district fits in by rejecting the notion that students should read the classics and become educated in the great works of our age- instead, Clawson has bought into the here and now notion of radical revolutionary change by smashing the past and rising up a new world, one in which children are liberated by having a lawyer at age 13 and sex at age 14.
To be fair, the district did make accommodations for the student that objected, putting her a a windowless room away from other students and having her read a 5th grade level book, or as Clawson Schools Superintendent Cheryl Rogers said:
this is the first time in the past two years that a book has been challenged. She said the student was given an alternative book and allowed to read in a quiet place where she would not hear discussions about "My Sister's Keeper."
Contact Clawson Public Schools at 248-655-4400 or email Clawson Superintendent Cheryl Rogers at crogers@clawson.k12.mi.us to let her know your thoughts about this issue.
UPDATE: Anyone who called or emailed- thank you. Your actions directly made the world a better place. In late December, Clawson pulled the book from the curriculum, agreeing that it was too racy to read. Victory!
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