via Salon that Arizona's ban on ethnic studies proscribes Mexican-American history, local authors, even Shakespeare.
Since Arizona falls way behind Florida in the proliferation of prescription drug clinics, it's searching for other ways to regain the crown.“By ordering teachers to remove ‘Rethinking Columbus,’ the Tucson school district has shown tremendous disrespect for teachers and students,” said the book’s editor Bill Bigelow. “This is a book that has sold over 300,000 copies and is used in school districts from Anchorage to Atlanta, and from Portland, Oregon to Portland, Maine. It offers teaching strategies and readings that teachers can use to help students think about the perspectives that are too often silenced in the traditional curriculum.”
Another notable text removed from Tucson’s classrooms is Shakespeare’s play “The Tempest.” In a meeting this week, administrators informed Mexican-American studies teachers to stay away from any units where “race, ethnicity and oppression are central themes,” including the teaching of Shakespeare’s classic in Mexican-American literature courses.
What's your opinion? Do you think Arizona could actually overtake the Sunshine State as The Most Baneful State of the Union?
Please leave a comment.
Some of those books seem better choices for a college class, rather than high school, but I see no reason for book banning. The students who care will find a way to read them in defiance--and good for them--and the ones who don't care don't read anyway. This will affect students who want to read these books, but don't have access to them.
ReplyDeleteThe key point here is that high school is for general subjects, but the way to emphasize that is to require a list of texts and then to permit others at the teacher's discretion.
Banned books are the ones that are more interesting to students. The ones who care will read it. The ones who don't probably didn't get the message anyway.
ReplyDeleteI do have to wonder why a Mexican-American studies class would include Shakespeare's "The Tempest," since Shakespeare was neither Mexican nor American and probably had only the vaguest notion, if any, of the American Southwest.
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