Sean C. Morgan
A reconsideration committee is reviewing the book “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian,” by Sherman Alexie, for use in eighth-grade language arts classes and is expected to give a recommendation to the District 55 superintendent Wednesday.
The young adult novel is the first-person account of Junior, a high school freshman who lives on the Spokane Indian Reservation, as he leaves his troubled reservation high school for an all-white small-town high school near the reservation. The book deals with themes such as racism, bullying, poverty, the value of education, alcoholism, sex, friendship and teenage life – especially insecurities and other private thoughts of the 14-year-old protagonist. The story is based loosely on Alexie’s life.
The nine-member committee, in a majority decision, declined to temporarily suspend the book. Seven committee members would have needed to vote to suspend the use of the book during this process, so the book remains in the classroom at this time. The committee did not report the details of the vote.
The committee met on Feb. 5 and received comment from the public, two junior high language arts teachers and four students. Members agreed to read the book and written comments during the next week and then to meet again Wednesday to render a final decision about the book in a closed session.
The committee includes five community members: retired high school science teacher and football coach Rob Younger, former board member and retired elementary school principal Diane Gerson, Sweet Home City Manager Craig Martin, Sweet Home resident Roseanne James and Don Knight, youth pastor, coach and leader. It also includes high school junior India Porter, administrator Dave Goetz, high school language arts teacher Pam Duman and library-media specialist Carol Donnelly.
Junior High School teachers Brian Gold and Chelsea Gagner are teaching the book in their classes this year. They sent home permission slips for each student. Parents returned nearly all of the permission slips. Some 10 students did not receive permission and are studying alternative books. More than 150 returned permission slips.
Five parents have filed complaints against the book, asking that it be removed from the classroom.
They believe that the book’s profanity and vulgar humor are inappropriate for eighth-graders, and some told the committee they felt their children were being excluded, potentially facing ostracism among junior high students.
They told the committee that the classes should use books that everyone can read.
Gold and Gagner argue that the book provides substantial grounds for in-class discussion, and said students love to read it.
Some giggle immaturely at first, Gold told the committee, but they are soon serious as they get into it.
“I’ve never in 18 years of teaching experienced anything like the overwhelming passion of these eighth-graders,” he said.
“The agenda is to inspire kids to connect to literature,” he said, adding that the goal of good literature isn’t to send a message, but rather to give the reader something to think about. Class members discuss the language in the book. They talk about how cultural divides can get people into trouble. The reader watches the main character navigate two different worlds, divided by race and by class.
“This is often when you hook kids into their education,” Gold said, and this is the age when “you lose them.”
This book is incredibly inspiring to “at-risk” students, he said. He hasn’t found any better alternative to this book.
The strongest readers are saying this is best book, with its many complex ideas and themes, that they’ve read in years, and it’s capturing the interest of students who don’t care to read.
“It’s every kid raving about a book, which is something you don’t encounter as an English teacher,” Gold said.
Gagner said the book is relevant to education. She is trying to encourage students to read, and most of them are reluctant readers and writers.
“We should be exposing this to kids,” she said. “They have a right to learn it.”
Parent Stephanie Victor told the committee that a language arts teacher should be teaching the mechanics of language.
“If we have to resort to these tactics just to get kids to read, we have more problems than just this book,” she said. “This is not a college philosophy class.”
Some opponents argue that the book is written below the eighth-grade level, somewhere between the second- and fifth-grade level, and as such did not meet the standard for junior high literature.
“The point is to connect students with highly accessible and critically acclaimed multi-cultural literature,” Gold said. “I would also say the point is to help foster the ability to se the world through the eyes of others and to grow in one’s appreciation of diversity and of the power of education and literacy to break down economic, social and racial barriers that can sometimes isolate us.”
Specifically, using this text, Gold targets several Common Core standards:
n Reading closely to determine implied and explicit ideas;
n Interpreting and examining craft and structure;
n Integrating and evaluating content in diverse media;
n Write argumentative text;
n Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions building on others’ ideas and expressing one’s own clearly;
n And evaluate and analyze information presented in diverse media formats.
The biggest concern voiced by most was profanity and vulgar humor in the story.
“I was appalled and amazed and shocked at what I read,” said Rachel Kittson-Maqatish. “It’s offensive.”
Parent Heidi Graham, who is an aide at Foster School, said it is “a big assumption” to say that all children use this type of language in the halls. When it is used, she added, students are reprimanded.
“We don’t speak it in my house and at Foster either,” Graham said. “I believe we have a school code of conduct that should be upheld. I’m not holding you to my standard.”
She is holding the district to its own standards of conduct, she said.
Opponents also expressed concerns about ostracism of students whose parents have determined that they should not read the book.
“Is it appropriate to push a text that’s appropriate for nine of 10, but excludes one out of 10?” asked Gina Swanson. “Is this the most appropriate for all our students?”
Four students asked the committee to support the use of “Diary” in the classroom.
“It doesn’t make sense why parents, not even our own, want to interfere with the choices our parents made for us,” said eighth-grader Zoe Denbo. She said teenagers, aren’t stupid although they may not have the wisdom that comes with age.
Denbo told the board it’s better they learn from books rather than by making their own mistakes.
Past the language, the book deals with real issues that students deal with at Sweet Home Junior High School, Denbo said, including poverty, bullying and alcoholism.
She thinks it’s hypocritical to take away a book about cultural oppression while continuing to teach about the Civil War.
Take away the book, and “you will be taking away our hope,” Denbo said. “Please look past the crude humor.”