Sean C. Morgan
Based on a recommendation from Supt. Don Schrader’s Instructional Materials Review Committee, Schrader has decided to allow the book “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” to remain in use in the School District, but the matter will now go to the School Board in March.
The Materials Review Committee, which also has been called the “reconsideration committee,” met to consider five requests for reconsideration of “Diary,” which is being used as curriculum in eighth-grade language arts classes.
Following a closed session on Feb. 12, the committee reported that it voted to keep the book, with consideration of grade-level appropriateness and informed consent of the parents. The book is currently taught in the eighth grade.
Under district policy, the committee had three choices: take no action, remove all or part of the instructional materials from the school environment or limit the educational use of the challenged materials.
The committee voted to limit the educational use of the challenged material, Schrader said.
The decision served as a recommendation to the superintendent.
Reconsideration Committee appointees were community members Diane Gerson, a former board member and a retired principal; Craig Martin, city manager of Sweet Home and a longtime aquatics coach; Rob Younger, a retired Sweet Home High School science teacher and longtime football head coach; community resident Roseanne James; and Don Knight, a longtime local youth sports coach, youth leader and youth pastor. District employees appointed by Schrader were Dave Goetz, human resources, transportation and maintenance supevisor; high school language arts teacher Pam Duman; and librarian/media specialist Carol Donnelly. The student representative was India Porter, a junior at the high school. Porter was not at the meeting last week because she was playing a make-up basketball game.
Per district policy, because it was a committee reporting to the superintendent, the vote could be taken in private and details could be kept confidential, Schrader said.
“I will follow the recommendation and require informed consent and use the expertise of our educators to define ‘grade-level appropriate,’” he said.
As a result of the process, the committee members were given copies of the materials and other correspondence and listened to testimony from community members, parents, students and educators.
Younger publicly reported prior to closing the session that he would vote to remove the book. He referred to a discussion Thomas Jefferson had about the separation of church and state. Jefferson explained that the government should be for all, for everyone.
Younger said that when he taught science, he wanted to teach all of the curriculum to all of his students.
He announced his vote publicly, he said, because he wanted to look the people gathered at the meeting in the eye when he took his stand.
Teacher Brian Gold said he was “happy” to be able to continue to use the book.
“I would love to obtain more clarity on the subject before I react to it,” he said. “ I can tell you that I’m very pleased with what I believe to be a positive outcome in terms of academic freedom. My understanding at this point is that students are still allowed to study this novel in our classes, and we will continue to do so if the vast majority of the parents are involved in the decision process and continue to opt in rather than opt out.”
Schrader said the School Board will consider the book during its next regular meeting, scheduled for 6:30 p.m. on March 10, after one of the original five people who filed an objection to supplementary materials with the district over “Diary” filed an appeal to the board.
Rachel Kittson-MaQatish, a local attorney and parent said she filed the appeal to force the board to deal with the issue.
“I am sure each member of the committee took their role seriously, volunteered their time and energy and each voted his or her convictions,” she said. “I am thankful for their service and the manner in which the committee helped the citizens maintain their respect for one another and their dignity in the midst of passionate arguments.
“I appealed their decision, not so much because I thought we would fare any better before the School Board but because their vote is public. Parents’ being allowed to have input in their children’s education and teachers’ exclusion of the parental voice in the educational system is a huge issue. Another important issue is what the future standard will be at the Junior High. I want to have the opportunity to see where each board member stands on these issues.”
Complainants, parents and community members who objected to the use of the book were primarily concerned about the language and vulgarity in the novel. They also were concerned about the potential ostracism and separate treatment for students whose parents did not sign a permission slip, less than 10 percent of those with children in the classes. Those students are reading alternate materials and leaving the classroom during discussions about the “Diary of a Part-Time Indian.”
Teachers, students and supporters said the book has strong educational value, with wide-ranging discussions of the book’s themes, and that it makes eighth-grade students want to read like no other piece of literature.
“I have spent my life trying to connect teenagers with quality literature,” said Gold, who is using the book in his classes, along with fellow language arts teacher Chelsea Gagner. “I will stand by my experience on what inspires and moves teens toward deep, critical thought. I will stand by my years of positive feedback from parents, students, administrators and standardized tests. I know how to connect kids with literature and promote literacy. I’ve been doing it for years. It’s an art form, not science. It’s never simple and it’s rarely easy, but I know how it’s done.”
“There was a lot of talk about bias last week. Books are my bias. I love them. I love diversity. I love teaching kids to crave fresh perspective and the voices of brilliant and imaginative human beings. I have all sorts of agendas, including Common Core standards, of course, but my primary two agendas are to inspire kids to read and write and to create rational and critical thinkers who base conclusions on evidence and sound reason.
“At the end of the day, parents and administrators need to trust highly qualified teachers to develop high-quality curriculum. If a few parents don’t like this or that book, they are going to have to trust us to do the best we can by their child as they study an alternate text, recognizing that when one makes a principled stand and chooses to go against the grain there are often challenges associated with that stand.”
Kittson-MaQatish said the controversy has forced local residents to take stock of themselves.
“Everyone believes in something,” she said. “This struggle, this controversy, this blurring of the lines and the inundation of our youth with sex, makes you stop and ask yourself what you believe in. When you consider the talent of the writer, the good lessons and discussions the book elicits like bullying, racism, poverty and alcoholism, strangely the question of appropriateness of profanity and sexual vulgarity in the eighth-grade classroom becomes much more complicated and harder to answer.
“In the midst of confusion is where our convictions or standards should ring clear and should guide us. It’s kind of like growing up, or parenting, when you make a choice in a confusing world, in the making of the most difficult choices, you turn to clear standards and convictions to guide you. In this case the question is, ‘Is profanity and sexual vulgarity in the eighth-grade classroom appropriate?”
Gold said protests against teachers’ decision to use the book create “dysfunction in the classroom.”
“Supporting children as they struggle with those challenges builds character,” he said. “Teaching them to blame the classroom or the teacher for those struggles creates dysfunction. This very process itself, the act of questioning the legitimacy and authority of a teacher’s right to develop and implement an effective curriculum, breeds dysfunction in the classroom and creates more potential problems than you could possibly imagine – assuming you have never tried to teach hundreds of teenagers to be serious readers and writers.
“If we were not providing an alternative assignment, I could see how forcing 10 percent of students to read something their parents objected to would be controversial, but this is not ‘required’ reading.
“The only real controversy here is over whether a loud minority be allowed to disenfranchise a large majority, with no rationale but their open contempt for the author’s craft as well as their complete lack of faith in their children’s teachers to develop effective curriculum.
“To those worried about profanity, I would say we consider this an opportunity to have a much needed conversation about the difference between language that empowers us and language that diminishes us.”
Kittson-MaQatish said she doesn’t agree.
“I am still troubled by the teachers’ argument that we will just have to trust them. What is most troublesome with that argument is not the idea of trust – I understand that – but the arrogance that is being spoken with it, that we as a community are not to question them. Whenever someone is in a place of power and takes offense at being questioned, and it’s not a matter of authority, then I think we all have reason to be concerned.”
Kittson-MaQatish said she appreciated the grace displayed during the committee’s meetings.
“I was so proud of the parents who prepared in such a small amount of time and spoke passionately and respectfully to the committee. As Heide Graham, a mother testifying against the book, stood up and placed her hand on the back of a young girl in either Mr. Gold’s or Ms. Gagner’s class as she stumbled to find her words to testify for the book, I was reminded of the responsibility of dignity we all have in community conversations such as this, and I am proud to be associated with those parents who were both passionate and respectful.”