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Why it's time to move on from To
Kill a Mockingbird in schools
By UZMA JALALUDDIN Special to the Star
Wed., Nov. 7, 2018
I love To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee. But I'm starting to think that it
shouldn't be tau� , at least not the w" it has been tauVht
_ht in classrooms anvmore,
I'm a writer and a high school teacher. I don't believe in censorship. But the world
hIIIs changed, and it is time for classrooms to recognize and reflect that change. Part
of that means re-evaluating the way that schools teach classics, including To Kill a
Mockingbird, Lord of the Flies, The Great Gatsby, and the Shakespeare canon.
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11/9/2018 Why it's time to move on from To Kill a Mockingbird in schools I The Star
Grade 9 and 10. No one escapes Grade 12 without reading Hamlet or King Lear. This
is the way that things have always been done. The why - the real, actual reasons —
are more nuanced:
1) Like all things, this partly has to do with money. Walk into any high school
English book room, and you'll find 200 (or more) copies of canon - piles upon piles
of Shakespeare, Mockingbird, etc. That's a lot of money spent on a lot of of books.
Schools can't afford to spend that kind of money every year, or even every few
now
2) Staff rooms are like everywhere else - no one agrees on what book is appropriate
for what grade. The Kite Runner? The Wars? The Great Gatsby? Teachers hate and
love all of them. Better to hate -teach a classic than try to introduce something
entirely new that everyone will complain about because on top of money, it's also
about...
3) Time and comfort. High school courses are taught by specialists. Teaching the
same texts over a career turns teachers into s xecialists. In additiom there are tons
of resources out there for classics, plenty of ideas for interesting lesson plans,
games, assessments and funny videos. The same is not true for lesser known texts.
And if there is a new teacher starting out, it is less daunting to teach a text they
probably read in high school.
4) There is reference to many serious issues, without any graphic descriptions, in
the canon. In TKAM, Mayella is sexually assaulted,, which Atticus explains,
milquetoast, to Scout as: "carnal knowledge of a female by force and without
consent" (Ch. 14). There is the killing of Tom Robinson, described third hand in
dispassionate terms: "Seventeen bullet holes in him. The didn't have to shoot him
that24). The effect this news has on Tom Robinson's wife, Helen (she
collapsed silently) is not dwelt on any longer than the impact it had on Atticus or
Jem.
When books have been read for generations, there is tradon, culture, and
complacency behind that choice. I went along with this for years. It wasn't until la
year, when I returned to teaching after a sabbatical, that I started to consider the
impact of this same old, same old approach. I
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11/9/2018 Why it's time to move on from To Kill a Mockingbird in schools I The Star
I asked my Grade 10 English class, composed entirely of first and second generation
immigrants, if they had ever read a book or story that centred on the experience of
people of colour, of people who looked like them. Two out of 25 students raised
their hands.
I couldn't keep doing this to them. I could no longer be party to inflicting the same
stories on them, because the same thing will happen to them that happened to me.
They will grow up thinking that books are always about other people. They will
think their stories don't matter.
One
oft e reasons I began writing so late is because for years I was crippled by
those same thoughts: no one wants to hear what 1, a second generation South Asian
Muslim woman, thinks. No one wants to read my stories. That erasure starts at
school.
So that semester., we read Amy Tan, Lawrence Hill, Thomas King, Angie Thomas.
We listened to "Prom Night" by Hasan Minhaj and "The Secret Path" by Gord
Downie and Jeff Lemire.
IR-7rolm =1.
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We had difficult conversations about identity and race, accommodation and
privilege, and whose voice is amplified over others. We talked about the
experiences of some students versus others, such as how often my black students
field requests to have their hair touched. I shared anecdotes from my own life that I
usually keep quiet about, like when I had my hij ab pulled kyr
in the hallway of my
high school, or the racial slurs thrown at me growing up in Scarborough.
A lot of my students were bewildered, because they had never thought of their lived
experiences in this way, as part of a larger, broader, more universal experience.
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11/9/2018 Why it's time mmove onfrom TvKill aMockingbird mschools | The Star
Some of my students could relate. Some of them couldn't. That was OK, because by
sharing and talking at least they heard each other.
To Kill a Mockingbird is a beautifully written classic. Everyone should read it, if
they want a historical representation of one person's point of view of 1930s
southern United States. But should we be teaching it in class, spending weeks
(�,arsing every symbol, sentence and simile? I say no.
It is
time to make some new traditions.Let's be bold and dare to read bold new
Uznnaja|a|uddin is a Toronto-based writer and a freelance contributor for the Star. Reach her via email:
'a|a|uddin@out|nnkcorn
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