The America -- the World ? of 1937 was by no stretch of the imagination the America or World of today. Life was harsh and uncompromising; there were no air-conditioned cars, no La-Z-Boy recliners, no HDTVs with 6.1 Surround Sound.
And, when men were in the presence of men, they spoke freely and openly ? like men.
However, these two 15-year-old girls, as it turned out spurred on by their Mothers, created controversy over a tried-and-true English course where one never existed before, and nearly stalled a mandatory curriculum for some 750 or so sophomores simply because Steinbeck?s characters used the word ?n-word.?
Both students were offered optional reading choices, and library passes during class discussions of Steinbeck?s book. One even refused the courtesy, which went way above and beyond what any English Department should have felt compelled to propose. For the other 748 students the assignment was the assignment; these two maneuvered the district into extending them special treatment. I fail to find any equality in that.
The school district was then on the hook to hold open meetings on several evenings with administrators, faculty (attendance mandatory), the students involved and their parents, and any concerned or interested parties ? at each school. All these people inconvenienced because two teens wanted to revise history.
At the meetings the real gist came out ? it wasn?t the use of the word that the students found offensive, it was the fact that the book had been written by a white man! (Yes, I rubbed my eyes in disbelief the first time I read the story, too.)
Now, the two Mothers used their soapbox to demand more book banning from the usual laundry list, most notably: ?Ulysses? - James Joyce; ?The Catcher In the Rye? - J.D. Salinger; ?Lord of the Flies? - William Golding; ?A Separate Peace? - John Knowles; and the obligatory duo of Mark Twain?s ?The Adventures of Tom Sawyer? plus ?The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.?
What these women were saying, and what it seemed they had put their daughters up to, was that it was perfectly all right for a Black author to demean his or her race with the most vile word imaginable, but in any other context the truth should be hidden away and sealed under lock and key.
The spanner in the works of that thinking is as follows: Were there a viable African-American writer of any earlier era who had written in the same brutally honest terms and actually been published, at some point we most certainly would have begun studying that person?s work.
The proof that these women were way off base in their convoluted logic lies in one of the titles to which they objected: ?A Raisin In the Sun.? Set on Chicago?s south side, this 1959 play by Lorraine Hansberry was the first written by a Black woman to be produced on Broadway; it was actually in revival starring Phylicia Rashad and Sean Combs at the very time of their assault on great books. The story is one of hope and elevated values, as a newly-widowed pre-med student and her siblings debate whether to invest her husband?s life insurance payment in a house in the suburbs or a small business opportunity. (Sidney Poitier and Ruby Dee reprised their Broadway roles for the 1961 movie.)
Another ludicrous complaint aimed at the school district was the ?wasting the heat? non-controversy. Several of those among the common sense-challenged set discovered that when schools were not in session for three or more days in a row, the heat was kept on. The ensuing letter writing campaign to the local newspaper would have been on a par in other cities where a serial rapist might be running loose.
The taxpayers called for the head of the mayor, the councilpersons, the school superintendent, not to mention all school board members, school administrators, faculty, staff ? and the burning at the stake of any custodial staff who refused to turn off the heat.
You would have thought the Doktor had resurrected his Father?s Monster, and the townspeople were about to storm the castle!
My best pal used to actually take the lame rants of one of his neighbors seriously. This guy always had some silly complaint about something, even when it didn?t involve any region where he paid taxes or voted (extremely common around these parts). So, having a son in high school student and some 20 years of experience dealing with schools on both sides of the fence, as opposed to my pal?s neophyte status as the parent of a kindergarten son, I explained the heating situation logically:
You simply cannot shut the heat off in large buildings just because they aren?t in full use. When we were in the Army, the heat wasn?t turned off in the barracks and headquarters buildings just because we were out in the field. For one, teachers actually do come in on the weekends and get caught up or prepare for the coming weeks. Custodial and maintenance workers often tend to things they can?t do while youngsters are present.
There may not be any extracurricular activities at an elementary school on the weekend, but the gym might be rented out. As for the high schools and junior highs, they are beehives of activity virtually every day, with sports, music, plays, any number of events going on.
Consider a mass emergency scenario. The nearest school is where the refugees go for shelter. How about the possibility of pipes freezing? The next time your neighbor brings this up, tell him to consider the cost involved in reheating, or re-cooling, a building as massive as a fifteen hundred-student high school after three to ten days, even if it?s only a difference of 12 degrees.
And, when men were in the presence of men, they spoke freely and openly ? like men.
However, these two 15-year-old girls, as it turned out spurred on by their Mothers, created controversy over a tried-and-true English course where one never existed before, and nearly stalled a mandatory curriculum for some 750 or so sophomores simply because Steinbeck?s characters used the word ?n-word.?
Both students were offered optional reading choices, and library passes during class discussions of Steinbeck?s book. One even refused the courtesy, which went way above and beyond what any English Department should have felt compelled to propose. For the other 748 students the assignment was the assignment; these two maneuvered the district into extending them special treatment. I fail to find any equality in that.
The school district was then on the hook to hold open meetings on several evenings with administrators, faculty (attendance mandatory), the students involved and their parents, and any concerned or interested parties ? at each school. All these people inconvenienced because two teens wanted to revise history.
At the meetings the real gist came out ? it wasn?t the use of the word that the students found offensive, it was the fact that the book had been written by a white man! (Yes, I rubbed my eyes in disbelief the first time I read the story, too.)
Now, the two Mothers used their soapbox to demand more book banning from the usual laundry list, most notably: ?Ulysses? - James Joyce; ?The Catcher In the Rye? - J.D. Salinger; ?Lord of the Flies? - William Golding; ?A Separate Peace? - John Knowles; and the obligatory duo of Mark Twain?s ?The Adventures of Tom Sawyer? plus ?The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.?
What these women were saying, and what it seemed they had put their daughters up to, was that it was perfectly all right for a Black author to demean his or her race with the most vile word imaginable, but in any other context the truth should be hidden away and sealed under lock and key.
The spanner in the works of that thinking is as follows: Were there a viable African-American writer of any earlier era who had written in the same brutally honest terms and actually been published, at some point we most certainly would have begun studying that person?s work.
The proof that these women were way off base in their convoluted logic lies in one of the titles to which they objected: ?A Raisin In the Sun.? Set on Chicago?s south side, this 1959 play by Lorraine Hansberry was the first written by a Black woman to be produced on Broadway; it was actually in revival starring Phylicia Rashad and Sean Combs at the very time of their assault on great books. The story is one of hope and elevated values, as a newly-widowed pre-med student and her siblings debate whether to invest her husband?s life insurance payment in a house in the suburbs or a small business opportunity. (Sidney Poitier and Ruby Dee reprised their Broadway roles for the 1961 movie.)
Another ludicrous complaint aimed at the school district was the ?wasting the heat? non-controversy. Several of those among the common sense-challenged set discovered that when schools were not in session for three or more days in a row, the heat was kept on. The ensuing letter writing campaign to the local newspaper would have been on a par in other cities where a serial rapist might be running loose.
The taxpayers called for the head of the mayor, the councilpersons, the school superintendent, not to mention all school board members, school administrators, faculty, staff ? and the burning at the stake of any custodial staff who refused to turn off the heat.
You would have thought the Doktor had resurrected his Father?s Monster, and the townspeople were about to storm the castle!
My best pal used to actually take the lame rants of one of his neighbors seriously. This guy always had some silly complaint about something, even when it didn?t involve any region where he paid taxes or voted (extremely common around these parts). So, having a son in high school student and some 20 years of experience dealing with schools on both sides of the fence, as opposed to my pal?s neophyte status as the parent of a kindergarten son, I explained the heating situation logically:
You simply cannot shut the heat off in large buildings just because they aren?t in full use. When we were in the Army, the heat wasn?t turned off in the barracks and headquarters buildings just because we were out in the field. For one, teachers actually do come in on the weekends and get caught up or prepare for the coming weeks. Custodial and maintenance workers often tend to things they can?t do while youngsters are present.
There may not be any extracurricular activities at an elementary school on the weekend, but the gym might be rented out. As for the high schools and junior highs, they are beehives of activity virtually every day, with sports, music, plays, any number of events going on.
Consider a mass emergency scenario. The nearest school is where the refugees go for shelter. How about the possibility of pipes freezing? The next time your neighbor brings this up, tell him to consider the cost involved in reheating, or re-cooling, a building as massive as a fifteen hundred-student high school after three to ten days, even if it?s only a difference of 12 degrees.
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