Alaska School District Votes Out 'Catch-22,' 'Gatsby' and Other Classics

[Eugene]

Source: New York Times

Alaska School District Votes Out ‘Catch-22,’ ‘Gatsby’ and Other Classics

School board members in Palmer, Alaska, raised concerns about language and sexual references in five books deemed too controversial.

By Derrick Bryson Taylor
April 29, 2020

An Alaska school board voted last week to remove five books, including classic American works like “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” and “The Great Gatsby,” from its curriculum for high school English electives because of sexual references, graphic language and other concerns.

A list of books deemed too controversial to be taught in electives including poetry, journalism, creative writing and American literature was presented at a Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District board meeting on April 22. The list cited “sexually explicit material” and “‘anti-white’ messaging” in “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,” Maya Angelou’s seminal memoir, and raised concerns about language and sexual references in “The Great Gatsby,” the landmark 1925 novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

The other books on the list — “Invisible Man” by Ralph Ellison, “Catch-22” by Joseph Heller and “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien — were judged to be inappropriate because they contained mentions of rape, incest, racial slurs, profanity and misogyny.

The district, which is based in Palmer, about 40 miles northeast of Anchorage, has an enrollment of more than 19,000 students from kindergarten through 12th grade and is the second-largest school district in Alaska.

Before the board members voted, 5 to 2, in favor of removing the books, Sarah Welton, the board’s clerk, said at the meeting that she noticed a lot of her students lacked critical thinking skills and that removing the books could be a “disservice” to them.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/29/books/palmer-alaska-school-board-books.html

[elleng]

1. continuing with the dumbing-down of 'America,' in case anyone wondered.

THIS is the place to start to STOP it.

[NRaleighLiberal]

2. Wow. we are going in reverse at warp speed!

we have a pussy grabber lying rapist perv president, but don't use bad words!!!!!

this is fucking fucked up (I should email that sentence to them!)

[BigmanPigman]

3. Another place I will add to my list

of Loser Locations to Avoid/Boycott. That list has grown exponentially since Nov 2016, go figure.

[abqtommy]

4. It's the height of hypocrisy to ban books when the real obscenity that is tRUMP is available

daily in print, audio and video...

[mahatmakanejeeves]

5. Portland Band Portugal The Man offers to send banned books to kids in Alaska

UnhingedMidnightTantrumHat Retweeted

Remember the Alaska school board that banned Catch-22, The Great Gatsby, and other books from the curriculum? The band Portugal the Man is offering to send the books to any student in the district who wants to read them.

Link to tweet

Living

Portland band Portugal The Man offers to send banned books to kids in Alaska

Updated May 04, 11:33 AM; Posted May 04, 11:23 AM

By Lizzy Acker | The Oregonian/OregonLive

The band Portugal The Man is claimed by two places: Portland, Oregon, where they live now, and Wasilla, Alaska, where several of the members are from.

Wasilla, once most famous as the home of vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, is home to Wasilla High School, where the band formed in 2001 as two students started playing music together.

Wasilla is part of the Matanuska-Susitna Borough and it is there, according to Alaska’s KTOO News, that the Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District School Board voted to ban several books from the district’s curriculum.

{snip}

The school board is set to meet again Wednesday and review the decision. Meanwhile, Portugal The Man is offering to send the books to any student in the district who wants to read them.

They just need to email the band at [e-mail].

{snip}