Sons school banned certain books

[Sadless]

Hi all so my son came home yesterday and said that some books have been banned in school. He said how to kill a mocking bird and mice of men.
I am not a reader so don't know what's in this books to make them be banned in school. Anyone know and any ones else school done the same.

Thanks
Sal

One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, I assume.

My DD1 studied these books for her A Level literature exam not all that long ago.

Perfectly good texts in my opinion. Your son's school was very OTT in dropping them.

They're fabulous books. But they're not on the GCSE specs because they're American. They're not banned.

@Tamzo85 I don’t have to “seriously think about it”. I’m neither thick nor naive nor uneducated and nor do I have the privilege of not having to think about it. Could you be any more patronising? It’s DIFFICULT as a raped girl to sit aim a class in a compulsory educational setting while everyone merrily waxes about rape. It’s DIFFICULT as a person whose every interaction is bent through a lens or race and sex to have your life hung up as some interesting talking point by white boys. It’s DIFFICULT to have to hear N*** read out repeatedly in your lesson when it’s shouted at you in the corridor and difficult to read as a kid trying to not be offensive to your classmates. I never said it should be banned so no idea why you are suggesting that I did but I can see why a teacher wouldn’t want to have to lead that discussion in some circumstances across 2 back to back texts. Particularly as they are no longer GCSE texts so at best these kids are only 13/14 at best and in most schools will have very mixed abilities. The individual school may be best placed to decide if these texts are going to raise interesting talking points and create new, previously unconsidered points of view, or whether they are going to create flash points of racism and misogyny. Changing the set texts in KS3 is a zillion miles away from banning books and I don’t believe for a minute that they are banned. Sound like the English teacher is pissed off he has to do new planning (which is fair enough really) but schools teach different texts all the time.

These parents are being ridiculous and the school is even worse for pandering to this nonsense. They have every right to restrict the books their DC read, but they have absolutely no right to stop other children from doing so.

Maybe the parents raised some points of concern and the school agreed so have decided to teach a different text (not 'ban').

We don't know, and the OP won't know until she asks (not complains).

Sounds like utter bollocks to me tbh.

Both are set texts on DD’s A level English exam this year so it seems a bit short sighted

@SimpleShootingWeekend

Sounds like your problem with “to kill a mockingbird” is that it has a trial which is based on a false rape charge - and are saying this creates “flash points of misogny” and because the man accuse was black it somehow also does the same for racism. No it was a depiction of an all too real occurrence which was black men being falsely accused of rape based on nothing more than a white womans say so. It’s anti racist.
This stuff really happened - it’s also a warning about what can happen when people take accusation as truth because of race (or in any situation).

Perhaps you don’t like the message of not taking an accusation as truth simply because of whose making it - the irony of that being that means it’s as relevant as ever.

@SimpleShootingWeekend

Changing the texts because one person was offended is not a million miles from banning at all and should never have happened. What if one person complains about the next book. Get a grip.

I would have thought banning a book would be a surefire way to make everyone want to read it, so they can find out why it was banned 😁

I hope they ban all religious texts as well then. Shocking amount of violence, homophobia, misogyny, racism etc in those.

Which board is that? A level texts can make their way into gcse syllabus, but never seen it the other way round. Unless free choice for coursework. Omam was often used for lower ability classes, so would be surprised it was on A level.

Not at my school, in fact To kill a mockingbird is read to Yr 9 during form time and Of mice and men to year 10.

They are fabulous books. DS is currently studying OMAM for his IGCSE English Lit. I’m an English teacher myself and I taught this book for years when it was allowed on the GCSE. I never met a child who didn’t like it. I can see, however, that the n word would become more and more difficult to justify in the modern classroom and other texts are more appropriate to use to discuss these issues.
Having said that, the idea of ‘banning’ texts for inappropriate/old-fashioned ideas and language would mean the removal of about 95% of pre 1900 books from our libraries so ultimately a very silly and ignorant concept.

I can't really see this as both of them are on the GCSE curriculum, aren't they?

They were removed from GCSE syllabuses a few years ago in favour of English authors. So not sure why the teacher was planning them in the first place.

Or is this a journalist - in which case do your research better.

I used to alternate teaching the top division (32 pupils) and the lowest (never more than 13). With the latter, some of whom had IQs of 70 and reading ages in single figures, we relied heavily on the film and focused on the trial scene.

What struck me was how many intuitively picked up on Mayella having been sexually abused by her father. Far more than in the most able group. It was a racially mixed class and they were all angry about Tom Robinson being falsely accused, but they were able to relate to Mayella - I hope - because of her learning difficulties rather than parental abuse.

Gove took TKAM and OMOM off the GCSE reading list because he wanted to go back to the glory days of his grammar school Eng Lit O level syllabus.

What texts have TKAMB and OMAM been replaced with?

A Christmas Carol, Jekyll & Hyde, An Inspector Calls + others

I'm a secondary school English teacher in the UK, and I think this is appalling. Of Mice and Men is no longer a GCSE text but often taught in year 9 now. Censoring books does more damage. Like the Nazis for goodness sake. Let your son read it at home instead. It's an important literary text which reminds us of how damaging marginalisation can be to people in our society.

Gove neither went to grammar school, nor did O Levels. He's Scottish.

Atticus told us to walk a mile in others' shoes. Perhaps a few on here could make the effort to understand these texts from a non white point of view, or understand what others are saying about assault or learning difficulties.

I think lots of schools pushed OMAM to year 9. This is emotionally too young imo for many students. The racist language is problematic too.

I can't forgive Gove for killing off what was already a subject students struggled with. A level lit numbers plummeted after the gcse changed. At least kids ended up liking Oman or mockingbird, or even some of the anthology stories in the days of Your Shoes.

Naa they can’t ban books which are on the curriculum. Your son can read them all he wants

Both books were removed from the GCSE specs by Gove.

I am teaching Mice and Men in Y8. I begin with a very clear discussion about the use of the n-word: the class are absolutely clear that it is now unacceptable and that anyone using it in class will be dealt with. There is no need for them to write the word out if they are quoting either.

As we go through the book we consider the way in which characters are marginalised by language - for example, the women referred to in the book are either literally prostitutes or treated as such (with the exception of Aunt Clara). Candy is old and disabled and therefore not worth anything, and Lennie is victimised because of his size and strength as well as his learning difficulties.

I don't think either Mockingbird or Of Mice and Men uses the n word lightly. I have more issues with Enid Blyton's xenophobia