Some Fond du Lac parents have asked school officials to remove former U.S. poet laureate Maya Angelou's autobiography from the high school curriculum.
Students at Fond du Lac High School read "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" in sophomore advanced English classes.
But some parents have objected to passages that describe Angelou's rape and subsequent unwanted pregnancy. About 80 people attended a meeting Tuesday at the school this week to discuss the book and the request to remove it.
School Superintendent Gregory Maass said the initial complaint came from one family.
"We had a mother and father and student who questioned the book," he said. "The high school provided the student with an alternative book."
The parents were not satisfied and asked for the book to be removed from the curriculum, Maass said.
Fond du Lac High School Principal Mary Fran Merwin said parents, teachers, principals and at least two ministers spoke at the meeting, where no decision was made. She said the school has used the book for a decade.
"It is Angelou's own account of growing up," Merwin said. "It has a number of attributes, and it's a historically relevant story about a black woman growing up in the United States."
School board president Gary Sharpe said the request was the first to remove a book in his eight years on the board. A school committee will make a decision on the book, and if parents remain unhappy, they can appeal to the superintendent and school board, he said.
Can people still be this backwards? Maya Angelou is one of the most phenomenal poets/writers of our times. Her speaking voice is so striking, so melodic, I liken her to a female James Earl Jones.
The fact that her speaking voice is so unusual is what makes her story to intriguing. She was raped by her mother’s boyfriend at the tender age of eight, after which, he was arrested and sent to prison where he was kicked to death by other inmates. Angelou, feeling that her voice and the fact that she’d told about the rape was the cause of his death, never spoke again until the age of 14. She lived six years in complete silence fearing the power of her own voice.
I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings is an account of this story. It’s a tremendous book. She doesn’t dwell on the account of the rape. It is a story of triumphing over incredible odds.
This is the book these parents want to outlaw. I would be very interested as to what family skeletons they had in their closets that would cause them to fear such a book.
Below is a short video of her wonderful spirit and her beautiful speaking voice.
4 comments:
There are always people that backward. What pisses me is that in trying to have the book removed, they are trying to foist their narrow point of view on everyone else. I hope some of the other parents at that meeting got up and said just what I said. And I hope the school board doesn't knuckle under to these little Nazis.
That’s what amazed me too. The school board had already told the narrow minded little pinheads that their precious little Johnny didn’t have to read this book, he could read another. But nooooo, that’s not good enough. They don’t want ANYONE to read this book. Outrageous.
My only thought; how dare you! How dare you foist your tiny-minded, pea brained, fears onto others? You can’t help being stupid, but you could stay home.
If it were my kid’s school, I would loudly request that Maya Angelou be the commencement speaker at this year’s graduation.
Final thought: I wonder how many times little Johnny will get stuffed in a locker between now and the end of the school year?
Poor kid. He'll probably grow up to be a little Hitler, too.
Talent, you will tell nothing..
Post a Comment