(The following is a slight elaboration on a Twitter thread I posted earlier this week, so if you follow me on there, you're getting the same but slightly fuller story here)
I grew up in a conservative Christian home. My dad passed away when I was 11 and my mom persevered to be a rock-star parent. She did her best to nurture and guide us four kids, of whom I was the oldest.
In elementary school, when our classes had Halloween parties, we were excused from school and went home early for the afternoon (though candy and treats did await us). Mom felt conviction that we shouldn't celebrate that holiday. Later on, I wasn't allowed to go to school dances which kind of stunk socially. But personally I was full of angst and social awkwardness that I'm not totally sure how much fun I would have had.
I share all that to give context to one particular story that I was reminded of this week.
In seventh grade, our honors English teacher organized a class trip to go see Schindler's List, the Steven Spielberg epic about the Holocaust and Oscar Schindler's heroic quest to save Jews from Nazi Concentration Camps. It was an optional trip, meant to supplement our study of The Diary of Anne Frank if memory serves correct.* Proper explanation was sent home to parents and I remember having a serious adult conversation with my mom. It was widely known the film had nudity and violence but in a historically accurate way meant to educate its audience about the awful abuses and offenses done by the Hitler regime.
About 6 years later, my college basketball coach took several of us on the team on a basketball ministry trip to Europe. One of the tourist stops we took was at the Dachau Concentration Camp. I have a file of pictures I took there including one of a sculpture near the exit that reads "Never Again".
It was clear from our experience in Germany that the country is sensitive, remorseful, and mindful of the atrocities their people were guilty of 70 years ago. There is no avoiding it, only honest admission.
With all that in mind, I found this news item pretty troubling when I read about it:
TN county school board votes to remove use of graphic novel about the Holocaust, Maus from school curriculum. Complains about vulgarity and naked pictures. https://t.co/fUynX6Mu7g pic.twitter.com/v1fkaCMt2N
— Don Moynihan (@donmoyn) January 26, 2022
I'm appreciative of the fact that my mom allowed me to be exposed to the horrors of evil depicted in that movie. I'm glad she made the assessment that I could handle it.
I'm disappointed that these school board members are claiming they need to ban this Pulitzer Prize-winning resource because it has some obscenities that may offend middle schoolers.
I question a couple things.
- Have they met an 8th grader before? These kids know swear words and have probably seen racier things than (checks notes) sketches of sort-of-nude anthorpomorphic mice. Even if they haven't, I doubt it will shatter some kid's "innocence", especially if a parent helps them process it.
- Have they read the novel? Even a cursory Google search will reveal most of their objections have not actual basis.
I admit I have not read this graphic novel. I admit there are plenty of other resources that help teach about this dark part of history. Why are we banning this universally-lauded resource that speaks to actual lived experience in a format uniquely appealing to youth?
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*Honestly, I'm not sure at all about why our English class took a trip to see that movie, this is my best guess.
