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Hi all...I am currently set to NOMAIL but thought that this might be of
interest to you. I checked the archives and didn't see anything about
it...this is copied in its entirety from CNN's site at
http://www.cnn.com/books/news/9803/10/multicultural.reut/index.html
Wanting 'appropriate' books
San Francisco schools may ditch 'white'
authors
March 10, 1998
Web posted at: 5:31 p.m. EST (2231 GMT) SAN
FRANCISCO (Reuters) --
Shakespeare, Melville, Chaucer and Dickens
may be on the way
out in San Francisco, where school board
officials are
considering a proposal that up to 70 percent
of school reading
should be books by "authors of color."
San Francisco Board of Education officials
said Tuesday the
proposed change would force high school
teachers to select up
to seven books by non-white authors for
every three
traditional classics by white writers.
"Most of us feel this is long overdue," said
board member
Steve Phillips, co-author of the
multicultural initiative due
for a final vote on March 24.
Phillips said the proposal was aimed at
making school work
more "relevant" to young people in San
Francisco's public
schools, where whites make up only 11.8
percent of the
student body.
"We recognize that public education has been
failing
African-American and Latino students,"
Phillips said. "Part of
the reason is that the curriculum is not
engaging them.
Students get more interested in reading and
language when
they see themselves in the curriculum."
Other board members said the proposal would
address a
number of problems with traditional high
school reading lists,
which they said perpetuated outdated
concepts.
"Mark Twain's 'Huckleberry Finn,' for
instance, has a bias
against African Americans," board member Dan
Kelly told the
San Francisco Examiner. "And Chaucer's
'Canterbury Tales,'
while a great work, has an economic bias. It
characterizes
people based on their class."
The Examiner said the measure appeared to
have the necessary
votes for approval, and is supported by the
Board of Education
president.
If passed, the school superintendent would
issue a list of
"appropriate" books developed by a
curriculum committee of
teachers, administrators and parents.
Some teachers oppose the plan, however,
saying it would put
their students at a disadvantage when
competing against
traditionally-educated young people.
Denise Chandler, chair of the English
Department at George
Washington High School, attacked the
proposal as "silly,
offensive and ridiculous," the Examiner
said.
"Quality literature doesn't glorify Europe
or any other
geographical place; it explores the human
condition," Chandler
said.
Copyright 1998 Reuters Limited. All rights
reserved.
--
Barb Engvall
Library Media Specialist
John Campbell School
408 N. 1st Street
Selah, WA 98942
engvallb@destiny.esd105.wednet.edu
Check out the web site for the Washington Library Media Association!
http://www.wlma.org
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