The adaptation of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is doing well but the novel it is based on is still facing some challenges in public High Schools:
Students at Lincoln High School in Tallahassee were all assigned an award-winning book to read over the summer, Mark Haddon’s The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. As the school explained it, reading a “common text… allows us to bring our many perspectives to one collection of ideas and, by listening to each other, to strengthen our understanding of ourselves and our world.”
But after some parents objected to profanity in the book, the assignment was quickly scuttled.
Today, a coalition of free speech and literacy advocates sent a letter to the school protesting the ad hoc move, encouraging the school to stick with the original assignment and restore the book as planned.
The letter from the Kids’ Right to Read Project of the National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC)—co-signed by American Booksellers for Free Expression, Association of American Publishers, cbldf , ncteofficial , americanlibraryassoc, National Society of Children’s Books Writers and Illustrators, and the Children’s and Young Adult Book Committee of penamerican— argues that the decision to pull the assignment violates school policy on challenged materials, and also raises serious First Amendment and due process concerns.
In May, The Curious Incident was chosen for summer reading, with different writing assignments for each grade level. But in late July some parents began to complain that the book included language they found inappropriate. Instead of following school policies that require a formal complaint to be filed, the assignment was pulled. A notice was posted on the school website from the principal, Dr. Allen Burch, explaining that the language “makes this text inappropriate as an assignment for all students. I do apologize for this error in judgment.”
But the district policy does not allow for materials to be removed in this manner. And, as the NCAC letter notes, the policy also states that “no challenged material may be removed solely because it presents ideas that may be unpopular or offensive to some.” But that is precisely what has happened here.
As the letter argues, “Decisions about instructional material should be based on sound educational grounds rather than an individual’s or a group’s disagreement with its message or content.” The groups are urging the school to follow proper procedures and return the book to the summer list.
Read the letter: click here for a full-screen view.
Reblog if you think public libraries are important and should be maintained.
(via neil-gaiman)
Have you been censored? Let us know! We’re here to help.
“Kimono Wednesdays” was an interactive event held by Boston’s Museum of Fine Art (which houses the largest collection of Japanese Art in the western world), in which audience members were invited to wear a replica of the Uchikake (overcoat) worn by Camille Doncieux in Claude Monet’s iconic painting “La Japonaise.” The event toured Japan, but once imported stateside it sparked outrage.
From the perspective of the museum administrators, “Kimono Wednesdays” must have seemed airtight: Give the audience something interactive and visually attractive, and then watch the Instagram and social media ‘likes’ explode. The exhibit was a hit in Japan, so the “authentic” Japanese perspective was vetted. So it was probably a surprise when social media attacks hit the museum, claiming “Kimono Wednesdays” was an Orientalist representation of culture. MFA was criticized for its presumably uncritical support of “archaic values and belief systems that promote racism by way of cultural appropriation and cultural insensitivity.”- decolonizeourmuseums
The MFA’s response to the protesters underscored their naivete. After standing firm for several days, they apologized and modified the exhibit. The kimonos remained on display in the Impressionist gallery every Wednesday evening in July for visitors to touch and engage with, but not to wear.
The administrative maneuver of modifying an exhibit is a compromise that has opened up a bizarro-third-exhibit – one where the institutional voice is not admitting to the charges of racism, but has apologized “for offending any visitors,” which can be interpreted as an admission of guilt. Now we have not one, but all parties dissatisfied: a museum constituency that wants to wear the kimono, protesters asking for further structural changes (including staffing), and the museum with a compromised vision. The MFA director Malcolm Rodgers, who is soon retiring, said recently, “A little controversy never did any harm.” This may be true, but in this case my estimation is that their institutional response did great harm to the MFA. They should have executed Kimono Wednesdays as they initially planned until public opinion was fully considered.
Whatever MFA’s intentions may have been, by altering the exhibit the museum provided an answer – when what they should have done was to foster more questions. And the best way to do that would have been not to change their exhibit but by keeping it intact, and demonstrate through public outreach that the relevant museum administrators have an open mind. A museum is not a monolith, it is run by people and it can run into unintentional consequences. These unintentional paths are where we can find the museum’s social value and the great moment it realizes a new community. I imagine a museum that can come forward and seize their mission instead of risk-managing itself into an unsatisfying exhibit.
Back in April, the incoming director Matthew Teitelbaum said he was taking the job because it would be “[an] opportunity to work with an institutional collection of world cultures — to be thinking about how a collection can animate a community,” I’m excited to see if he will thoroughly consider his newly animated community however unintentional it may have been. Last week the MFA responded to the NCAC letter stating that they’re considering a future symposium on the matter of cultural appropriation. I look forward to such a forum and hope that Mr. Teitelbaum has enough foresight to create a space where opinions can be expressed with full accountability and recourse to the MFA’s primary stakeholders including himself and any relevant staff.
Happy Birthday, David Hammons! We have been honored to work with the influential artist not once, but twice.
Higher Goals, 1986
Messages to the Public, 1982
Kansas Senate Passes Bill That Could Jail Teachers for Controversial Material
The Kansas Senate last week passed a bill that could send teachers to jail if they expose students to material deemed “harmful to minors.” While proponents say the intention is to shield children from pornography, critics fear that the overbroad statute could criminalize many legitimate topics of study, from literature to art to biology. In fact, this effort began last year in response to a sex ed poster that was briefly displayed in a middle school classroom.
From The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, one of NCAC’s participating organizations.
(via cbldf)
“There is no such thing as a moral or immoral book,’ Wilde wrote in the introduction to The Picture of Dorian Gray, and the fact that it has survived his moral crucifixion as well as his sainthood is proof that the claim might be true. Think what we will of the man, the book is luminous, terrifying, wonderful.” Alex Miller, Jr. writes about Oscar Wilde, Dorian Gray, and their “trial by fiction.”
NCAC’s 2014 Youth Free Expression Film Contest Winner: Don’t Let Them Take Your Voice by Anne Wade.
We are now accepting submissions for YFEP’s 2015 Contest! The topic? “That’s Not Funny! Can Comedy Cross a Line?”
Young aspiring filmmakers now have the chance to win cash prizes of $1,000, $500, and $250 for the top three filmmakers, a trip with a guest to New York City to attend the Youth Voices Uncensored event in the spring, and a one-year complimentary student membership to the Rubin Museum of Art rmanyc.
The first place winner will also receive a $5,000 scholarship to the New York Film Academy nyfa!
The deadline is Monday, December 14th, 2015. Full details can be found here.
Spread the word, and good luck, filmmakers!
1968: Allen Ginsberg appeared on Firing Line with William F. Buckley Jr, fighting against censorship. Buckley was less than enthused. citylightsbooks