"Not banned": Surrey schools defending changes to books in curriculum
Revised guidelines around certain books have caused a recent uproar against the Surrey School District, but a spokesperson suggests the news has been taken the wrong way.
On Thursday, the internet noticed that the Surrey School District was taking some books like To Kill A Mockingbird and In The Heat of the Night out of the recommended reading curriculum.
Some took the news as Surrey schools banning these books, but that isn’t true.
“Whoever is heading the Surrey school board should step down. Anti-racism is just racism rebranded. They’re bringing in American style racism to Canada,” someone reacted X.
Someone else said, “How are you supposed to teach kids about the legacy of racism if you slice it out of history and pretend it never happened?”
However, according to district spokesperson Ritinder Matthew, the policy changes should make the curriculum more inclusive.
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“If you think about how much has changed socially, there are so many more books that actually resonate with our students,” Matthew said.
Matthew told Daily Hive that the decision came after lots of consultation between the district, parents, teachers and school community members. There were also consultations with inclusivity experts from BIPOC backgrounds.
“This was a very thoughtful and considered review,” Matthew said.
While the books might not be part of the recommended reading curriculum, it doesn’t mean that teachers can’t still use them in classes. It just means they’ll have to follow new guidelines around presenting the books to classes.
“We have several teachers that are continuing to use it, and so the requirement is that if you’re using these books, any offensive language is not said aloud. The other thing is you must provide the appropriate guidance, context and support.”
Using To Kill a Mockingbird as an example, it is no longer recommended because certain realities the book presents haven’t aged well. The use of the N-word, for example, is not only used as a slur in the book, it’s also used as just a way to refer to Black people.
“That’s not written from a Black individual’s perspective,” Matthew said of white author Harper Lee.
Concerns over the “white saviour” trope were also part of the review, a growing sentiment in recent years around To Kill a Mockingbird specifically.
It’s not just the Surrey School District taking a good hard look at these books. It’s been a trend for at least a few years now.
The University of Pittsburgh asked whether teachers should still assign the book in 2020.
“It approaches racism from one direction — from an external, white outsider mentality. The focus of the novel is zeroed in on either Scout as an innocent character or Atticus, a paragon of moral virtue standing up against injustices. But what’s lost in that is the focus on Black humanity and Black complexity,” said Geoffrey Glover, a Pittsburgh University’s Department of English lecturer on the university website.
It’s a topic that has also been debated on social media.
For the Surrey School District, they’ve added new books to the recommended reading curriculum, books from authors of diverse backgrounds, including Black and Indigenous creators.
How do you feel about how the Surrey School District is handling these books?