Anti-Censorship Coalition Backs Steinbeck’s Book
The National Coalition Against Censorship sent the following news release to Huckleberries Online moments ago:
NEW YORK -- A coalition of free speech groups and literacy advocates is urging an Idaho school district to push back against efforts to limit in-class reading of John Steinbeck's classic novel Of Mice and Men. The tussle in Coeur d'Alene over the novel has drawn national media scrutiny. Objections to the book's profanity and "dark themes" led an Ad Hoc Curriculum Committee to demote Of Mice and Men from whole group instruction to small group instruction at the 9th grade level. The May 27 letter from the National Coalition Against Censorship—signed by the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, American Booksellers For Free Expression, American Library Association, National Council of Teachers of English, Association of American Publishers, the PEN American Center's Children's and Young Adult Book Committee and the Society of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators—urges the Coeur d'Alene School Board to reject the committee's recommendation and keep the book for whole group instruction. More here.
Question: If I was a betting man, I'd bet that the School Board will reject the recommendation of a curriculum committee to take "Of Mice and Men" off the required reading list, by a 3-2 vote. What do you think?
