Schools Rethinking Literature Choices Controversial Classics ‘Mockingbird,’ ‘Huck Finn’ Could Become Optional

All eyes were on the high school football player. His muscles tensed. His palms dripped with sweat.

Mon Ra Muse had never felt the limelight more intensely at Lewis and Clark High. But he wasn’t on the football field. He was sitting in literature class, reading an American classic - “To Kill a Mockingbird.”

One of the book’s characters, a black man named Tom, was accused of raping a white woman. Muse, the only African American boy in class, was reviewing the chapter with his peers.

“I didn’t want to look around at all,” said Muse, who’s now 22 and studying social work at Eastern Washington University.

“The kids kept looking at me, wanting a reaction. It’s like being slapped in the face and there’s nothing you can do about it.”

But Spokane students soon may be able to dodge literature that’s as standard as gum under desks in high school.

Classics such as Harper Lee’s “To Kill A Mockingbird” and Mark Twain’s “Huckleberry Finn” - which are traditionally required in ninth and 11th grades, respectively - will likely become optional reading in Eastern Washington’s largest school district.

Students in some literature classes may get to choose from a variety of books instead.

This fall, District 81 English teachers and administrators plan to review how literature is selected and assigned in high schools.

They’ll look especially closely at ‘Huckleberry Finn,’ which some black students find humiliating to read in mostly white classrooms. The word “nigger” is used liberally.

“We’re giving a lot more choice,” said Fran Mester, the administrator who plans to organize a review committee in October. “We’re not saying there’s one best book to read. And we’re trying to clarify exactly what our position is on required reading versus options and choices.”

Already, Spokane schools are stretching the traditional boundaries in literature. Tenth-graders who once delved into Greek and Roman mythology now read South African, Celtic and Asian legends, too.

The district also purchased copies of “Multitude: Cross-Cultural Readings for Writers” to supplement this year’s 11th-grade literature program. The book contains dozens of selections, including a bilingual man’s memoirs, a gay man’s account of life in a small town, and a story called “Twice An Outsider: On Being Jewish and a Woman.”

It’s about time big changes are made, said Gladys Kosty, a Lewis and Clark teacher who has taught literature for 32 years.

Teenagers are bored with works by “all dead white men,” she said. Students need books they can relate to - engaging stories that keep their attention when TV is a remote control away.

“The classics are hard to read,” Kosty said. “And because reading levels seem to be going down, it’s hard for them to understand it.”

The teachers who resist lightening up on the classics are probably the ones who don’t want to learn to teach new materials, she said.

“The world won’t come to an end if every kid hasn’t read ‘Huck Finn.”’

Maybe not. But graduates won’t be nearly as prepared for that world if they side step classic literature, said Pat Sullivan, another Spokane teacher.

Sullivan, who’s taught literature for 26 years, said teachers who make traditional reading optional are heading in the wrong direction - and letting down students.

“There are certain guideposts that all educated people have read and hopefully understood,” said Sullivan, who teaches at Ferris High School.

“‘Huckleberry Finn’ and ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’ are strongly a part of that tradition. They’re part of what we as Americans are.”

Those books are certainly staples in most U.S. public high schools. About three-quarters of schools list them as required reading, according to a 1988 study.

Researchers were surprised at how little literature classes had changed in recent decades, said Arthur Applebee, director of the Center on English Learning and Achievement in New York.

“We found it had changed surprisingly little. The classic authors were by far still the dominant ones.”

Nearly 86 percent of those writers were men and 98 percent were white, Applebee said.

Spokane is echoing a nationwide debate - a dispute resulting in two conflicting trends.

Some schools are “broadening away from the classics” to include more literature from around the world, Applebee said. Conservative communities, in response, are clinging tighter to tradition and rejecting “anything that prompts discussions of values.”

In Spokane, some Lewis and Clark teachers have already begun giving black students the option of skipping “Huckleberry Finn.” Some say the book is demeaning to African Americans because of how it depicts Jim, a young runaway slave.

Sometimes teachers take black students aside and offer to let them transfer to another class or read an alternative book.

“We’re saying people need to know about Mark Twain as a significant American author, his writing style, his contributions and his form of literature,” Mester said. “But he’s written many different books besides ‘Huckleberry Finn.”’

Foster Walsh, a literature teacher for 29 years, began offering those options a couple of years ago. Although no one’s taken up his offer, he plans to continue.

“One size doesn’t fit all,” said the Lewis and Clark teacher. “I’m beginning to scrutinize the canon, so to speak. I want kids to enjoy literature.”

Jerry Finer, who teaches at Ferris High School, worries his colleagues won’t find replacement books of equal literary value.

“Sometimes we forget about the literary merit. We forget about the value of the book,” he said. “We simply try to pacify everybody. So we take out the book not because it’s necessarily offensive but because people don’t like it.”

Sheridan Blau, president-elect of the National Council of Teachers of English, said he understands why some districts are questioning the merits of “Huckleberry Finn.” The book has “serious offenses” to many black people, he said.

But he warns communities against going too far when modifying required reading lists.

“I’m worried we’re not going to have anything in common,” Blau said.

“It’s useful to have some texts shared by everyone. Our culture is so diverse, we need some shared experiences besides rock ‘n’ roll and television.”

Muse, the former Lewis and Clark football player, grinned when he found out younger black students following him might escape the embarrassment he endured.

He’d never complained to anyone but friends. He’d assumed the rules were set in stone.

“Better late than never,” he said.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo