School Board Meeting

The school board meets tonight to decide, I think, the fate of Kaffir Boy.

First, the detractors speak. Then we speak. Then, again, I think, the school board makes its decision.

The book will continue to be part of our curriculum; it just might have to be in the edited version, which we are totally opposed to. We want the unedited version for the school text. If parents object, then their child can have the edited text.

That's all we ask. Is that too much?

I will speak later in the evening and share a letter from a former student and a thought or two of my own.

Several other teachers and community members are set to speak in support of the book and us.

Truthfully, I am looking forward to having this issue resolved.

It has been too taxing. I found myself dreaming about justifying the novel and presenting to the board. And I don't even teach the book! I am just worried that if we let them censor this book, where will they stop?

Today, though, felt like things were getting back to normal in my classroom. My College Comp class read and discussed "Young Goodman Brown." We laughed and made connections to our lives and society. Like I said, things are getting back to normal.

Now, if they'll just let us keep the unedited version of the text . . .

***

In an interesting side note, one of the detractors emailed the author of Kaffir Boy, Mark Mathabane, directly. She blathered on about how much she respected him and how much she could relate to his experience and yadda, yadda, yadda . . . though she neglected to mention that she had been running from business to business with an illegally photocopied version of the passage in question trying to incite a witch hunt.

Here is his reply --

Thanks for your thoughtful letter. I'll be direct in my reply in the hope of making my meaning clear on this important issue. As a parent, I applaud your active involvement in your child's education by monitoring what he reads. I do the same with my three children. After concluding that the graphic language used in the disputed part of Kaffir Boy is offensive to your values and inappropriate for your child's development, you have the right to request that your child not be required to read the book or be assigned a different one. Needless to say, other parents have the same rights you do. Since the book's publication in 1986, and its use nationwide as a text for millions of students in public schools, most parents have reached a different conclusion regarding the appropriateness of the disputed passage. They have absolutely no problem with the graphic language. On the contrary, most parents have defended the right of teachers to assign the book based on their judgement of its value to students. As the author, I could have sided with these parents, on the basis that in a democracy majority rules. But aware that the measure of a democracy's effectiveness is its ability to protect the right of minorities, I strove to accomodate the rights of parents like you by publishing the international version. I did this in the hope that students whose parents objected to the graphic language in the original version would, if they chose, have their children read the revised version. THE INTERNATIONAL VERSION WAS IN NO WAY INTENDED AS A SUBSTITUTE FOR THE ORIGINAL VERSION. It was meant to provide dissenting parents with a choice. It would be unfair for one parent to decide the issue for all other parents, or to substitute his or her value system for theirs. Furthermore, it would be wrong for a parent to usurp the judgement of a qualified teacher as to what he or she should teach. I therefore support the right of teachers at your son's school to teach the original version, and your right, and that of other parents who feel and believe as you do, to have the choice of having your children read the revised version or another book. But I do not support efforts by any parent to decide the issue for all parents, and to second-guess the judgement of qualified teachers about what is appropritate to teach.

I hope I have made myself clear and I give you permission to share my e-mail with the school board when it meets.

Sincerely,

Mark Mathabane