Posted on 10/29/2002 12:01:00 PM PST by marshmallow
Students upset with the handling of racially sensitive material in "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" demanded Monday night that the Portland School Board launch sensitivity training for teachers in Oregon's largest school district.
Armed with more than 260 signatures from Portland high school students, Charles McGee and Johnnie Williams Jr. criticized the board for dismissing the issue earlier this month when board member Derry Jackson asked that the book be removed from reading lists.
Mark Twain's 19th-century novel about the adventures of a white boy and a runaway slave uses the word "nigger" more than 200 times. Williams, a Lincoln High junior who is African American, objected to the slur and refused to read the book in class. He said it made him uncomfortable as a student in a predominately white school, and Jackson took that concern to the school board.
The students do not want to ban the book. Rather, they say, teachers would be better equipped to teach it if they had ongoing sensitivity training.
Williams' objections to "Huckleberry Finn" prompted McGee, who is also African American, to poll students about their experiences discussing racial issues in classrooms. McGee sent petitions to Benson, Franklin, Grant, Jefferson and Lincoln high schools asking the school board to review how certain materials create racial tensions in classrooms.
"You all clearly stated that you felt that this issue was about one student," said McGee, a junior at Franklin High in Southeast Portland. "Now I hope you have realized it's about every student in this district."
Monday night, Williams choked up while telling the board why he felt uncomfortable discussing material in "Huckleberry Finn" in class. Williams read an alternate book on baseball legend Jackie Robinson in the library while his classmates studied "Huckleberry Finn."
"You have to be African American to understand what we've been through," he told the school board.
McGee asked the board to revive the African American Baseline Essays, a series of training guides developed by Portland educators during desegregation efforts in the 1980s. The essays cover the contributions of African Americans in science, language arts and other disciplines, said Carolyn Leonard, compliance officer for Portland Public Schools. The essays have been challenged for their authenticity, but have been used by teachers around the world. In Portland, they have sat mostly dormant for years, she said.
Chairwoman Karla Wenzel asked Superintendent Jim Scherzinger and board member Debbie Goldberg Menashe to examine how teachers are trained. Menashe said a student achievement policy the board adopted last spring addresses the need for recruiting teachers from diverse backgrounds and sets guidelines for making sure that teachers understand students from various backgrounds.
Lolenzo Poe, the board's vice chairman, pledged to not have the students' concerns get lost in school district bureaucracy.
"I think it's OK to have us feel uncomfortable," Poe said. "I will push us not to let this die."
Williams' refusal to read Twain's 1885 novel in class has sparked debate about its standing in American fiction and whether it should be taught at all.
Ann Nice, president of the Portland Association of Teachers, said the union supports training that would help teachers relate better to students from all backgrounds. But she doesn't think reviving the 1980s essays will eliminate the problem.
Koty Zelinka, an English teacher at Portland Lutheran High School in outer Southeast Portland, did research on "Huckleberry Finn" as a student at Concordia University. Based on the racial slurs and a body of critics who say the ending is contrived, she has decided not to assign the book to her students.
Colleagues have questioned her decision.
"I have gotten into arguments with other English teachers who say: 'This is a classic. How can you not teach "Huckleberry Finn'? " Zelinka said.
Zelinka teaches in a 100-student, predominately white school but was a student-teacher at the racially mixed Benson High in Portland. She said the Portland students' concerns about the gulf between many teachers and students are on target.
"It gets back to the colleges. My professors were challenging us to think about those issues," she said. "I think it's absolutely crucial that it happens at some point. If we're asking our students to think critically, we should be also."
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Although Jim is referred to as Nigger Jim throughout the story, it not until the end of the book, when Huck finally realizes that Jim is a man like any other man, does he refer to him as just plain "Jim".
Do I have this right?
"(Their) ignorance covered the whole earth like a blanket, and there was hardly a hole in it anywhere."
And Jim shows incredible affection and love for Huck. He pampers him. Jim was superstitious and in some ways ignorant, but he was older than Huck and treated him with tenderness and care. When they discover each other afetr having been separated, and are so happy to see each other, well, that part gets me misty eyed every time I read it.
It's a beautiful portrait not just of adventure, but of doing the right thing in spite of the times in which you live, of the better part of human nature. It is a wonderful book. Nothing against Little Black Sambo, but that's not even in the same ballpark--not even the same sport. Huck Finn is a brilliant book.
But hey, what do I know? That's just what it means to me.
This should earn him an Academy Award, now that Halle Berry has opened the door for him.
Well, that and alive in the 1800s...
"Responding to calls from black conservative leader Rev. Jesse Patterson that the Hip-Hop community begin policing ITSELF and turn away from such mental and aural garbage, JuggyZ's publicist, SnotD, responded 'Yo, man, we gonna whap that nigga Patta-son upside he big ol' haid, man!'"
"You have to be African American to understand what we've been through," he told the school board.
What the hell has Johnnie been through that has been so trying? He has never been a slave. He has never been bought and sold. He has never been subjected to Jim Crow laws. But because of his skin color, he claims to have suffered. This group identity is a crutch for Johnnie. It provides him with instantaneous victimhood, without having to go through the bother of actually being victimized.
This attitude, no doubt reinforced by his white liberal teachers, will ensure that Johnnie gets absolutely nowhere in life, and it provides him with a no-fault-of-his own, ready-made excuse when he gets there.
The essays cover the contributions of African Americans in science, language arts and other disciplines, said Carolyn Leonard, compliance officer for Portland Public Schools. The essays have been challenged for their authenticity, but have been used by teachers around the world.
Teach them the wrong stuff, if that’s what makes them feel good. Accuracy no longer has anything to do with the word “correct.”
Teachers do not need "sensitivity training" to teach using Huckleberry Finn. What they need is competence in English and American literature, and an understanding of the difference between quality writing and drivel.
But that's too much to ask, I suppose.
Congressman Billybob
A Dispatch from the Front, Plus Some Comments on Norwegian Charisma
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