Sacramento Bee (California)
April 14, 2007 Saturday
EDITORIAL: Burlingame's book ban: 'Kaffir Boy' deemed
unacceptable
Apr. 14--A parent complained to an 8th-grade English teacher at Burlingame
Intermediate School, south of San Francisco, about a book the 13- and
14-year-old students were reading. That same day, reports the San
Francisco Chronicle, the district superintendent banned the book, "Kaffir
Boy: The True Story of a Black Youth's Coming of Age in Apartheid South
Africa."
That book won approval last year from the school district's core
literature committee, made up of parents, teachers, a librarian, a student
and a school board member. The school board discussed the issue Tuesday
but let the superintendent's decision stand. The superintendent said he
would allow an abridged version in which the offending material was
removed. That's not good enough.
The proper course of action is to allow the child to read an alternative
selection -- not to ban or abridge the book.
Mark Mathabane's 1990 book spares no detail in describing the harsh life
in one of South Africa's worst ghettos during the apartheid era. Mathabane
had a childhood marked by brutal police raids, grinding poverty, his
father's struggles to earn a dignified living and his mother's sacrifices
for his education.
Among the details is the offending scene, on page 72. It describes a day
when the Mathabanes had no food, and Mark tagged along with a group of 5-,
6- and 7-year-old boys on their way to migrant workers' living quarters. A
teenager promised the boys would get money and food for playing "a little
game" with the men who lived there. Mark fled when he saw what that was.
He says that scene marked a crucial turning point in the book and in his
life.
The parent complains that the scene is "pornographic." It is certainly
disturbing, but it does no good to pretend such things don't happen or to
sugarcoat life.
Mathabane, himself the father of three, wrote in 1999, "Should my children
bring home a book I find objectionable, the responsible thing for me to do
would be to request my child be assigned a different one."
But if students do read "Kaffir Boy," he wants them to "read it the way I
wrote it."
This is a good time for the Burlingame school district and its community
to discuss what parents may do if they don't want their child reading a
particular work. Residents should reject the decision to use an abridged
version of Mathabane's book.
April 14, 2007 Saturday
EDITORIAL: Burlingame's book ban: 'Kaffir Boy' deemed
unacceptable
Apr. 14--A parent complained to an 8th-grade English teacher at Burlingame
Intermediate School, south of San Francisco, about a book the 13- and
14-year-old students were reading. That same day, reports the San
Francisco Chronicle, the district superintendent banned the book, "Kaffir
Boy: The True Story of a Black Youth's Coming of Age in Apartheid South
Africa."
That book won approval last year from the school district's core
literature committee, made up of parents, teachers, a librarian, a student
and a school board member. The school board discussed the issue Tuesday
but let the superintendent's decision stand. The superintendent said he
would allow an abridged version in which the offending material was
removed. That's not good enough.
The proper course of action is to allow the child to read an alternative
selection -- not to ban or abridge the book.
Mark Mathabane's 1990 book spares no detail in describing the harsh life
in one of South Africa's worst ghettos during the apartheid era. Mathabane
had a childhood marked by brutal police raids, grinding poverty, his
father's struggles to earn a dignified living and his mother's sacrifices
for his education.
Among the details is the offending scene, on page 72. It describes a day
when the Mathabanes had no food, and Mark tagged along with a group of 5-,
6- and 7-year-old boys on their way to migrant workers' living quarters. A
teenager promised the boys would get money and food for playing "a little
game" with the men who lived there. Mark fled when he saw what that was.
He says that scene marked a crucial turning point in the book and in his
life.
The parent complains that the scene is "pornographic." It is certainly
disturbing, but it does no good to pretend such things don't happen or to
sugarcoat life.
Mathabane, himself the father of three, wrote in 1999, "Should my children
bring home a book I find objectionable, the responsible thing for me to do
would be to request my child be assigned a different one."
But if students do read "Kaffir Boy," he wants them to "read it the way I
wrote it."
This is a good time for the Burlingame school district and its community
to discuss what parents may do if they don't want their child reading a
particular work. Residents should reject the decision to use an abridged
version of Mathabane's book.
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Indiana
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