File photo (Image credit: CFJC Today).

By Mel Rothenburger

ARMCHAIR MAYOR

ROTHENBURGER: Wokeism reigns with banning of classics from school library shelves

Mar 5, 2024 | 5:55 AM

SHADES OF FAHRENHEIT 451. That’s the Ray Bradbury novel from 1953, later made into a couple of movies, about a future in which books have been outlawed and firemen (i.e. firefighters) burn them.

It’s about censorship and the destruction of knowledge so the state can more easily control the populace. The Surrey school board’s decision to de-list four books from reading materials in school libraries isn’t quite Fahrenheit 451 but it has certain similarities.

The books pulled from the Surrey district’s reading curriculum are To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, In the Heat of the Night by John Ball and The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie.

All of them include themes of racism and use certain language not considered acceptable today. The only one I confess to not being familiar with is The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, a widely acclaimed but controversial book about a teenager from the Spokane Indian Reservation who leaves to enroll in an all-white high school.

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The Surrey school district will still allow teachers to use the banned books in their classrooms as long as they sanitize the offending language. Which raises the question of how one is supposed to properly read or talk about — or write, for that matter — a book about a certain time period or circumstance without using the language of the day, offensive in today’s context or not.

As we all know, freedom of expression is not free licence. Most people might agree that pornographic literature, for example, shouldn’t be on the shelves of school libraries.

That is, if we can agree on the definition of pornography. But, whether it be pornography or racism, censorship should be wielded reluctantly.

There’s more than a little irony in the fact that Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 — a novel about censorship — was once widely banned in schools.

I’m Mel Rothenburger, the Armchair Mayor.

Mel Rothenburger is a regular contributor to CFJC Today, publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, and is a recipient of the Jack Webster Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award. He has served as mayor of Kamloops, school board chair and TNRD director, and is a retired daily newspaper editor. He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.

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Editor’s Note: This opinion piece reflects the views of its author, and does not necessarily represent the views of CFJC Today or Pattison Media.