So I've bought "A Study in Scarlet" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, do determine whether it should be banned by Albemarle County Schools

Several Albemarle County School parents have challenged one of the approved books on the sixth grade reading list. The list of 65 books highlights what will be taught in the classroom to students throughout the year.

Several parents, along with the support from the Mormon community, say Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's A Study in Scarlet has a negative depiction of the Mormon religion. The mystery novel, first published in the late 1880's, introduces the world to the character Sherlock Holmes.

Throughout the book Doyle describes Mormons as 'violent' and 'intolerant'. The following line was taken from the book:

"The invisibility and the mystery which was attached to it, made this organization doubly terrible," (Chapter 3).

One Albemarle County parent did not want her sixth grader, or any other student for that matter, to read the terrible connotations made in the novel. She asked the county to remove the book from the reading list.

via newsplex.com

1 - Who are the parents making this claim? Surely they're not "anonymous".
2 - Who is on the committee?
3 - Rather than embrace a teaching opportunity, these parents would rather ignore history.

I'm embarrassed by the ignorance expressed by both the parents and the committee; banning books is not the answer.

Posted

11 months ago jimstern responded:

My name is Jim Stern and I was one of the Albemarle County residents asked to sit on the review committee and to make a recommendation to the School Board.

I may not get back to this blog soon and don't want to appear I am avoiding or hiding anything. I am not sure, just joining, about posting personal info or email, but you can find me easily through Google. I run four Destination Imagination programs, own an Inn in Albemarle and have been on the Board of a local bank. I welcome anyone who wants to ask questions and will answer tot he best of my ability to dispell the wide range of posts I am seeing across the web.

First, we recommended NOT to ban the book. We felt it should not be on THE SIXTH GRADE reading list, unless context and guidance were developed for teachers. We felt it was more appropriate for high school than 6th graders, but NEVER considered a total ban. In fact, the complainant (singular) did not even seek a complete ban. She was articulate and reasonable throughout.

The teacher involved clearly loved the book and made a dozen arguements for keeping the text that were equally articulate and very thoughful. A sample…

-It was Doyle’s first book, you can’t learn how he grew without comparison.
-It introduces Holmes deductive methodology. The writing at eyelevel relation to height struck every student and turned on a bulb.
-It uses the reverse flip literary technique, common now, radical then.
-It introduces Dr Watson
and many more.

It is my hope that the School Board does not ban the book but rather address the curiculum short falls. Not a single 6th grader even noticed the Mormon references, let alone took them as a slur against the faith. This includes my own 6th grade son. He was focused on mystery and deductive reasoning and did not even remember who the antagonists were by religion or a “Mormon” tag, just by deeds and names.

However, it is improper in my opinion to have 6th graders or any student in our public school system to read this book without including guidance to teachers and thereby students as to the context in which the novel should be read.

We would not hand our students To Kill a Mockingbird, The Jungle or The Diary of Anne Frank without context. Although A Study in Scarlet is not of the literary significance of the other examples, it should no more be a candidate for banning than the others.

The lazy answer is to ban the book. The correct answer is to develop curiculum and guidance for teachers and students who wish to explore this work. It would be appropriate for my son, just as his reading this year of To Kill a Mockingbird, The Jungle and Diary of Anne Frank all are apropriate for him. But without an exceptional teacher this book cannot be put in context properly for most 6th graders. Yet, any teacher should be able to use this in high school and with a proper lesson plan get almost any stuident to learn from the text.

Doyle said later it was his first book and written for a tabloid audience who believed the stereotypes of the day. He had never been out of the country and believed what he heard out of ignorance. Later he was in fact, asked to speak at the Tabernacle, asked for and was given forgiveness after explaining how ignorance can cause pain and that as an older and wiser man he saw the harm he had helped to flame.

So do we want our children to learn that lesson, or hide it from their eyes?

But as a direct response to your three points

1 - Who are the parents making this claim? Surely they're not "anonymous".

You could find out who she was but is there any value? It was one person, not parentS. As I said before she was articulate and reasonable and indicated in her request to the School Board that she thought this book WAS appropriate for a high school group just not sixth graders. Worse, her child's teacher, not the passionate one I talk about above, was the cause of the problem because of the lack of guidance or a lesson plan. When the student involved said she was a Mormon and they did not act the way described in the book, the teacher's response was to ask her to come to school the next day and explain how Mormon's really acted and why what was in the book was false. Unprepared teacher with good intentions putting an 11 year old on the spot is what caused this, not an out-of-control parent.

2 - Who is on the committee? Jim Stern, Matt Haas from ACPS, a principal, a teacher, another parent like me and a community member. Honestly I couldn't even tell you which school the Principal was from, let alone remember his name but you could ask through FOIA if it is important.

3 - Rather than embrace a teaching opportunity, these parents would rather ignore history.

I agree as you can tell from my post above. Worse the committees recommendation and other facts have been so misrepresented by the media giving false impressions about the entire process and those of us involved. No one, including the complainant demanded, requested or even wanted a 'ban'. One media outlet is reporting that the Committee included Steve Kolezar from the School Board, totally false, but reported as if they were there in the room with us.

So your comment:
I'm embarrassed by the ignorance expressed by both the parents and the committee; banning books is not the answer.

should be:
I am embarassed that the media is incappable of journalism and copy stories from other media outlets, and sad that rather than have reporters whose bosses require them to investigate and fact-check it is easier to let them plagerize the competition. And I am most saddened that this causes concerned parents, teachers and administrators to be falsely portrayed as bible-thumping book banners when in fact this is far from the truth.

The fact is that it is easier for the school system to move on to another book rather than put the effort into saving this one. But be assured we DID NOT and I have personally requested of School Board Members that they DO NOT take away the opportunity for an educator who cares enough to write an appropriate leeson plan from being able to do so. No book should EVER be banned.

Jim Stern

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So I've bought "A Study in Scarlet" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, do determine whether it should be banned by Albemarle County Schools