Picked a censored novel over a documentary for my class

Had to choose between teaching "The Kite Runner" or a banned documentary about Afghanistan's water crisis. Went with the book because it's been challenged in 3 US school districts. Kids actually got into it, but one parent complained about the rape scene. Has anyone else dealt with picking one banned work over another?

2 comments

2 Comments

charles_chen9316d ago

Nancy_davis that article pairing is smart. I had a similar situation with "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian" when a parent complained about the masturbation scene. I just told them straight up that the book survived 15 years on challenged lists for a reason, and we could switch to the approved textbook that talked about Native history like a Wikipedia page. The kids backed me up because they actually wanted to read something real. Ended up having the parent sit in for a day of discussion, and she backed off after seeing how the class handled it maturely.

nancy_davis16d ago

The Kite Runner was one of those books that actually got my kids talking (like really talking) about loyalty and guilt instead of just zoning out. We did a thing where we paired the rape scene with a news article about how the author got death threats for writing it, and that opened up a whole discussion about why people want to keep certain stories hidden. Some parents weren't thrilled but I pointed out that the documentary was literally banned for showing drone strike aftermath, which felt way heavier for a classroom. At the end of the day, the kids voted to keep reading and even wrote letters to the school board defending their choice.