If the McMinn County school board had set out to boost youth interest in Art Spiegelman's Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel Maus, they could hardly have done a better job than this.
The board voted unanimously earlier this month to ban the book from the county's eighth-grade curriculum, citing the appearance of mild swearing and illustrations of naked mice women. The decision went viral last night when it was reported by The Tennessee Holler.
The novel is a story of surviving the Holocaust, based on Spiegelman's interviews with his own father. It is the first and only graphic novel to win the Pulitzer. On Wednesday, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum lamented the county's decision to remove the book from its curriculum.
2/2 Teaching about the Holocaust using books like Maus can inspire students to think critically about the past and their own roles and responsibilities today. For those looking to teach about the Holocaust, find lesson plans and resources here: https://t.co/CNgiVIzUMP
— US Holocaust Museum (@HolocaustMuseum) January 27, 2022
Of course, encouraging students to think critically about the past is currently a controversial idea among some right-wing parents and advocacy groups. Along with the familiar conservative panic about the appearance of a curse word in a book, there has been a national wave of efforts to ban books that offend parents' conservative tastes or might prod students to think too critically about America's racist past. In tony Williamson County — where parents have raised objections to a children's book about seahorses — the group Moms for Liberty succeeded in having one book removed from the curriculum and the teaching of others, including Gary Paulsen's classic Hatchet, adjusted. The group is appealing to the state in an effort to have four books about civil rights banned from schools there.
The four books cited in the complaint to the state include: — Martin Luther King Jr and the March on Washington— Ruby Bridges Goes to School— The Story of Ruby Bridges— Separate is Never Equal
— Meghan Mangrum (@memangrum) January 26, 2022
In fairness to the Williamson County schools committee reviewing books at the group's behest, they found nothing wrong with the above civil rights texts. The liberty moms are still intent on seeing them banned, though. The people who see supposed attempts at indoctrination everywhere somehow do not see their efforts to ban certain books from school libraries as such. It's puzzling. But then, from people who scorn critical thinking, not surprising.
