Controversial teachings

Earlier this year (March 2021), the local news in Jamaica carried the story of a teacher who came under verbal attack for - what the disgruntled accuser claimed was- "the use of racist language" in her teaching of the novel to a group of students. The teacher came under fire after teaching a Literature class to a group of students who were studying the novel, "To Kill A Mockingbird". The novel is Harper Lee's timeless literary work and it has been on the Caribbean's external examination syllabus for many years and rightly so! It is my favourite novel to date. I was pleased to see that it was again placed as one of the set texts for CSEC (Caribbean Secondary Examination Council). It was one of the books I had studied for my CXC (Caribbean Examination Certificate) Literature exam in 1987 and I had taught the novel to students as early as 3rd form level (Grade 9) at previous high schools where I served as a teacher of Literature.

I wonder if it is that persons have no clue what Literature is about? First of all, Literature is History and yes, so much of history is ugly, frightening, offensive and many other rude awakenings. However, one thing that Literature does is to unveil some truths that people don't want to talk about. Literature is intended to explore themes and issues which affect us as a people and its messages are meant to stir our humanity. The issues which Literature explores are both current and timeless so there is no way that these issues become irrelevant to us. Furthermore, we often are so intolerant of the differences of other people and it is Literature that can change that trajectory. In our socio-cultural world, we encounter these differences and it drives many persons to despise the other on the basis of those differences. Students MUST be taught to have a global outlook and the way to achieve that is to offer opportunities for them to explore a wide range of literary texts and which covers a wide geographical setting. There are so many shifting perspectives in this 21st century and what better time to awaken our moral ethics than now?

When I teach "To Kill A Mockingbird, I always teach it with the same desire as the character, Atticus, who tries to see the good in the people even when it is hard to see it. He tells his children to walk in someone else's shoes to feel what that person has to go through. I have taught my students to look at characters like Dolphus Raymond and Mayella Ewell and see why they are pressured into being who they are- to empathize with Mayella and to celebrate Mr. Raymond for finding a way to free himself of societal pressure; to recognize that these are not just characters in a book but that they are people we know in real life. Heck, the characters may even be the mirrors of ourselves!

The saddest thing is when someone has read this book and still perpetuates the evils similar to what the Maycomb society is guilty of. A horrifying dilemma in humanity is when one walks away from the life-lesson and it has not moved him/her or managed to take the reader a cathartic journey.

#LiteratureMirroringLife

#AnotherMockingbirdSlain

#TeachersUnderFire