Agatha Christie, Public Enemy #1 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
[updated below]
[Read my final update to this story here. Rumors that the teacher read pornography off the internet appear to be patently false.]
Ender's Game was one of just three books that a South Carolina teacher read to students and was suspended for when an angry parent complained.
Since we've determined that it's entirely appropriate for children 12 and up, what were the other two books? Surely scandalous tomes of some variety.
Or not.
The other books were ‘Devil’s Paintbox’ by Victoria McKearnan and ‘Curtain: Poirot’s Last Case’, written by Agatha Christie. McKearnan's book, written for young adults, is described thusly:
When orphans Aiden and Maddy Lynch first meet trailrider Jefferson J. Jackson in the spring of 1865, they’re struggling to survive on their family’s drought-ravaged Kansas farm. So when Jackson offers an escape—a 2000-mile journey across the roughest country in the world—Aiden knows it’s their only choice.
To be fair, I haven't read this one - but nowhere in the reviews I've read does it mention that the young adult novel is at all racy or controversial. I have read a lot of Agatha Christie's work. It's not exactly the first place to turn to for pornography...
So we have a classic science fiction book written for young readers; a historical fiction novel written for young readers about an escape along the Oregon Trail; and an Agatha Christie mystery.
Does this school district have an actual policy outlining the appropriate steps for suspending a teacher merely accused of reading obscene material without any proof whatsoever that this is the case?
So far as I can tell there is no corroboration from any other student or parent.
What bothers me here is twofold. One, that a person's job could be so fragile that a lone parent's complaint could jeopardize it and cause school officials to notify police. Two, that we've become so accustomed as a society to thinking that it's okay to censor books and speech in our education system.
From a tech standpoint, I can't help but wonder if the silver lining here is that this story is exactly the sort of thing that goes viral quickly. Agatha Christie is one of the best-selling authors of all time. Ender's Game is one of the most famous science fiction novels of all time. People are bound to get in an uproar over this, largely thanks to how fast social media spreads controversial information.
Hopefully somebody at the school district decides to actually read these books, swallows their pride, and gets this teacher back to work.
A part of me thinks we'll discover that it was the third book's title that rubbed the parent the wrong way. Devil's Paintbox certainly sounds nefarious.
Update: According to an update at io9:
According to a news report by local station WRDW, the police incident report in the case claims that the teacher read "pornographic material from the Internet to the students in class. One of the stories was about prostitutes having their faces covered with ejaculation." But according to the WRDW report, the school is still maintaining that the offending material was just three books that the teacher read to class, which were primarily offensive due to swear words. (Thanks to AJRimmer for pointing us to this.)
We've got calls out to the school, the police, and the school district. We'll post an update when we learn anything else.
A couple thoughts: first off, it's a little odd that the school would maintain it was just the books if this wasn't the case. It's also odd that only one student would complain of something so egregious. I guess it's impossible to know anything until this is cleared up.
Update 2: Orson Scott Card has commented on this saying that he believes other material was being read off the internet that has nothing to do with his or the other books involved in the suspension of the teacher:
The teacher was reading Orson Scott Card's "Ender's Game," which the parent said, was pornographic. But Card told the Doug Wright Show, the way he understands it, the teacher had also been reading inappropriate material off the Internet to the class. Card believes the parent must have looked at the reading list, saw "Ender's Game," and got upset.
" 'Ender's Game' has been on an evangelical hit list for a long time, for no other reason, but that I'm Mormon," Card said.
Card said he wrote the dialogue in 1984 based on what he was hearing children say to each other when they thought no adults were around, so the book would not have shocked the South Carolina class. He said there is nothing pornographic in the book.
"There's nothing in 'Ender's Game' that they are not completely familiar with," Card said. "These kids are 14 year olds in South Carolina. I know for a fact it is impossible that they aren't hearing those words at least once a week, if not every day."
Card said his book should have nothing to do with the suspension of the teacher. It was the inappropriate material from the Internet that would have contributed to the suspension.
"The other things that the teacher was reading included things that were simply out of place," Card said. "I'm not leaping to the defense of the teacher; he showed very poor judgement. Should he lose his job? Oh c'mon. People should have room to learn."
Obviously this goes beyond what initial reports and the statement from the school led us to believe.
Update e: Alyssa Rosenberg is worth reading on the issue of school policy here:
But more to the point, it’s worrisome that a teacher could be suspended for exercising discretion in trying to enrich his class. The key point here, I think, is whether he would have been suspended had he gone through the required preview process and a parent complained afterwards. A review process isn’t an utterly unreasonable thing to ask, but I’d hate to think the school might have still thrown him under the bus after approving his decision.
Schools have an obligation to make sure their students aren’t exposed to inappropriate material prematurely. But they also have a responsibility to steer a course that moderates between parents who want their children exposed to nothing and parents who aren’t paying any attention at all. The classroom is an interim step between the closed environment of the home and the wide-open, unprotected real world. By the standards of that world, Ender’s Game isn’t anything close to pornography, and it’s perfectly appropriate reading for 14-year-olds.
So far, all we know is what the school maintains is their reason for suspending the teacher. Until more comes out, the rest appears to be little better than rumor.
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