MV Chooses Censorship Over Learning
I graduated from Merrimack Valley High School in 2023, after 12 successful years in the school district. I attribute much of that success to assigned readings that were often upsetting, controversial or uncomfortable. Schools and readers broadly should embrace challenging books. They should not run away from “controversial topics,” as MV is doing by endorsing a ban on The Perks of Being a Wallflower. I am a better student and citizen because the books I read in high school made me uncomfortable, from the racism and injustice in To Kill a Mockingbird to the migrant poverty in Of Mice and Men to the atrocities of the Holocaust in Man’s Search for Meaning.
I hope, but am not optimistic, that MV teachers will feel comfortable rejecting administrators’ recommendation that they no longer teach the book. But I am also wary of the “recommendation” label, especially when it comes from people who have just demonstrated that, when given a choice between siding with reading and teachers or a single paternalistic call for censorship, they choose censorship.
I believe I benefited from a culture at MV that allowed teachers some autonomy in choosing content that could best help their students learn. This book banning recommendation sabotages that kind of culture and, in effect, learning. The best move for students, teachers and administrators alike is for MV to replace its recommendation to teachers with another: teach challenging books.