Ed Glazer: Work remains for Mukilteo schools on ‘Mockingbird’

Published 1:30 am Saturday, February 12, 2022

By Ed Glazer / Herald Forum

At its meeting on Jan. 24 the Mukilteo School Board voted to remove “To Kill a Mockingbird” as required reading in the ninth grade curriculum. While we commend them for taking this small step ensuring student safety, there were, are issues that have yet to be addressed, including:

• The fact that the Instructional Materials Committee is segregated, in that there were no people of color from the community on the committee that made the recommendation to the board. When we of the NAACP of Snohomish County offered to assist the committee, we were turned down.

• The fact that the teachers on the committee, only one of whom is African American, said that they needed/wanted professional development on how to deal with discussions of race and racism in the classroom because they did not have the skills and competencies to have those discussions, yet they recommended and the board approved that the book would remain on the “approved” reading list. So a teacher could still use the book in his or her class, have it on his or her syllabus, require it, yet not have the skills or competencies to deal with the issues put forth in this book with students.

The decision to remove it as “required” reading at the same time to list it as an “approved” book is absolutely contradictory.

This book does harm to all students in its presentations of the Black characters as less than the white characters and the white characters as the saviors. From the marginalization of the Black characters to the extensive use of the n-word, this book does not belong in the classroom at all. In the library, yes. At this time in our society the emotional and social safety of our students of color as well as our white students must be considered in every decision.

The Mukilteo School District is to be commended dealing with this issue, as a beginning. The NAACP of Snohomish County stands ready and able to assist in any way we can.

Ed Glazer is the education chair for the NAACP Snohomish County.