Black History Curriculum Texts Restricted at MCS
Georgia's Divisive Concepts Law affects what can be taught in Georgia classrooms.
We recently reported on Georgia’s Divisive Concepts law and its effect on Georgia school districts’ ability to offer AP African American Studies. In a nutshell, the law dictates how public schools can teach about race and racial issues. In practice, school districts are using the law to quietly remove books from classroom curricula either due to fear of being out of compliance with the law or to advance a political agenda. Nearby Cobb County School District used the law as justification to fire teacher Katie Rinderle for reading the book My Shadow is Purple, which she purchased at her own school’s book fair, to her 5th grade class. Her firing has created a chilling effect on teachers across the state.
The law, as it is written, is incredibly vague and renders teachers and administrators unsure of where the lines are around the definition of “divisive concepts.” As a result, school boards and administrators can draw those lines neatly around their own political beliefs and agendas. You’re no stranger to this here in Marietta City Schools, dear reader – we saw this last Fall with right-wing school board members Jaillene Hunter, Jason Waters, and Jeff DeJarnett driving their book banning agenda right through the Marietta High School Media Center.
Marietta in the Middle has learned that while we were all focused on the public outcry against banning the 25 books on the chopping block last school year, books related to civil rights and books by minority authors were being removed from classrooms under the guise of “divisive concepts.” During our investigation of the MCS School Board’s book bans last school year, we received a document via open records that outlines which books have been approved for classroom use in grades 6-12, and most importantly, which books have been quietly removed from classrooms and put on a “Not Approved” list.
Let’s pause here to clarify: a book’s removal from curriculum does not mean that the book was banned from the media center, like the books discussed in our previous reporting. Instead, these are the books that are allowed, or not allowed, to be taught as part of your student’s learning experience in a particular course. That is, a book may be available for a student to check out from the media center but be privately banned for a teacher to select as reading material for their course.
We were shocked to find The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass on the Not Approved list for Marietta Middle School. In fact, of the eight books on the Not Approved list at the middle school, four of them–A Mighty Long Way, Little Rock Girl, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, and The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass–are about civil rights topics. We have been trying for months to obtain open records detailing the rationale for putting these books and others on the Not Approved list, but MCS has made getting these records difficult by charging exorbitant amounts of money–initial estimates as high as $13,000–to provide them to us. We suspect the books were removed under Georgia’s Divisive Concepts Law, but without access to the open records we requested, we cannot report on the exact justifications used for removing these books.
An instance of classroom censorship related to divisive concepts occurred at A.L. Burruss Elementary last fall when students in the 5th Grade MILE program voted to study Refugee by Alan Gratz. Parents bought the books for their students–they were reading the book with parental permission–and students were to read the book aloud in class as well as on their own. After the class had begun studying Refugee, officials at MCS Central Office demanded the teacher stop teaching the book and choose another book.
When parents inquired about the issue, they were told the class was required to stop reading the book because it was on the 8th Grade reading list. However, the initial open records documents we have showing approved and not approved books do not have Refugee on the 8th Grade list at all, although it was added at a later date. Email exchanges we received via open records requests indicate that Refugee was removed from the 5th Grade classroom under divisive concepts. We will note here that CCSD parents tell us 5th Grade students in Cobb County Schools are allowed to read this book.
We find it difficult to believe reasonable state leaders intended for books like The Narrative of Frederick Douglass and The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks to be removed from classrooms, especially since Republican state leaders we’ve talked to have told us they would not support removing Frederick Douglass from curriculum in Georgia schools. So why is his book not approved at MMS?
In light of Superintendent Richard Wood's assertion that parts of the AP African American Studies course are illegal to teach in Georgia, what guidance is the Georgia Department of Education giving public schools about divisive concepts? Were any MCS Board of Education members consulted about these books before their removal? Is Frederick Douglass being taught in other Georgia public schools? When we find out, we’ll let you know.
Marietta City Schools has not been transparent with district stakeholders when it comes to how it is applying the Divisive Concepts Law to its own classroom curricula. Parents have a right to know what educational materials are being used in their students’ classrooms, and they also have a right to know what formerly available concepts and materials are no longer being taught. As Governor Brian Kemp reminded Woods in a letter requesting justification for not recommending AP African American Studies, “families should ultimately make the decisions which best meet their child’s academic needs and futures.”
The books on the MCS Approved List have been made public; the books on the Not Approved list need to be made public as well along with justification for their removal. Yet given what we have experienced in the last year, we have little faith we’d receive an honest answer to this question.
It’s time for us to have a conversation about how the Divisive Concepts Law should be applied in our highly diverse school district. The decisions on which books should be used in classrooms and which books should be removed must not rest with unelected anonymous school administrators. Instead, those decisions must be made publicly, in full view of all MCS stakeholders.
We at Marietta in the Middle are concerned that a common denominator unites the anti-intellectualism and politically motivated currents we’re dealing with: a widespread misunderstanding and lack of appreciation for The Public School. As a result, Georgia, and MCS, must come clean about how they are applying the Divisive Concepts Law in their classrooms. But at the core of it all, friends, we need to remember what public education is, who it serves, and why it’s valuable. Marietta in the Middle will be painting that picture for you this Fall.
We’ll give Frederick Douglass himself the last word. “Education means emancipation. It means light and liberty. It means the uplifting of the soul of a man into the glorious light of truth, the light by which men can only be made free.”
