Autism Related
Novel Attacked in Bernards Twp, NJ
If you would like to support literary exploration of autism, join in sending an
e-mail to the addressees of the following message.
-----Original Message-----
From: Bob Witanek [mailto:bwitanek@igc.org]
Sent: Monday, September 04, 2006
8:59 PM
To: 'mbyrne@bernardsboe.com'; 'lcarlucci@bernardsboe.com';
'awoolford@bernardsboe.com'; 'wkoch@bernardsboe.com'; 'SMcGowan@bernardsboe.com';
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Subject: Autism Related Novel
Attacked in Bernards Twp, NJ
Dear Board Members and Administrators at Bernards Township BOE,
Below are comments that I authored in response to the controversy at your district regarding “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time," by British author Mark Haddon. I have circulated the below statement widely on the internet and will continue to do so.
I concur with the comments of Mr. Arthur – it was far overreaching for your administration and board to intervene with the curriculum in a way that prevents greater understanding and probably greater acceptance of those who face head on the challenges of autism spectrum.
Mr. Byrne’s comments as quoted were particularly close minded. To suggest that dealing with issues of a strained marriage are an adult issue – when clearly 1/3 to ˝ marriages in the US end in divorce – and therefore a similar proportion of America’s children deal with those issues every day – is close minded – even smacks of ignorant. Are Bernards Township students somehow immune from such familial challenges? You might be in a posh neighborhood and that might protect you from some of the economic challenges that families face – but I don’t believe that it has built you a fortress to protect from familial problems that children of all ages must face everywhere. Children go through these issues so they are not “adult issues”. Mr. Byrne, your logic is flawed.
To suggest that the topic of autism also – is an adult topic – when instead schools should be working overtime to create greater acceptance of our children by the “typical” children is also quite shortsighted.
Families with disabilities within face a greater percentage of such family issues. Our children need to deal with these issues whether or not you chose to censor the topic for wider study from behind your desks and tables of power.
I hereby urge you to rescind the childish decision to offer the book as only an alternate. Reinstate it as required reading. It is quite a good book – and my 13 year old in the Montgomery District loved it and was proud of the protagonist of the story.
The good news is that the controversy you have created about the book is already resulting in greater interest in it within and outside of disabilities circles.
Sincerely.
Robert S. Witanek
NJ Student Advocacy Union, co-founder
Autism Related Novel Attacked in Bernards Twp, NJ
Posted by Bob Witanek
Advocate@StudentAdv
I have read the book in question and found it entertaining as well as insightful. It can also be eye opening and promote awareness about the humanity of young adults or adolescents with autism.
This school board member Michael Byrne seems to object to the book not only because of a few 4-letter words but because it deals with issues of autism and how those issues complicate family problems. From the Star Ledger article:
“School board member Michael Byrne said he had reservations over the Haddon book after reading it and highlighting instances of the "F word" uttered by mostly adult characters in the novel. "There were 27, plus some additional curse words," said Byrne.
Byrne said he also found the book to be a "a very adult story," because it involves a teenager with autism dealing with the disillusionment of his parents' relationship.
"It's a very serious, very adult subject, and I didn't think the combination of the cursing and the adult story to be appropriate for ninth-graders," he said.
I find it most offensive that this elected board member would believe that the topic of autism is not appropriate for 9th graders! He should be dumped by Bernards voters. Of course autism and the differences of those with autism should be studied in our schools – as well as the social impact of autism on families. Perhaps Byrne would like to build a bubble over Bernards high school to protect those prone young minds from the real world.
I tip my hat to Andrew Arthur
whose comments as quoted were most insightful. If you know Mr. Arthur please
forward this report to him and ask him to send me a note at
advocate@studentadv
“There were still critics, including Andrew Arthur, who has a niece entering the ninth grade and who also has a 5-year-old son with autism. Arthur insisted all freshmen should have read the Haddon novel for a deeper understanding of the disease, how it affects those who suffer from it, and the impacts on people around them.
"I think they (the freshmen) missed the opportunity to talk about something that really matters," said Arthur. He called the decision to make the novel optional, "a mild form of censorship," and a reaction to special-needs children that hurts efforts to support them in the community and schools.
"There's an impulse everywhere, not just here, to separate special-needs kids, cloister them away and not look at them," he said. “
Finally, I recommend the book “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time," by British author Mark Haddon for all participants in these groups. I also recommend it to your reading children. My child has read it and loved it. He could not put it down for days.
To those parents who would filter out important contributions to understanding people with autism over a few cuss words, I recommend that you grow up. Your children need to deal with much greater obscenities – every day. Many examples come to my mind but I will leave that to your imagination.
Bob Witanek
Advocate@StudentAdv
http://www.nj.
Alternate plan puts end to flap over book
Some Bernards parents protested profanity
Sunday, September 03, 2006
BY RALPH R. ORTEGA
Star-Ledger Staff
The buzz all summer for freshmen starting at a high school in Bernards this week was over a book about a murdered poodle named Wellington and the teenager with autism investigating how the canine came to be skewered with a pitchfork.
But it wasn't the 400 ninth-graders at Ridge High School making all the noise over "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time," by British author Mark Haddon.
As summer vacation began, parents and school officials debated whether 27 incidents of the "F word" and other profanity used in the award-winning best-seller was appropriate for the ninth-grade class assigned to read it.
School administrators preparing for the start of school next week said the controversy subsided after they made the 221-page book one of two options on the freshman summer reading list.
"My friends screamed with joy that they didn't have to read it," said ninth-grader Laura Spake, who found Haddon's book a boring read while on a family vacation to France this summer. The offensive words were not a problem for the 13-year-old. "I can get over that," she said.
School districts offering alternative books to read when parents object to a literary work have avoided their censorship and removal, according to the American Library Association, which marks the 25th anniversary of its Banned Books Week on Sept. 23.
Haddon's novel made the ALA's "Books Challenged or Banned" list in 2005-2006, along with Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird," Vladimir Nabakov's "Lolita," Annie Proulx's "Brokeback Mountain," and J.K. Rowling's "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince."
New Jersey, generally considered a book-friendly state, has only one or two school districts receiving complaints from parents over a book's content, or its age appropriateness, according to the New Jersey School Boards Association. "Sometimes it's a lone parent who's upset," said Mike Yaple, a spokesman for the association.
In January, a school district near Atlantic City bowed to a parent's complaint over a racial slur in Mildred D. Taylor's "The Well," striking the book about a black family in early 20th-century Mississippi from a grade school Black History Month reading list.
But in Bernards, and increasingly in districts around the country, such action was not needed when parents were offered choices, said Judith Kruge, director of the ALA's office for intellectual freedom.
Kruge said students, maturing faster than their parents realize, are able to take offensive materials in stride, and that adults need a compromise.
"It's the parents that get upset and who take it to the schools, which don't want to create a brouhaha," said Kruge. "Years ago, that wouldn't have happened. The schools would have put their foot down, and said, 'Absolutely not! This has to be read.'"
School officials, Kruge said, now take into account that "people come from immensely different backgrounds."
"Things that don't faze you or me become problematic or real issues for other people," she said. "In this day and age, we have to take into account these sensitivities."
Officials at Ridge High School will have freshmen discuss Haddon's novel and their second choice for summer reading, "The Last Book in the Universe," by R. Philbrick, at the start of school on Thursday.
Cheryl Dyer, director of curriculum and instruction for the Bernards School District, described the Philbrick novel as a "fast-paced adventure," involving "murder and topics related to ethical decision-making," in a letter she wrote to parents on July 10.
The choice to offer the two options, Dyer said, came after the district was contacted by five parents concerned about the profanities used in Haddon's book.
School board member Michael Byrne said he had reservations over the Haddon book after reading it and highlighting instances of the "F word" uttered by mostly adult characters in the novel. "There were 27, plus some additional curse words," said Byrne.
Byrne said he also found the book to be a "a very adult story," because it involves a teenager with autism dealing with the disillusionment of his parents' relationship.
"It's a very serious, very adult subject, and I didn't think the combination of the cursing and the adult story to be appropriate for ninth-graders," he said.
The board of education took no action against the book, a best-seller that won the 2003 Whitbread Book of the Year Award. School administrators, instead, resolved concerns by giving freshman the option of reading the Philbrick book.
There were still critics, including Andrew Arthur, who has a niece entering the ninth grade and who also has a 5-year-old son with autism. Arthur insisted all freshmen should have read the Haddon novel for a deeper understanding of the disease, how it affects those who suffer from it, and the impacts on people around them.
"I think they (the freshmen) missed the opportunity to talk about something that really matters," said Arthur. He called the decision to make the novel optional, "a mild form of censorship," and a reaction to special-needs children that hurts efforts to support them in the community and schools.
"There's an impulse everywhere, not just here, to separate special-needs kids, cloister them away and not look at them," he said.
The book, meanwhile, has been welcomed at higher levels. It appears in the
junior year curriculum at Bridgewater-
Despite the controversy, Judith Kruge, director of the ALA's intellectual freedom office, said she expected a fair number of freshmen at Ridge High School will probably report to school having read the Haddon book anyway.
"If you want to get kids to read," Kruge said, "create a controversy."
Ralph R.
Ortega may be reached at rortega@starledger.
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