FARMINGTON – The Mount Blue Regional School District Board of Directors met on Oct. 16 and approved of five new literary texts for the high school curriculum, which includes, “Kindred” by Octavia Butler, “They Called Us Enemy” by George Takei, “Born A Crime” by Trevor Noah, “Ground Zero” by Alan Gratz and “The Poet X” by Elizabeth Acevedo. These five books were ordered in quantities of approximately 25 copies each, and Chairperson Carol Coles sees these newly acquired texts as positive for many reasons.
“We were fortunate because we’ve been wanting, and the English department and the Social Studies department, has been wanting to supplement the curriculum with more take-home books…but our budget has been very tight,” Coles said. “And then with covid, one of the only positive things to come out of covid is that the school has received funding, and one of the things we wanted to do…was to provide more personal stories around parts of the curriculum.”
Coles remarked that while new materials don’t usually go to the board for approval, almost a third of the board is composed of new members and she as well others wanted to share the information.
She also felt it was important to share why these particular books are being used, stating that it wasn’t so much about the context.
“For me, these books are engaging, they’re first-person, for the most part, and my view is that empathy is not an innate behavior; empathy is a learned behavior, and anything we can do that encourages our students in our system at all levels to be able to put themselves in someone else’s shoes is a good thing,” Coles said. “That’s the basis of empathy; that’s how you become an empathetic person.”
The intention of these books is to provide students with materials that will be engaging and compelling and to round out what students are learning in their classes. The narratives provide more diverse perspectives and an opportunity for discussion around those perspectives for further contextual insight.
With the understanding that Maine is primarily white and many students don’t have the opportunity to be exposed to different cultures, the hope is to prepare students, especially graduating high school students, as well as encouraging a continued desire to learn.
“It has to do with personal experience and helping children have a wider view of the world,” Coles said. “It’s really about the education of our children. Sometimes we get so focused on our buildings and our space needs and our technology needs, we forget that we want to continue to enrich our curriculum and keep it current and fresh and engaging so our children want to learn.”
Coles also stated that several board members wanted to read the books themselves believing they sounded really interesting.
