Suzan Harjo: 'Rethinking Columbus' taken out of classrooms

Tuesday, January 24, 2012  

"I learned about the banning of Rethinking Columbus: The Next 500 Years from Dr. Debbie Reese (Nambe Pueblo), who blogs at American Indians in Children’s Literature. She wrote on January 15 that my interview in the book “is no longer available in Tucson high schools due to the shut down of Mexican [American] Studies courses. Rethinking Columbus was boxed up and taken out of the classroom.”

Co-editor Bill Bigelow posted on Rethinking Schools Blog that the publisher “learned today that for the first time in its more-than-20-year history, our book Rethinking Columbus was banned by a school district.… What’s to fear? Rethinking Columbus offers teaching strategies and readings that teachers can use to help students consider perspectives that are too often silenced in the traditional curriculum.”

But, wait! Could it be that the book wasn’t banned? That’s what Tucson Unified School District claimed in a January 17 release: “TUSD has not banned any books as has been widely and incorrectly reported.”

Whew! So, no books are banned?"

Get the Story:
Suzan Shown Harjo: Rethinking Columbus: Book-Banning in Tucson (Indian Country Today 1/24)