Dear Parents,
The Unit we are doing in Language Arts is Freedom Riders. The first book was a non-fiction book that discussed Freedom Riders and what they did for Civil Rights in the South.
The second book is also called Freedom Riders and is a mystery set in the early 60’s in the Deep South. These books discuss some important issues from the early 1960s. They also use some of the language of the time-period, so we have needed to discuss that in class.
A word from the book was chosen as a vocabulary word that is offensive. It was chosen with the idea that we needed to discuss that this kind of language needs to be used in the book to make it realistic to the time-period. We have also discussed how the use of this word was not considered as offensive in the early 1960’s Deep South – but today we would not use this word.
As we are reading the book, we are seeing how the main character’s mom still uses the older language, but the main character uses more politically correct language for the time-period. (As a side note: The word is actually used by an African American character about herself on page 27.)
Yes, I know the word is offensive and I don’t like it. It was not chosen to be offensive toward anyone in the class, but as an opportunity to discuss the issue as it relates to our book and time period. I am sorry if anyone took offense, but that was not the intent.
Sincerely,
Ms. Rodieck
[email protected]
The Unit we are doing in Language Arts is Freedom Riders. The first book was a non-fiction book that discussed Freedom Riders and what they did for Civil Rights in the South.
The second book is also called Freedom Riders and is a mystery set in the early 60’s in the Deep South. These books discuss some important issues from the early 1960s. They also use some of the language of the time-period, so we have needed to discuss that in class.
A word from the book was chosen as a vocabulary word that is offensive. It was chosen with the idea that we needed to discuss that this kind of language needs to be used in the book to make it realistic to the time-period. We have also discussed how the use of this word was not considered as offensive in the early 1960’s Deep South – but today we would not use this word.
As we are reading the book, we are seeing how the main character’s mom still uses the older language, but the main character uses more politically correct language for the time-period. (As a side note: The word is actually used by an African American character about herself on page 27.)
Yes, I know the word is offensive and I don’t like it. It was not chosen to be offensive toward anyone in the class, but as an opportunity to discuss the issue as it relates to our book and time period. I am sorry if anyone took offense, but that was not the intent.
Sincerely,
Ms. Rodieck
[email protected]