DeSantis often says he wants to make the rest of America more like Florida.
The rest of the country is getting a glimpse of what that might mean after the acclaimed poem written by Amanda Gorman for Biden’s inauguration was taken off the shelves of a school's elementary section after a parent complained. This was the latest in a nationwide spate of bans on items of literature that conservative critics say contradict their political or religious beliefs.
CNN's Andy Rose and Eric Levenson write that a parent of a student at Bob Graham Education Center -- a kindergarten through eighth grade school in Miami Lakes -- objected to Gorman’s poem “The Hill We Climb.
”It is not educational and have (sic) indirectly hate messages,” the complaint said, adding that the poem would “cause confusion and indoctrinate students.” The complainant erroneously cited talk show host Oprah Winfrey as the author of the poem.
A review panel at the school decided to move the Gorman poem and two other disputed items to the library’s middle school section. The move is the latest consequence of a Florida law that requires the approval of books in classrooms and grants any parent the power to complain about specific works. This and other “parental rights” laws have been used to ban works on LGBTQ issues, social justice and even math textbooks.
Gorman, the nation’s first-ever youth poet laureate, was 22 when she performed “The Hill We Climb” at Biden’s inauguration in 2021. Inspired by the Capitol insurrection two weeks earlier, the 700-word poem criticized the “force that would shatter our nation rather than share it” and spoke about the need for justice and social change.
“The new dawn blooms as we free it,” concludes the poem. “For there is always light, if only we’re brave enough to see it, if only we’re brave enough to be it.”
Gorman was “gutted” by the district’s decision, she said in a statement.
“I wrote ‘The Hill We Climb’ so that all young people could see themselves in a historical moment. Ever since, I’ve received countless letters and videos from children inspired by ‘The Hill We Climb’ to write their own poems,” she wrote. “Robbing children of the chance to find their voices in literature is a violation of their right to free thought and free speech.”
No comments:
Post a Comment