One of the biggest things stopping kids from developing a lifelong love of reading is the "let's not offend anyone" drivel they are forced to read in the lower grades. It took until about 8th grade to actually come across required-for-school reading that I enjoyed - 'To Kill a Mockingbird' and 'Flowers for Algernon' - and that was in a suburban, progressive school district. When reading is "the thing that teachers make you do," and with the material that is typically chosen, the thought that picking up a book could be done willingly is a foreign concept.
It's a matter of taste but where I'm from I think most people would consider 'To Kill a Mockingbird' "let's-not-offend-anyone drivel", then again I can see how in the US it would be more poignant than in countries with less history of racism.
According to the American Library Association, To Kill a Mockingbird is one of the more frequently challenged and banned books in the US. This page lists the dismaying details of what people saw fit to complain about:
Perhaps I'm misreading the parent, but I think he said "to Kill a Mockingbird" was one of the first required readings in school that did not fall into the drivel category.
Yes, and I'm saying where I grew up most people seemed to think it was outdated drivel. We live (where I live) are in a multicultural society with many immigrants living peacefully, and we found, from the people I know, TKaMB dry and mining lessons that have long been incorporated in our society.
I must respectfully disagree that it is outdated drivel. First, there are large pockets of racism still present throughout the US and the world at large. Even if you are fortunate enough to live in a place where it is simply not encountered, it will be encountered if you travel much.
Second, even if and when we reach a point in society where racism is truly gone, it is useful to know how we got there. To Kill a Mocking Bird not only helps show how society was before, it was itself a small piece of history that helped in a small way make society the way it is now with less racism.
Even if we reach a utopian day where its lessons are no longer relavent (and we are not there yet), it will remain a significant aid in understanding our history.
I just happen to think there are perhaps more important issues worth focussing on in schools such as materialism, environmentalism, the role of belief and science, what it means to be part of a society, the nature of democracy etc which are more timely and vital to introduce kids to.
Racism, in the first world other than the US, seems not dead but mortally wounded and we are ready to move on to the next problem to tackle.
I've traveled a fair bit across 6 continents and I don't think I've ever encountered a society that is simultaneously multi-cultural and without racism. I'm also a believer in the axiom that those who don't remember the past are doomed to repeat it.
I can't comment on the dryness of TKaMB though I would say that it does contain enough elements of typical human drama to be more than "a book about racism".
