Advertisement

We need your help now

Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.

You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.

If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.

Shutterstock/fizkes

Government urged to drop novels with 'racial slurs' from Junior Cert syllabus in response to Black Lives Matter protests

Parents, pupils and teachers have called for an update the school curriculum.

THE DEPARTMENT OF Education has said it is considering suggestions it should remove certain novels from the school curriculum in the wake of this year’s Black Lives Matter protests.

It follows complaints from members of the public in recent months about a number of works on the Junior and Leaving Certificate syllabuses which contain racial slurs.

Correspondence seen by TheJournal.ie shows that parents, pupils and teachers called on the Department to update the school curriculum after demonstrations against racism were held across the country and the world this summer.

The global protests started in the US city of Minneapolis in May following the killing of George Floyd, who died after an officer held a knee to his neck until he suffocated. 

Emails to Education Minister Norma Foley show how several people took issue with the appearance of Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird and John Steinbeck’s novella Of Mice and Men on the syllabus.

The novels, which are both set in the American South and contain the use of the n-word, are among 20 prescribed texts for second and third year students who will sit their Junior Certificate from 2021 to 2023.

However, many people told the Minister that the books could no longer be deemed acceptable reading material, particularly in light of the Black Lives Matter protests.

“Black children have found it very uncomfortable when made to sit in classrooms where their classmates and peers are reading this material,” a parent of a black teenager, whose complaint was released under the Freedom of Information Act, wrote.

“[They] are often asked to read the book out loud in class and the effect this horrendous word being pronounced in their presence has on them.”

Another parent said their daughter felt uncomfortable as the only non-white person in their class when the n-word was read out by their teacher, to what she said was the “glee” of some other students. 

And in another email to the minister, two students claimed that the books allowed pupils to read racial slurs, despite lacking a full knowledge about how offensive they are.

“We can teach students about racism and read about the racism from these novels without using the racial slurs,” they wrote.

‘Diverse and inclusive’ 

In response to complaints from one parent about To Kill a Mockingbird, a spokesperson for Minister Norma Foley pointed out requirements for schools to have anti-bullying strategies and that schools have the autonomy to determine which texts were suitable.

The spokesperson also said it was intended that texts prescribed for the Junior and Leaving Certificate are diverse and inclusive, pointing to alternatives by people of colour like Chinua Achebe’s novel Things Fall Apart and Noughts and Crosses by Malorie Blackman.

Others who contacted the minster also suggested that the Junior and Leaving Certificate curricula should be updated to include more voices and experiences of people of colour.

One person suggested the minister should add Why I Am No Longer Talking To White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge and The Good Immigrant by Nikesh Shukla to the syllabus, as they felt this would help to diversify the English curriculum.

There were additional calls for the inclusion of more poets of colour, works by Maya Angelou, Toni Morrison and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichi, and the inclusion of more black history on the History curriculum.

In a statement to TheJournal.ie, a Department of Education spokesperson said it had received a number of queries about the issue of texts featuring racial slurs.

The spokesperson said complaints which suggested changes to the curriculum were “being considered by both the Department and the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment”.

“As part of this Department’s ongoing curricular reform, issues in relation to inclusivity/diversity etc. will be considered as part of the ongoing reviews in relation to the curriculum at both primary and post-primary level,” the spokesperson added.

Readers like you are keeping these stories free for everyone...
A mix of advertising and supporting contributions helps keep paywalls away from valuable information like this article. Over 5,000 readers like you have already stepped up and support us with a monthly payment or a once-off donation.

Close
168 Comments
This is YOUR comments community. Stay civil, stay constructive, stay on topic. Please familiarise yourself with our comments policy here before taking part.
Leave a Comment
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Mazza86
    Favourite Mazza86
    Report
    Sep 6th 2019, 1:36 PM

    South Africa is taking a similar path…

    161
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute ➕The Gray➕
    Favourite ➕The Gray➕
    Report
    Sep 6th 2019, 2:16 PM

    @Mazza86: is? Already happening, riots on the streets a couple of weeks back.

    57
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute ➕The Gray➕
    Favourite ➕The Gray➕
    Report
    Sep 6th 2019, 2:19 PM

    Will our leftist president send his condolences I wonder.

    102
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Terry McClatchey
    Favourite Terry McClatchey
    Report
    Sep 6th 2019, 1:40 PM

    At that time, Mugabe was seen as similar to Nelson Mandela. Their paths diverged later.

    70
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute The long walk home☘️
    Favourite The long walk home☘️
    Report
    Sep 6th 2019, 2:12 PM

    @Terry McClatchey: in the 80′s Charlie Haughey was regarded as a respected statesman and Thatcher had among her pals Pinochet.

    73
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute CBD HeavenSent
    Favourite CBD HeavenSent
    Report
    Sep 6th 2019, 1:30 PM

    The Blueshirts still fall over themselves when their British royalty steps foot on our nation. Watching the likes of Bruton and Kenny creaming themselves is truly sickening.

    104
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Clifford Brennan
    Favourite Clifford Brennan
    Report
    Sep 6th 2019, 1:37 PM

    @CBD HeavenSent: Yes, normalising relations between our two countries is sickening. When McGuinness shook hands with the British Queen, and Adams shook hands with Prince Charles I’d say you must have fainted. Poor lad.

    165
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute The Great Unwashed
    Favourite The Great Unwashed
    Report
    Sep 6th 2019, 1:40 PM

    @CBD HeavenSent:
    Is that what you took from this story??

    67
    See 7 more replies ▾
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute CBD HeavenSent
    Favourite CBD HeavenSent
    Report
    Sep 6th 2019, 1:49 PM

    @Clifford Brennan: Those meetings were meaningful acts that built bridges and showed that the Brits had finally realised that the Oirish were their equals and should be finally treated as such.

    John Brutons meeting the royals “the greatest day of my life” was nothing more than a cap doffing kowtowing of a loyal West Brit subject to his superior. If he had royal ascent to kiss their arse I have no doubt he would have done it also.

    38
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute The Great Unwashed
    Favourite The Great Unwashed
    Report
    Sep 6th 2019, 2:11 PM

    @CBD HeavenSent:
    Sorry to be the one to break it to you but he didn’t actually say that – it’s an urban myth:
    https://www.independent.ie/opinion/comment/irishness-means-more-than-hating-england-37092068.html

    34
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Clifford Brennan
    Favourite Clifford Brennan
    Report
    Sep 6th 2019, 2:22 PM

    @CBD HeavenSent: Your first mistake is thinking that McGuinness/Adams represented the Irish nation. They didn’t. Those handshakes represented the concluding act of the so called war. Not sure why you’ve (deliberately?) quoted a line Bruton never actually said, either. Maybe you need a lie down. :)

    39
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Chin Feeyin
    Favourite Chin Feeyin
    Report
    Sep 6th 2019, 2:28 PM

    @Clifford Brennan: “not sure why you’ve quoted a line Bruton never actually said”

    He probably saw it on Facebook!!

    28
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Tommy Roche
    Favourite Tommy Roche
    Report
    Sep 6th 2019, 3:26 PM

    @The Great Unwashed: Now that you have set him straight, will CBD now, A. Admit his error. Or B. Completely ignore you and continue to spread that particular myth. Tough one to call, but I’m gonna guess A.

    18
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute The Great Unwashed
    Favourite The Great Unwashed
    Report
    Sep 6th 2019, 4:33 PM

    @Tommy Roche:
    Don’t be putting any money it, that’s all I’ll say…
    ;-)

    8
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute John Hanrahan
    Favourite John Hanrahan
    Report
    Sep 7th 2019, 7:47 AM

    @CBD HeavenSent: You’re an idiot. Has nothing to do with the Blue Shirts. Stay on the subject.

    1
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Des Hanrahan
    Favourite Des Hanrahan
    Report
    Sep 6th 2019, 2:01 PM

    Mugabe turned out to be corrupt and a thug in the end. However, there us one point about the land seizures that doesn’t get mentioned. Under the agreement that ended the war there, White farmers were to give up their lands and be compensated by the British and Zimbabwean governments (on a 50/50 basis) after 20 years. When the time came to impliment this the British /Tony Blair renaged on their side of the agreement. So Zimbabwe sized the land without compensation in retaliation.

    43
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute The Great Unwashed
    Favourite The Great Unwashed
    Report
    Sep 6th 2019, 2:23 PM

    @Des Hanrahan:
    Partially true, but the agreement only applied by consent, ie. subsidies would be made available where farmers willingly wanted to sell their land – no farmer was under any obligation to sell up.

    34
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute The Great Unwashed
    Favourite The Great Unwashed
    Report
    Sep 6th 2019, 2:45 PM

    @Des Hanrahan:
    Plenty of money was actually paid over – Blair only pulled the plug on the scheme when the allocated pot ran dry in the late 90s.

    17
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Willy
    Favourite Willy
    Report
    Sep 6th 2019, 1:43 PM

    It’s a blue shirt thing…

    30
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Damon16
    Favourite Damon16
    Report
    Sep 6th 2019, 1:56 PM

    @Willy: you do know that from the beginning Mugabe was a marxist in the Castro mould. He was praised by socialists everywhere. As usual it all ended in tears. And until very recently there were many a western comrade willing to write glowing articles about Mugabe and his legacy in the pages of hip marxist magazines.

    59
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Chin Feeyin
    Favourite Chin Feeyin
    Report
    Sep 6th 2019, 2:07 PM

    @Willy: Mugabe was a Marxist like your crowd.

    28
    See 1 more reply ▾
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Greedylocks
    Favourite Greedylocks
    Report
    Sep 6th 2019, 2:08 PM

    @Willy: devalera sent his condolences to the germans on the dimise off one Adolf Hitler on behalf of the Irish people. Ffg are one and same.

    12
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute thephantomshit
    Favourite thephantomshit
    Report
    Sep 6th 2019, 1:35 PM

    Impressive chap but he was no Idid Amin. Now there was a guest worth having over for dinner!

    21
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute The Great Unwashed
    Favourite The Great Unwashed
    Report
    Sep 6th 2019, 1:42 PM

    @thephantomshit:
    Not that different – birds of a feather.

    26
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Juan Fangio
    Favourite Juan Fangio
    Report
    Sep 6th 2019, 1:59 PM

    @thephantomshit: Over for dinner, but keep the kids out of sight.

    13
    See 2 more replies ▾
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute DaMoons
    Favourite DaMoons
    Report
    Sep 6th 2019, 3:42 PM

    @The Great Unwashed: Agreed, both put in place by the Brits.

    2
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute The Great Unwashed
    Favourite The Great Unwashed
    Report
    Sep 6th 2019, 4:40 PM

    @DaMoons:
    Wrong on both counts, but hey, why let small details like facts get in the way of a good rant eh?

    7
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute J. Reid
    Favourite J. Reid
    Report
    Sep 6th 2019, 2:33 PM

    This says it all about Garrett FitzGerald’s judgement, or lack thereof.

    17
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Chin Feeyin
    Favourite Chin Feeyin
    Report
    Sep 6th 2019, 3:53 PM

    @J. Reid: well, you wouldn’t remember this, but Mugabe managed to fool a lot of people into believing he was the real deal.

    19
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Michael Walsh
    Favourite Michael Walsh
    Report
    Sep 6th 2019, 7:58 PM

    @Chin Feeyin: a lot of people fooled Garrett Fitzgerald

    3
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Paula Mackie Senior
    Favourite Paula Mackie Senior
    Report
    Sep 6th 2019, 5:43 PM

    Good riddance! He destroyed the *breadbasket of Africa * by greed. Anyone check his Swiss bank accounts?

    20
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Cormac Ó Braonáin
    Favourite Cormac Ó Braonáin
    Report
    Sep 7th 2019, 7:22 AM

    @Paula Mackie Senior: breadbasket of Africa? For the white minority in power. The same way Ireland was the breadbasket of the British empire in the 1840s.

    1
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Tom Bombdadil
    Favourite Tom Bombdadil
    Report
    Sep 6th 2019, 3:25 PM

    We have a long history of supporting clowns, Haughey, Bertie, Cowan, Kenny.

    22
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Neville Bartos
    Favourite Neville Bartos
    Report
    Sep 6th 2019, 4:24 PM

    Wonder if we will see a similar article in 20 years time about Mahmoud Abbas

    10
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Desmond Lyons
    Favourite Desmond Lyons
    Report
    Sep 6th 2019, 3:56 PM

    That goes to show just how thick Brian Lenihan was!

    8
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Michael Walsh
    Favourite Michael Walsh
    Report
    Sep 6th 2019, 7:59 PM

    @Desmond Lyons: He was far from thick

    4
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Garreth Byrne
    Favourite Garreth Byrne
    Report
    Sep 6th 2019, 9:34 PM

    One Irish politician/former politician, Conor Cruise O’Brien, was not impressed in the late 1970s by Robert Mugabe. After a British television discussion in 1979 Mugabe privately told O’Brien that he was not a friend of the struggle against colonialism and O’Brien replied that after colonialism it was important for African nationalists to abide by democratic politics. We now know – we knew in the early 1980s – that Mugabe instigated the police murders of thousands of anti-government people in Matabeleland.

    6
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Aaron Jones
    Favourite Aaron Jones
    Report
    Sep 6th 2019, 3:10 PM

    Yeah but he was a dictator that fooled everyone to assert control over he own country and people.

    9
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Gordon Walsh
    Favourite Gordon Walsh
    Report
    Sep 6th 2019, 1:54 PM

    The white farmers bred Rhodeshian Ridgebacks to dislike/attack dark skinned people – guess it wasn’t enough to stop the “land reforms’

    14
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute John Walsh
    Favourite John Walsh
    Report
    Sep 6th 2019, 5:14 PM

    “One man’s freedom fighter is another man’s terrorist ”
    Springs to mind

    6
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Cormac Ó Braonáin
    Favourite Cormac Ó Braonáin
    Report
    Sep 7th 2019, 7:26 AM

    @John Walsh: the founder of Zimbabwe and a hero to his people. Single-handedly irradicated the apartheid, imperialist system the Brits had implemented. Unfortunately our media comes from the West.

    3
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Mike Conway
    Favourite Mike Conway
    Report
    Sep 6th 2019, 3:51 PM

    Acceptable in the 2010s: Ireland once regarded Trump as a respected statesman and honoured guest

    4
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute paul kelly
    Favourite paul kelly
    Report
    Sep 6th 2019, 9:06 PM

    We are very lucky the Brits paid for land redistribution, pity they did not do the same in Rhodesia/ZImbabwe

    2
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute The Great Unwashed
    Favourite The Great Unwashed
    Report
    Sep 7th 2019, 12:16 AM

    @paul kelly:
    They did for almost 20 years following Zimbabwe’s independence.

    5
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Fergal Pigat
    Favourite Fergal Pigat
    Report
    Sep 6th 2019, 3:31 PM

    Rot in Hell

    19
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute TamuMassif2019
    Favourite TamuMassif2019
    Report
    Sep 7th 2019, 12:51 PM

    Under a FG government at the time???

    1
Submit a report
Please help us understand how this comment violates our community guidelines.
Thank you for the feedback
Your feedback has been sent to our team for review.

Leave a commentcancel

 
JournalTv
Video Player is loading.
Current Time 0:00
Duration 0:00
Loaded: 0%
Stream Type LIVE
Remaining Time 0:00
 
1x
    • descriptions off, selected
    • captions off, selected
      News in 60 seconds