Last week reports gathered that Chicago Public Schools was going to pull Marjane Satrapi’s graphic novel Persepolis after some questioned its appropriateness for seventh-graders. According to Robot 6, the Chicago Public Schools CEO has decided that the book should remain in the schools, but not be used as material for seventh graders.
After directing principals to have seventh-grade teachers remove the book from their classroom, Byrd-Bennett said that “due to the powerful images of torture,” she has asked the Office of Teaching & Learning to develop guidelines so educators “can be trained to present this strong but important content.” The district will also decide whether, “after appropriate teacher training,” Persepolis should be included in the curriculum for grades eight through 10.
Persepolis, first published in 2000, is a graphic novel about Marjane’s childhood and teen years during and after the Islamic revolution. In 2010, Newsweek ranked the book #5 on its list of the ten best fiction books of the decade.
Books should never be taken out of any schools or libraries. It’s not like the book promoted torture. Would they remove the diary of Anne Frank for the same reason?
I’d bet they would if the Diary of Anne Frank had pictures… People are much, much more afraid of pictures than words, in general…