Chicago schools CEO bans Persepolis from classrooms.
Chicago schools are doing a lot of controversial things right now, like closing schools, forming more charter schools, despite the outrage of students, parents, and teachers.
I loved the words of a teachers' union member in this video and article:
"I'm kind of baffled by it," said CTU's Kristine Mayle. "The only thing I can think of is they don't want our children reading about revolution as they're closing our schools down."
Chicago students protest after Persepolis pulled from classrooms
The book depicts various acts of violence, including torture, in the context of the revolution, and that's why CPS has now deemed it inappropriate for teaching in 7th grade classrooms and younger, a move to which the American Library Association objects.
"It reflects the totalitarian society that this book is actually all about, because this book is about the Iranian revolution," said the ALA's Barbara Jones
The book had been approved for this year's 7th grade curriculum, but CPS says CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett decided to pull it from classrooms after reviewing the novel.
In a letter sent to principals, Byrd-Bennett writes, "If your seventh grade teachers have not yet taught this book, please ask them not to do so and to remove any copies of the book from their classrooms."
There seems to be some confusion as to whether Byrd-Bennett asked the book to be removed from school libraries.
'Persepolis' Memoir Isn't Appropriate For Seventh-Graders, CPS Boss Says
The controversy was sparked by reports of an email sent Thursday in which the Lane Tech principal told school staff members that he was informed by one of the CPS' Network Instructional Support Leaders group that all ISLs were given a deadline of Friday to make sure the book was not in the library, that it had not been checked out by a student or teacher, that it was not used in "any classrooms" and "to collect the autobiographic graphic novel by Marjane Satrapi from all classrooms and the Library."
"I was not provided a reason for the collection of 'Persepolis,'" Dignam's message concluded.
A second email, sent from the principal later the same day, revised the previous directive, exempting removal from the library.
In her statement, Byrd-Bennett said, "We are not requesting that you remove 'Persepolis' from your central school library."
Chicago has been under the mayoral control of Rahm Emanuel. A lawyer and parent there reminded us of the problems there in in a speech during the recent strike of the Chicago Teachers Union
Farmer’s method for exposing the hypocrisy that exists between the rhetoric and the reality of power brokers making public school policy is dramatic and effective. Farmer puts billionaire Chicago Board of Education member Penny Prizker on trial at this CTU rally. By all accounts, the University of Chicago Lab School, where Professor John Dewey first began testing his educational theories in 1896, is indeed an excellent place. The point here is that it offers the model for what politicos, phony philanthropists, and power brokers should want for all children, not just their own. We need to put all politicos, phony philanthropists, and power brokers on trial, exposing what they give to their own children but withhold from everybody else’s.
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Detention sites all over the world...isn't a topic of discussion in Chicago Schools either... When our own media barely covered it and won't even cover why Gitmo is still open and that the detainees there who were cleared of terrorist charges are on hunger strike because no hope is left to them...then I guess discussions "while we are at war" are what might have been behind that decision by her...
And as far as unrinating on people and other war atrocities...I guess what some soldiers have done in Iraq and Afghanistan isn't to be discussed because it's too sensitive for those 7-10th graders to hear about. I wonder what are the most popular movies, video games and TV Shows are for that age group are these days? 
Does she think they don't have access to You Tube, either?
