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Final Draft:

Yakima, Washington: 2013

Sherman Alexie’s novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, has been at the center of controversy in the West Valley School District since 2013. According to University Wire, this book has been at the top of many lists of banned books for several years in schools across the United States. This means that people have objected to certain content, theme, or language in this book. Specifically, many parents in Yakima, Washington claimed that the book contains inappropriate and sexual content and language that are unsuitable for high school students. They emphasized that there are plenty of other literature or texts aside from this book that can teach the same lesson or convey the same message. Therefore, these parents have attempted to remove the book from the required reading list for high school English classes of this specific district in Yakima, Washington.

Alexie’s autobiographical book tells the story of Arnold, a teenage boy who lives on the Spokane Indian reservation, but goes to school outside of the reservation to receive better education. The novel contains themes such alcoholism, poverty, hopelessness, racism, and even bullying. However, Alexie uses humor and cartoons to provide an uplifting approach to these serious issues that arise in the world today.

The West Valley district’s Instructional Materials Committee had previously approved Alexie’s novel to be taught in 11th and 12th grade English classes. However, many parents expressed concerns that the book had been taught in 10th grade English classes without going through the same approval process. The school officials responded that it was a complete mistake on their part for not knowing that the book must be approved again to be taught in a different class. For now, they have put the book on hold for 10th grade classes.

However, Josh McKimmy, a 10th grade English teacher at West Valley, spoke up in defense of teaching Alexie’s novel to his sophomore class. “The book is a gateway for reluctant readers,” he said. “It deals with issues [my] students are very familiar with as teenagers. They really identify with Junior’s problems… Kids struggle with identity; that’s kind of what high school is”. To McKimmy, the book is a way to educate his students about the modern problems that not only Native Americans, but also teenagers of any ethnicity face today. He is not teaching the book to create controversy, but rather to raise awareness of the problems that exist in the world that students may not have been exposed to.

But the parents have not been convinced. They claimed that the language in the book is far too extreme and insulting for certain groups of students. A parent named Alicia David complained saying, “West Valley is not very diverse. And I feel like when you have this kind of language that comes up, it’s important to make sure that you’re sensitive to other people who are not like you”.

The West Valley School District acknowledged its mistake of failing to officially approve of teaching the book in 10th grade classes. Thus, the school district has temporarily stopped teaching the book for sophomores. Furthermore, there have been four official complaints about the book that have been recorded. However, the novel has not yet officially been removed from the reading list for 11th and 12th graders.

Multicultural Literature

A textbook called Sherman Alexie in the Classroom was recently published in order to help teachers and educators explore how multicultural texts can impact the learning outcome of students––especially for Native Americans in the modern times. This text explores the significance and the message behind the works of Sherman Alexie, including poetry, novels, films strips, and much more.

Sherman Alexie's novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, is a multicultural text that many English teachers use in order to educate their students about the Native American heritage. The author, Alexie, himself is of the Spokane heritage. This means that he has had first hand experience of being Native American and facing racism, which gives him the ability to be able to discuss these issues in the context of his ethnicity. As a result, he uses his own background and personal experiences to write this specific novel in an autobiographical format. However, many adults, especially parents, have rejected this book because they claim that the content and language of the novel are unsuitable for high school students. Other adults also claim that the presence of alcohol in the novel forms a mood of despair and sadness, which could influence children in negative ways. However, many teachers argue in defense of the novel. They refer to the textbook, Sherman Alexie in the Classroom, to claim that the book provides an opportunity to educate non-Native American students to “work through their white guilt and develop anti-racist perspectives”.

Having read and discussed the topics of Alexie's novel as a multicultural literature, a student named Hannah Wolf also argued in favor of Alexie’s novel. She claimed that the beginning of the book was very depressing and made her cry. However, as she kept reading, she discovered that Junior, the protagonist, started to stand up for himself and build more confidence. This testimony shows that a multicultural text such as this novel not only teaches students of one specific race to stand up for themselves, but also influences students of any race or ethnicity to maintain confidence and stick up for what they believe in.

Furthermore, Alexie’s text and novels encourage educators to initiate discussions in their classrooms about the Native American culture as a whole. Many stereotypes of Native Americans exist in the United States, therefore, many people have erroneous views of what modern Native Americans' lives are like. 11th and 12th grade English teacher, Bryan Ripley Crandall, believes that learning about different cultural backgrounds creates a diverse learning environment. Crandall also states that the Native American narrative of Alexie's book is a way of giving minority students an access to their own background and heritage within an American education. Therefore, Alexie’s multicultural literature of The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian provides an expanded perspective of the daily lives of Native Americans living on the reservation in today’s world.

First Draft:

In this article, I plan to provide more information about who supported the novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, and why it was supported. This article currently talks mostly about the controversy of the novel and why it was challenged or banned. Therefore, the readers will only understand the negative aspects of this novel, which creates a content gap. Therefore, I want to fill that gap and add in more information about cases in which the novel was maintained in the school curriculums, and instances where students or teachers fought for their rights to access the book. Furthermore, I want to talk about the importance of multicultural text in this wikipedia page article. The article currently has no information about multicultural literature, but I believe that this idea is significant to Sherman Alexie's novel. Therefore, I will attempt to discuss the benefits that this novel brings to its readers in educating them about the importance of multicultural perspective.

Yakima, Washington

Sherman Alexie’s novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, has been under a lot of controversy in the West Valley School District since 2013. Many parents claim that the book contains inappropriate and sexual content and language that is unsuitable to students in high school. They emphasize that there are plenty of other literature or texts aside from this book that may teach the same lesson or convey the same message. Therefore, these parents have attempted to completely remove the book from the required reading list for high school English classes (Yakima Herald-Republic).

Alexie’s autobiographical book tells the story of Arnold, a teenage boy who lives in the Spokane Indian reservation, but goes to school outside of the reservation to receive better education. The novel contains themes such alcoholism, poverty, hopelessness, racism, and even bullying. However, Alexie uses humor and cartoons to provide an uplifting approach to these serious issues that arise in the world today.

The West Valley district’s Instructional Materials Committee had previously approved Alexie’s novel to be taught to 11th and 12th graders in their English classes. However, many parents expressed concern that the book had been taught in 10th grade English classes without going through the same approval process. The district responded by stating that it was a complete mistake, for they had not known that the book had to be approved again to be taught in a different class; for now, they have put the book on hold for 10th grade classes (Yakima Herald-Republic).

However, Josh McKimmy, a 10th grade English teacher, spoke up in defense of teaching Alexie’s novel to his sophomore class. “The book is a gateway for reluctant readers,” he said. “it deals with issues [my] students are very familiar with as teenagers. They really identify with Junior’s problems… Kids struggle with identity; that’s kind of what high school is.” To McKimmy, the book is a way for him to educate his students about the modern problems that Native Americans face today. He is not teaching the book to create controversy, but rather to raise awareness of the problems that exist in the world that students may not have been exposed to.

But the parents have not been convinced. They claim that the language in the book is far too extreme and insulting for certain groups of students. A parent complained, “West Valley is not very diverse. And I feel like when you have this kind of language that comes up, it’s important to make sure that you’re sensitive to other people who are not like you” (David, Alicia).

The West Valley School District acknowledged its mistake of failing to officially approve the book for the 10th grade classes, so they temporarily stopped teaching the book for sophomores. And there have been 4 official complaints about the book that have been recorded, but the novel has not yet officially been removed from the reading list for 11th and 12th graders (Yakima Herald-Republic).

A Look at Educational Resources: Multicultural Literature

A textbook called “Sherman Alexie in the Classroom” was recently published in order to help teachers and educators explore the importance of multicultural text––especially for Native Americans in the modern times. This text explores the significance and the message behind the works of Sherman Alexie, including poetry, novels, films strips, and much more.

Sherman Alexie himself is of the Spokane heritage. This means that he has had first hand experience of being Native American and facing racism, which gives him the ability to be able to discuss these issues in the context of his own ethnicity. Therefore, he uses his own background and experiences to write many of his novels in an autobiographical format, just like he did with Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (Rave, Jodi). Many adults, especially parents, reject this book because they claim that the content and language of the novel is unsuitable to high school students. However, teachers argue in defense of the novel. They use the “Sherman Alexie in the Classroom” text to claim that the book provides an opportunity to teach non-Native American students to “work through their white guilt and develop anti-racist perspectives” (Baldwin, Umphrey, Bruce).

A student named Hannah Wolf also argued in favor of Alexie’s novel. She claimed that the beginning of the book was very depressing and made her cry. However, as she kept reading, she discovered that Junior, the protagonist, started to stand up for himself and build more confidence (Hannah Wolf). This shows that a multicultural text such as this novel not only teaches students of one specific race to stand up for themselves, but also influences students of any race or ethnicity to maintain confidence and stick up for what they believe in.

Furthermore, Alexie’s text and novels encourage educators to initiate discussions in their classroom about the Native American culture in general (Rave, Jodi). There exist many stereotypes against Native Americans in the United States, therefore, many people have an erroneous view of what modern Native American lives are like. However, Alexie’s multicultural text of Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian provides an expanded perspective and horizon into the daily lives of Native Americans living in the reservation in today’s world.