3.  School Board Election - Who's Running?

1.  June 16 School Board Meeting

   The meeting was preceded by a study session. The board reviewed progress on goals it set for 2004-05 and discussed the many which were met by Dr. Peterson and the district; one item discussed was the district's comprehensive written vision and how staff, administration, board and public awareness of it are helping to shape district progress. This discussion continues June 30 when the board meets for the Superintendent's annual review.

   Dave Adney, Principal at MHS answered questions about Mini School (a school within MHS for students unable to succeed in typical classroom settings).  Mr. Adney emphasized that Mini School students are not academically deficient; they are different learners.  He also pointed out that by high school, educators are reactive to kids' learning issues; reaching kids in grades 5-8 would be proactive. Discussion about some of the ways the board can support students served by Mini School; more discussions and plans to follow.

   The Board reviewed the 2004 MN Student Survey data on issues such as school climate, truancy, health, activities, computer use (6th, 9th & 12th graders) and sexual behavior (9th & 12th graders). The data on alcohol/drug use and attitudes was reviewed earlier this year. Some numbers: 99% girls/96% boys of Minnetonka 6th graders expect to go on to college and/or graduate school. Bill Wenmark said all the percentages were interesting, but were there any numbers for pregnancies and abortions or kids who identify themselves as homosexual?  The answer was No, and Mr. Wenmark didn't say why he was asking. The Board will discuss the data further; no timeline has been set. The survey seemed to show Minnetonka kids are generally healthy, happy and productive. More information on the survey is available from Imogen Davis or the Minnetonka Family Collaborative.

   Tim Litfin and Meg Low of MCES talked about changes at The Pier, the after-hours student center at MHS; the Board affirmed their support for it, and for students taking a greater part in running it.

   Board Meeting:  All members present except Dave Eaton, who was on vacation.

   Tom Berge, district finance director, explained the district's AA1 Bond rating.  A roomful of applause at this announcement! The district built the budget without counting on an increase in state aid (as of this writing, the special session has not produced a state budget).

   Claudia Risnes, district director of teaching, presented the new elementary report card.  There were many comments written by teachers in support of the changes, and it's expected that this will better communicate progress to parents, as well as point out weaker areas sooner.

2.  Huck Finn = Pedophilia?  Well, no, as it turns out.

    Diane Eaton, a parent in the district, filed an Objection to Content of Instructional Materials in March 2005, objecting to the way Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is taught in some 10^th Grade English classes at MHS.  Among her objections was the “promotion of pedophilia to minors” and “not relevant to topics that we were told would be discussed (race).”  She suggests students read Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, or some other "commentary on race."

    In a March 10, 2005 letter attached to her complaint and addressed to David Adney, Principal at MHS, Ms. Eaton writes that in her research of a commentary studied by students during the Huck Finn unit (a literary criticism essay by Jane Smiley) “I found no basis of truth or evidence to back up the wild assertion that there is homoerotic attraction between Huck Finn and Jim.”

   Ms. Eaton writes, “If you are using this kind of commentary with Huck Finn we all begin to wonder, ‘what else are they feeding our kids?’” and “Promoting pedophilia to minors is actually against the law in Minnesota.”

   Ms. Eaton states that trust has been broken because the teacher told them at conferences that race is a theme in Huck Finn, but nothing was mentioned about homosexuality.

    On April 12, 2005, the Committee on Reevaluation of Material met to discuss Diane Eaton’s complaint.  Ms. Eaton requested that the article, “Say It Ain’t So, Huck: Second Thoughts on Mark Twain’s “Masterpiece” by Jane Smiley, be discontinued as a supplement to the Grade 10 English Huck Finn unit because the article was not relevant to the topic of race, and promoted pedophilia.

   From the Report on Materials Review Committee Findings of Fact: “The committee reviewed the Citizen’s Request for Materials Consideration, the Material Selection Policy, and considered other district policies to help set the context for decision-making.  The group had researched reviews of the article and of the author, Jane Smiley.  Members could not find evidence in the article that it promoted pedophilia.  The article is intended as a commentary and an opinion.  They determined that race did seem to be the predominant theme and the article was a general critique of Mark Twain’s writing.”

The Committee held a public discussion that day and reached a unanimous decision in the presence of Ms. Eaton.

Decision: The article may continue to be used for Grade 10 English.

Appeal: This decision of the Committee shall be for one year unless appealed to the School Board.  Appeal may be made to the School Board in writing to the Superintendent.

The committee numbers 11 people and includes 2 students (both of whom, as it happened, had read Huck Finn and the commentaries with their English class the previous year), 5 parents, 1 principal, 1 school board member and 2 staff members.  All signed in agreement with the decision and it is now part of the public record of the school district.

The Rest of the Story:

   Diane Eaton’s written complaint and letter are somewhat garbled, but we’re having a go at sorting it out. In reading her entire complaint and the attached one page letter, it appears that Ms. Eaton may not have actually read the article about which she complains; if she did read it, it seems she doesn’t have a firm grasp of its main points.

   Jane Smiley’s commentary is one of several read and discussed by students in 10^th Grade English during the Huck Finn unit, particularly in 10X (accelerated); other literary criticism/commentary studied includes those by T.S. Eliot and Toni Morrison.  The unit lasts several days; many students bring both the book and supplementary packet home to study and/or share with their families.

   As is often the case in our high school curriculum, supplementary materials are used in addition to texts to allow students to use critical thinking skills to examine other viewpoints.

   The main theme of Jane Smiley’s commentary is that Huck Finn may not deserve canonization as a great American novel, especially in regard to the way it addresses racism.  Jane Smiley refers to earlier commentaries on the novel, including one by Leslie Fieldler, who argued in his still-controversial 1948 essay that he saw sexual attraction between Huck Finn and Jim, the escaped slave.  Ms. Smiley does not assert her agreement with this view; she asserts her disagreement with many of the arguments made by several generations of commentators.  (Since Mark Twain died in 1910, he can't respond personally to Mr. Fieldler, Ms. Smiley, or Ms. Eaton, nor to most of the thousands of pages written about Huck Finn.)  Mark Twain, himself, said his book showed "in a crucial moral emergency, a sound heart is a safer guide than an ill-trained conscience." (1895)

   Near the end of her essay, Jane Smiley writes,”…the entry of Huck Finn into classrooms sets the terms of the discussion of racism and American history, and sets them very low: all you have to do to be a hero is acknowledge that your poor sidekick is human; you don’t actually have to act in the interests of his humanity.” 

   Jane Smiley argues that children ought to read Uncle Tom’s Cabin, because “Stowe’s novel is clearly and unmistakably a tragedy.  No whitewash, no secrets, but evil, suffering, imagination, endurance, and redemption – just like life.”  She concludes by saying, “… our children want to know what is going on, what has gone on, and what we intend to do about it.  If ‘great’ literature has any purpose, it is to help us face up to our responsibilities instead of enabling us to avoid them…”

   Do you agree or disagree with Jane Smiley's views of Huck Finn?  Plenty to discuss either way, isn't there?

   A quick search on the web will yield many commentaries and articles about Huck Finn. 

http://www.literaryhistory.com/19thC/Twain.htm might be a good place to start.

Jane Smiley’s essay, originally published in Harper’s Magazine in December 1995, is harder to find; it’s included in the Norton Critical Edition, Third Edition, of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

   Of Note: Diane Eaton claims to act on behalf of a group of parents, but doesn’t say how many nor who they are. In addition, she uses the pronoun “we” when she describes a conference with an English teacher; it isn’t clear to whom “we” refers.

   Ms. Eaton is the wife of Dave Eaton of the Minnetonka School Board.