School, Parents Find Common Ground On 'Mockingbird' Play

[The Straight Story]

School, Parents Find Common Ground On 'Mockingbird' Play

LEWIS CENTER, Ohio — Middle school students have been reading the novel for decades, but when a high school theater department decided to take "To Kill A Mockingbird" to the stage, some expressed concerns over the racially-charged dialogue.

But the show will go on after school administrators and parents reached common ground about the performance and its message, 10TV's Glenn McEntyre reported on Tuesday.

On Friday, students at Olentangy Orange High School will tackle the tale of racial injustice in 1930s America, complete with racial epithets that were common during that time.

"The use of the N-word is in the show," said drama teacher and director Cathy Swain-Abrams. "But it is historically accurate language."

http://www.10tv.com/live/content/local/stories/2010/11/03/story-lewis-center-to-kill-a-mockingbird-play.html?sid=102

[HopeHoops]

1. My youngest daughter (15) noticed that movie in our LaserDisc collection and got really excited.

It is on the short list of "things to watch" now. We don't do TV (I turned it off about '82) and rarely watch more than one movie a week. Holidays are the exception. We watched both Ghostbusters movies Friday night, Addams family on Saturday, and Casper on Halloween.

[LWolf]

2. I had the same conversation with an 8th grader who is reading "Huckleberry Finn" last week.

He's an Asperger's student. He asked me what a "nigger" was, which sparked a long explanation of historical language and historical context.