Overzealous parents, concerned about the corruption of their young children, often do not distinguish between art, literature and sleaze. Libraries therefore have to contend with repeated attempts at banning books. Targets include perennial favorites such as The Catcher In The Rye and sometimes even Shakespeare and Harry Potter. For some particularly nervous prudes, legitimate and even very good art can offend sensibilities. There is no difference in their eyes between the depiction of nudity in a classical statue and salacious and suggestive nakedness.
One school district in Texas is currently in the midst of a controversy relating to nudity in art. A fifth grade art teacher, who took her class out to a museum (at the behest of the school principal) is facing the wrath of parents and the school board. Her mistake? While on the tour, some of the children happened to see some nude statues displayed at the museum. The parents of one child complained to the school and the school took umbrage at the "carelessness" of the teacher. The teacher has refused to accept blame for any wrongdoing. The school board is threatening to suspend her.
Following is a fitting admonishment directed at the school board for its lack of maturity, from the Houston Chronicle:
Naked fear
Frisco school board needs to defend, not suspend, teacher in art uproar
In the sort of commotion that distorts discussion about moral values, a Frisco art teacher has been pulled from teaching after a parent complained one of the teacher’s students glimpsed nudity.
In a statue. At an art museum.
Both the parent’s objection and Frisco Independent School District’s panicked response expose little more than naked fear. But while a parent has the right to act on worries for an individual child, it’s a school board’s job to fight any intimidation that threatens other children’s learning.
The Frisco school board needs to regain its vision and defend Sydney McGee.
Last April, McGee, an award-winning art teacher, took her principal’s advice and took her class to the Dallas Museum of Art. Such field trips give test-weary public school children a glimpse of the adult world at its imaginative best.
During the tour, however, one student spied a statue of a naked body and several other works with nudity in them. The child’s parent called McGee’s principal, who first reproved the teacher, then assigned her to a "growth program" — code for performance improvement regimen.
This month, after resisting that program, McGee was denied transfer to a different school and told she would be fired. After a closed-door school board meeting, she was suspended instead. While not teaching, she will receive her $55,000 salary until her contract expires this spring.
Maybe the concerned parent is an odd, latter-day Victorian. That’s what permission slips are for. It’s hard to imagine a 21st century American unaware of what lies behind the doors of art museums, or that Western art includes a nude or two. More likely the parent was afraid: overwhelmed by the amoral sexuality, violence and predatory treatment of women that assault their children each hour on television.
The antidote to that fear is just what McGee was offering: guidance from a trained adult who explains the value of the images an acclaimed art museum offers. Parents who don’t agree with mainstream values can remove their children from the mainstream.
Frisco ISD, however, shouldn’t have a choice. Its role is to prepare students for their world — a world far richer than the scribbles on a TAKS test. The school board should fiercely defend teachers who perform this job.
After the statue scandal broke, Frisco’s school board stated that it suspended McGee’s due to pre-existing performance problems — not a bullying parent or a naked statue. So far, though, the board has produced scant evidence. If the board members can’t offer some proof quickly, they should prove their courage as educators instead by returning McGee to her classroom."
If they wish, parents can always keep their children away from museums and libraries so that they will not stumble upon and be corrupted by this, this or this . Fine with me. But can they also perpetually shield kids from TV news and newspapers so that they don’t accidentally come across this, this or this?
As a parent and teacher, I am fully cognizant of the fact that not all art or literature is appropriate for all ages. That is the judgement we adults make for the benefit of the younger generation. Even then children are occasionally exposed to age inappropriate material – more often than not, OUTSIDE libraries and museums. Instead of going into a tizzy, the job of parents, teachers and other adults is to provide them with a suitable explanation and proper context of their experience. I also realize that not all adults are capable of a mature reaction in an unexpected situation. I was therefore not very surprised that the parents of one child found the museum experience alarming. But an entire school board consisting presumably of educated adults? It is quite pathetic that they chose to act with misplaced puritanism rather than side with the teacher and reason with the parents.
Note: For me personally, what is being described here , qualifies as obscene.
Accidental Blogger 
4 responses to “Artful Ignorance”
The NY Times article gives some more insights too. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was just a sort of witchhunt to get rid of an experienced teacher on the higher end of the salary scale. In the end, it could be less about art than it might be about school politics and the increasingly intolerant mindset that school boards and administrations are starting to show all over the US ( including our own Talibornagain school board majority! :( )
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The NYT article definitely arouses suspicions about the school board’s ulterior motives. A school district where computers outnumber students, 3:1 and they can’t afford a $55,000 salary for a teacher with 28 years’ experience? Sounds like the typical corporate policy of firing older employees and replacing them with “cheaper” and younger ones. What a bunch of sharks. I hope the parents rise in revolt.
“Talibornagain?” :-) I’ll consider making that a category on the blog.
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The way things are going, ‘Talibornagain’ is probably going to be a much used category!
In my little corner of the US, I’ve been seeing a strong and new surge in ‘Left Behind’ fans at the local library, “Christian romance novels” ( think Nora Roberts with lavish Bible quotes, ‘my lord Jesus Christ’, No Premarital Sex, etc.), ‘Christian mommy-lit’ ( Allison Reddy style meanderings with generous doses of Mathew, Isaiah and Luke) Interesting, what it portends for the future of our township.
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This is, of course, the tip of the iceberg. The American Library Association monitors these sorts of intellectual freedom issues. See, for example, their lists of challenged and banned books.
The hypocrisy is palpable. I recall attending a concert with my parents decades ago, Frank Sinatra, no less. (My parents were quite temperate when it came to “protecting” their children from what they recognized as an inescapable cultural reality. One of my earliest LP purchases was the soundtrack to the stage production of Hair, which includes a lovely ditty about masturbation and assorted other sexual activities. When I first played it, my mother was not exactly shocked, but perhaps startled. Her cautious response perfectly indicated to me the special nature of the material, but didn’t give me occasion to go on obsessing over the “good parts.”) The opening act at the concert was a comedian, a fellow who had appeared on countless mid-day television talk shows and the like. He was utterly filthy. It struck me then that all of “their” generation’s whining about “kids these days” was shear hypocrisy. Such is the case, I expect, with this school board.
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