 AGE APPROPRIATE? Parent Robert Edwards questioned the Toronto District School Board’s use of Margaret Attwood’s novel The Handmaids Tale in his son’s grade 12 English class.
But that’s what happened when Robert Edwards perused his 17-year-old son’s copy of Margaret Atwood’s <em>The Handmaid’s Tale</em> — assigned reading for his grade 12 English class at Lawrence Park Collegiate.
The gratuitous sex in the book has prompted Edwards to request it be removed from the Toronto District School Board’s curriculum.
And he wonders if a teacher overheard students quoting the book if they’d be able to differentiate their words from Penthouse Forum magazine.
“My point would be how do you expect 17-year-olds in mixed company to be discussing these situations,” he said. “You can discuss the themes in the book but I’ll tell you the sexuality and the situation of the handmaids permeates the entire book.”
Secondary to the sexual themes, Edwards said the anti-Christian subtext adds further negatives to the novel.
“Would the board approve of <em>The Satanic Verses</em> by Salman Rushdie?” he asked. “The backlash would be incalculable.”
The book is considered an iconic piece of Canadian literature, and though Margaret Atwood has refused to comment publicly on Edwards’ concerns, her spokesperson said the author’s general views on the topic are available on her website.
However, fellow Canadian novelist Elizabeth Ruth did offer her thoughts.
The author of <em>Ten Good Seconds of Silence</em> said discussion of Atwood’s novel pushes the boundaries of censorship.
“As a writer, and as a woman I am appalled that, once again, this great novel of ours has had to endure discussions about its validity,” she said in an email to the <em>Town Crier</em>. “I hope my daughter can grow up in a country where censorship is shunned, not books.
“<em>The Handmaid’s Tale</em> remains one of the best fictions dealing with fundamentalism and raises important questions about reproductive freedom, thus freedom generally.”
In a letter sent to the school in November, Edwards gave excerpts from the novel he said are in violation of the Toronto District School Board’s code of conduct, which gives a principal the right to suspend a student if they have used “profane or improper language”.
“This book speaks of women (performing fellatio), prostitution, female subjugation, adultery, pornography, brothels, rape, sexual domination and multiple sex partners, a woman’s (vagina) wearing out, and of course the de rigueur F-word, apparently a must-have word to win a literary award in this country,” he wrote. “It is rife with brutality towards and mistreatment of women … I can’t really understand what it is my son is supposed to be learning from this fictional drivel.”
Edwards expressed frustration with what he called a direct contravention of board guidelines.
“Now how the heck can we have a zero tolerance policy on that kind of thing and then put this kind of book in the class,” he told the <em>Town Crier</em>. “I find that a little inconsistent.”
After bringing his concerns to his son’s teacher and principal, Edwards was directed to take his complaint to the board.
Eglinton-Lawrence trustee Howard Goodman said Edwards has raised some very ethical concerns.
“If you’re quoting the book and you use words that will generate some discipline like detention, isn’t that a little odd and how do we handle that effectively,” he said. “It’s fascinating how you deal with independence versus protection of children in general.”
Books that are worthy of discussion are going to be troublesome for some, he added.
“Every book is worth its salt in these types of problems,” he said. “If we have a book that doesn’t challenge the student’s understanding of the world, we shouldn’t be teaching it.”
But Goodman admitted his perspective of <em>The Handmaid’s Tale</em> is very different now than when he originally read it in the 1980s.
“It took me a very long time to read because I had to stop at every page,” he said after re-reading the book. “On every single page there was at least one sentence that had me stop and think for a couple of minutes of what it was (Atwood) was getting at.”
And he encouraged differing views on whether it is an effective course material.
“It’s in that shifting in the meaning of books as we grow older that indicates when we present it to a class, each of them will see something different,” Goodman said. “The teacher has to navigate those multiple understandings and sometimes the understanding is a little hard, and the reactions speak discomfort.”
The book is now before a committee to see if it should remain part of the curriculum. Their recommendations will eventually go to Gerry Connelly, the board’s director of education for a final decision, expected in the spring.
As for Edwards’ son, he is reading another dystopian tale, <em>Brave New World</em>, which Edwards has found to have gratuitous sex as well, “even an orgy”.
As a solution, Edwards’ suggested the board find material on dystopian societies that’s not based on an “over-arching theme of deviant sex”, but political issues, authoritarianism, racism and limits on freedom of speech.
He indicated George Orwell’s <em>Animal Farm</em> is an acceptable example, but he’s not convinced <em>The Handmaid’s Tale</em> is.
“I’m not looking to ban Margaret Atwood’s book, but if I were able to have a conversation with her, I’d ask her when she wrote the book what would she say her intended audience was,” he said.
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