Evan White & Kaitlyn Naples
A controversial move to take a beloved book off a reading list has parents at one Connecticut school confused and upset.
George Orwell’s “Animal Farm,” a popular book for students to read, was taken off the main reading list at Mystic Middle School.
“Nobody knows why it was taken off the list,” said Dan Kelley’s whose son is a seventh grader at Mystic Middle School.
He was astonished that the book was removed.
“I don’t know what the rationale was,” Kelley said.
The book, originally published in 1946, was meant to parallel the Russian revolution using a farm as a setting and animals as characters.
School Superintendent Van Riley said the decision was made two years ago to change the curriculum, which included moving “Animal Farm” off of the “core books for 8th grade,” but it remains on a secondary reading list.
Riley said teachers made that choice because different instructors at the middle school level were using different material, creating an advantage for some come high school.
A middle school English teacher, who had long used the book, was upset about the change and let parents know about it. It grew on social media and now many are questioning the reasoning.
Riley stressed the book is not banned by any means, but is no longer an “anchor” book.
“We love the book, it’s a great book,” Riley said.
Parents said there is a budget meeting set for 7 p.m. on Thursday, where many of them plan to discuss this issue.
Riley said there will be no decision made at that meeting, but if there’s enough support, that could change at the next board meeting on Feb. 9.
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