Mmm... I'm on the fence here.
The book is still literally "on the shelves" in school libraries, despite what the headline would have you believe.
The book has simply been removed from the eighth grade curriculum. It's not being banned.
This is definitely NOT the only book that shows racism in a way that teens can relate to. It's a good book, but it is an older book. While it's very interesting from a historical perspective, the lives of the characters are not especially relevant to teens today. Even when I was a kid, it felt like a peek into an alien world. Remember their housekeeper, Calpurnia?
If they are pulling Mockingbird with an eye toward replacing it with something like "The Hate U Give" by Angie Thomas, I'd be okay with that. Let's talk about contemporary racism and the impact it has on people's lives!
I love books and I tutor children in reading. I'm always on board to protest book banning. But, I don't think this is necessarily a case of that sort of thing. Without more information, I don't think there's enough to get outraged about here.
Quote: “There are many resources and materials that are available to teach state academic standards to our students,” he said in a statement. “These resources may change periodically.”
Your post gives me a lot to think about. I think that To Kill a Mockingbird is relevant to see the racism and the hypocrisy of people in the timeline of the book and when it was written. When the book was written the civil rights movement was going on and the book resonated with what the African American communities were dealing with. What would really be an interesting comparison is a discourse on To Kill a Mockingbird and Go Set a Watchman. The character of Atticus Finch certainly is different in both books, but one is truer than the other.