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North Berwick, Maine
The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger, should remain in the freshman curriculum, but teachers need to provide more information to parents about why books are studied, the committee examining the book's use at Noble High School has ruled.
The eleven-member Educational Materials Review Committee issued its opinion December 17, two days after their only meeting. The opinion was directed to Superintendent Paul Andrade, who said he would present it to the School Administrative District 60 Board of Directors at their January 6 meeting. The district has never banned a book.
"The committee unanimously agreed, after hearing evidence from both parties, that The Catcher in the Rye is appropriate for the ninth-grade level based on the themes and essential questions within the curriculum, which was shared by the representatives at the meeting," the committee's opinion read.
The committee, which consisted of administrators, teachers, parents, students, School Board members and the school head librarian, heard from English teachers who said the book helps students examine complex interactions between teenagers and society.
The committee was formed to explore whether the 1951 coming-of-age tale is appropriate for freshmen after two Lebanon parents, Andrea and Mike Minnon, objected to its use based on the language and actions of the main character, sixteen-year-old Holden Caulfield. The Minnons, whose fourteen-year-old son, Spencer, is a freshman at Noble, described the controversial book as trash and Caulfield as a degenerate prep school drop-out who treats women as objects and finds no solutions to the depressive state he finds himself in. The Minnons said part of their effort to pull the book from the curriculum was to have teachers hold students to higher standards.
Reached at home after the opinion was...