The Absolutely True Diary Of a Part Time Indian
Challenge Essay
As a teenager, I constantly struggle between identifying myself as an adult or as a child. Being a teenager in America today sometimes feels frustrating because I am too old to be considered a child, yet not old enough to accept the responsibilities associated with becoming an adult. With college and our future career right around the corner, most teens are excited to take on more responsibilities and receive freedom and respect in return. This is why it is so frustrating when adults try to take control of educational material without considering our feelings. When reading, teenagers are mature enough to acknowledge and dismiss possibly offensive material to uncover deeper meanings in the text. Denying them the opportunity to do so can be extremely offensive as it makes them feel disrespected by teachers and adults.
Books can be one of the most influential things in the life of teenagers because at this time in their lives it is important for teens to develop a sense of who they are. They are searching for people, fictional or not, who they can use as inspiration to overcome challenges presented to them at this testing time in their development. “As a child, I read because books - violent and not, blasphemous and not, terrifying and not - were the most loving and trustworthy things in my life,” (Alexie, “Why the Best Kids Books Are Written in Blood”). Teenagers typically relate best to books that cover topics that are relatable, such as the physical and emotional struggles of being a teenager.
Teenagers are beginning to take on new challenges, such as driving or after school jobs, and are old enough to begin reading adult material. Unfortunately, the students of West Valley School District may not be allowed to take on the challenge of adult reading material because they are stuck in the middle of a battle. The fight began when parents expressed their concerns to the Instructional Materials Committee about their children reading The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian by Sherman Alexie. The parents were concerned when the novel was moved from the eleventh and twelfth grade curriculum down to the tenth grade because they felt that tenth graders were not mature enough to handle the sexual content, foul language, and discrimination presented in the story.
What these parents and teachers don’t know is how important specific books, such as The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian, can be to teenagers. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian is an inspirational story about a poor American Indian boy named Junior who lives on a poverty-stricken Indian Reservation. The story follows him as he makes the brave decision to go to study at a nearby rich, all-white school. Junior learns many valuable lessons throughout the story such as the importance of one small change in his life. “But the game was already over. Really. It can happen that way. One play can determine the course of a game. One play can change your momentum forever,” (Alexie 194). Since teenagers relate so well to books or book characters, lessons can be most effective when presented in a way they can relate to, such as observing a character go through similar challenges as them.
Parents and teachers have a hard time overlooking the sexual content and language presented in The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian, but for teenagers it is easier to discover deeper meanings throughout the book. Most parents are trying to shield their children, but poverty, discrimination, and foul language are true everyday facts of life for many teenagers in the United States. “They aren’t trying to protect the poor from poverty. Or the victims from rapists. No, they are simply trying to protect their privileged notions of what literature is and should be. They are trying to protect privileged children,” (Alexie, “Why the Best Kids Books are Written in Blood”). Thousands of teenagers are suffering, whether it is first generation American teens enduring discrimination, or teenagers living in city ghettos, or teenagers growing up in poor Native American Reservations. Nobody thinks of these teens when they decide to remove a book from a class reading list. Nobody thinks of how important a single book can be to an under-privileged teenager. Nobody thinks about how much a book such as the Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian could inspire those teenagers. No, they only think of the very small possibility that it could ‘damage’ the privileged teens.
Most students of the West Valley School District in Washington will not experience poverty or violence at this point in their lives, but it is important for students of all ages to have a good understanding of the struggles faced by other people their age. If students never get the opportunity to be educated about the problems going on in their world, then they will not be motivated to make a difference. Teenagers need to be aware of the struggles faced by others because we all live in the same world, and our lives are becoming even more interconnected because of the increase in social media, cell phone use, and the internet. Teengagers need to have an understanding of different cultural backgrounds to ease the process of collaboration later in their lives. Learning about the challenges faced by other communities is very beneficial to high school aged students, and books can be one of the most effective ways of teaching these differences to teenagers because of their unique ability to let the student experience challenges from different perspectives.
As a teenager, I am grateful to have the opportunity to read books such as The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian and learn about the struggles faced by teenagers in the USA. based on my experience as a high school student, other teenagers also feel grateful for the opportunity to learn through books such as this. Even though my life is not as difficult as Junior’s, the book was very inspirational for me and I could relate many of the topics to my own life. Books such as The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian should not be removed from classroom reading lists because the educational benefit they provide clearly outweighs the possible ‘damage’ they could do to privileged teenage readers.
Sources:
Alexie, Sherman, and Ellen Forney. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian. New York: Little, Brown, 2007. Print.
Alexie, Sherman. "Why the Best Kids Books Are Written in Blood." The Wall Street Journal (2011): n. pag. Print.
Rosbach, Molly . "West Valley parents, teachers differ over young-adult novel."Yakima Herald Republic. N.p., n.d. Web. 4 Oct. 2013. <http://www.yakimaherald.com/home/646639-8/west-valley-parents-teachers-differ-over-young-adult-novel>.
"District, WV Schools, About." West Valley School District. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 Oct. 2013. <http://www2.wvsd208.org/pages/West_Valley_School_District>.