🔥📚 Amanda Gorman’s Poem Canceled in Miami School: Can’t We Take A Verse? 🤔
TL;DR;
Amanda Gorman’s poem “The Hill We Climb,” famously read at President Biden’s inauguration, is being shown the exit door at a Miami Lakes elementary school. All it took was one upset parent who complained that the poem was “not educational” and had hidden “hate messages.” Meanwhile, Gorman’s vibing with the youths, who find her words inspiring. 📝🚫🏫
One fine day in the neighborhood, Amanda Gorman, who had stolen the show at President Biden’s inauguration with her poem “The Hill We Climb,” got a bitter taste of cancel culture. The school bell rang at Bob Graham Education Center, a K-8 school in Miami-Dade County, and whoosh, her acclaimed poem vanished from the elementary section. Why, you ask? 😳
Apparently, one parent – not a crowd, not a petition, but one lone ranger – decided the poem was “not educational” and subtly breathed “hate messages.” Yeah, we’re talking about the same poem that was meant to be a beacon of unity for a nation standing at the dawn of a new era. 🤔
So, who’s this parental vigilante, you ask? Enter Daily Salinas of Miami Lakes, Florida, a proud mother of two students at Bob Graham. In an unexpected plot twist, when asked about the author of the poem, she confused Gorman with Oprah Winfrey. Guess she missed the memo that Winfrey only wrote the foreword for the book version of the poem. 🔄📚
Gorman took to Instagram to voice her frustration and disappointment over the whole drama, dubbing it an attack on young people’s right to free thought and free speech. She says it’s just another notch on the bedpost for book bans, which have increased by a whopping 40% in 2022 compared to 2021, as per the American Library Association. Makes you wonder, doesn’t it? 🗣️🆓
But this isn’t a one-book-show. Other titles, such as “The ABCs of Black History,” “Cuban Kids,” “Countries in the News Cuba,” and “Love to Langston” have also faced the Salinas challenge. And who’s at the helm of this literary witch hunt? None other than the Florida Freedom to Read Project, which, ironically, aims to defend student access to information and ideas. 📖🚷
As per Raegan Miller, the director of development for the Florida Freedom to Read Project, the justification for the ban was that while Gorman’s poem did indeed possess educational value, its vocabulary was considered too advanced for elementary-aged students. So, is it about the vocab, or the content? Or is the line just conveniently blurry? 🎯
At the end of the day, the power to send a book up the chain of review committees lies with the parents, as per Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ bill HB 1467. Yet, they’re not necessarily diving deep into the material themselves. They’re following templates provided by sites like Book Looks, founded by a member of the Brevard County, Fla., chapter of the group Moms for Liberty. And we thought libraries were supposed to be quiet… 📚💣
This sour news comes hot on the heels of a lawsuit filed by publishing giant Penguin Random House and free-speech advocacy group PEN America against Florida’s Escambia County School District over constitutional violations tied to book bans. So, is this the new normal, or just a plot twist in the
