Blog on Harkness: How we can decolonize the curriculum

 A noteworthy topic we discussed in this harkness was that all of the novels we have read this year have been written by white men. While their books are undeniably well written, they lack the diversity necessary to allow students to fully learn about the world. The book Lord of the Flies by William Golding should be replaced by a book written by a more diverse author.

The book, Lord of the Flies, lacks any sort of diversity in the characters and even includes racist stereotypes. Each of the characters in the story is male and white. Furthermore, the author has admitted to not including woman in his story because he believes woman would not be able to create a society the ways the boys did. This is incredibly sexist claim and wholly untrue. Not only were the authors views sexist, he also included many racist stereotypes against natives. As the boys became more savage they begin being depicted more similarly to natives. Even going as far as to paint their faces, a custom in many tribal cultures. These types of racist and sexist themes should not be included in a story that is part of school curriculum.

On the other hand, Lord of the Flies is extremely well written and is effective in teaching about oppression. There are many great examples of symbol throughout the story, such as the conch horn that symbolized civilization. It also has many important themes and discusses many significant things about society and oppression. However, to assume that there are not well written stories that include good examples of oppression written by women or people of color would be ignorant. There are many accomplished authors that are not white males that would make a great replacement. For example, Nora Neale Hurston, the author of Their Eyes Were Watching God. Though Lord of the Flies is a good book, there are many good books that also include more diversity and should be included in the curriculum in its place.

Books with more diverse representation and more diverse authors should replace book like Lord of the Flies. If students only read books like Lord of the Flies that are written by white men they will not understand how the world is perceived by minorities and the differences in the way people see society due to their identity. By allowing students to learn from books that come from many different points of view, they can see the world from many different angles.