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BOOK UPSETS RESIDENTS

March 18, 2009 1:13 am

BY JEFF BRANSCOME

Many Stafford County high school students have read the unconventional "A People's History of the United States" by Howard Zinn without opposition from conservatives.

Until now.

Several people want the book removed from a North Stafford High School advanced-placement history class, even though it's not the primary textbook.

At a recent Stafford School Board meeting, eight speakers claimed Zinn's book was un-American, leftist propaganda. Some said students aren't mature enough to form their own opinions of the book.

They also cited pundits on the right and left who have criticized it.

Opponents of the textbook have yet to submit a formal challenge, said Stafford school spokeswoman Valerie Cottongim. Those who publicly complained are not parents of the juniors and seniors taking the AP class, she said.

"The principal has said that none of the parents or students have come forward with any complaints," Cottongim said.

School Board members John LeDoux, Nanette Kidby and Dana Reinboldt requested copies of the book to review but did not comment further on the matter.

Stafford parents have filed complaints in the past against two books: "James and the Giant Peach" by Roald Dahl and Quentin Blake, and "The Color Purple" by Alice Walker. The school system still uses the books, Cottongim said.

Zinn's more than 600-page book was published in 1980 and has sold more than a million copies.

Deborah Caldwell-Stone, deputy director of the American Library Association's Office for Intellectual Freedom, keeps track of challenged textbooks. Often, she said, parents don't object to books for advanced readers--including Zinn's.

"This is not one of those books that comes under scrutiny very often," she said.

Zinn's book "presents American history through the eyes of those he feels are outside of the political and economic establishment," according to howardzinn.org.

Stafford resident Meg Jaworowski, however, said the book's writings "defile our great nation and capitalist free-market system."

Students, she said, know little about historical facts, such as Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address. "I could go on and on but with such a pathetic grasp of historical facts, high school history, to include AP history, needs to be about the business of educating and not indoctrinating," she said in a statement distributed to the School Board.

Her husband, Mark, also spoke against the book.

Howard Zinn said he was amused by the objections.

"To learn facts, just facts, is not an education," he said in a recent telephone interview. "That's playing the game of trivia. Education is not trivia. Education is looking behind the facts."

Chris Quinn, Stafford's assistant superintendent for instruction, said students in the AP class also read an article titled, "Howard Zinn's Disappointing History of the United States," which criticizes Zinn's book.

Those materials are supplemental; the class's main textbook is "Liberty, Equality, and Power: A History of the American People" by John Murrin.

North Stafford is the county's only school to use Zinn's book, which it first purchased in 2003, Quinn said.

"A truly educated person has to be exposed to a lot of different points of view," he said.

Christopher Koehler, who teaches in North Stafford's social studies department, said the book meets the College Board's criteria. He said he read the book as an AP student at Courtland High School in Spotsylvania County in 1987-88.

"I'm a conservative," he said. "I've been a Republican my whole life. But I value the marketplace of ideas. I value history given from a variety of perspectives."

He doesn't teach the class with Zinn's book and stressed that he was speaking for himself, not the school division.

The teacher who uses Zinn's text did not return phone calls seeking comment.

Ian Jobling, who lives in Fairfax County and runs the Web site whiteamerica.us, spoke against Zinn's book at Stafford's public hearing. Jobling encourages people to protest "anti-white" textbooks, such as Zinn's.

"Such protests are likely to prove fruitful, as school materials are perhaps the most powerful evidence of the anti-white bias that pervades our society," he wrote.

Jobling states the Web site's focus is to combat the "fear and loathing of the white race." Efforts to reach Jobling and the Jaworowskis for additional comment were unsuccessful.

However, Mark Jaworowski has posted several comments on Jobling's Web site opposing the book.

Zinn called his opponents "anti-American, narrow-minded and censorial." He said all historians have different points of view.

"The whole idea of education is to have young people experience all sorts of ideas," he said. "And if you want to shut off students from certain ideas, then you are depriving them of a proper education."

Jeff Branscome: 540/374-5402
Email: jbranscome@freelancestar.com