The school board in Bedford, New Hampshire agreed to retain the book, “Nichel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America” after a challenge from an irate parent but ordered a review of the book and its role in a course on personal finance. -db
New Hampshire Union Leader
December 13, 2010
By Greg Kwasnik
BEDFORD, New Hampshire – A book that generated a firestorm of controversy will stay in the curriculum — for now — Bedford school board members said Monday night.
Meanwhile, the father who took his son out of Bedford High School because his teachers assigned “Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America,” accused board members of negligence, and said school officials looked the other way when it came to the book’s obscene language and offensive content.
Dennis Taylor’s son was assigned the book for his personal finance class.
“The administration, and the people with the master’s degrees that are taking care of my children … clearly in this case seem to lack common sense, common decency, and with regards to the civil rights, an understanding of common law,” Taylor said.
More than 100 people packed Monday’s meeting to listen to the Taylors’ complaints, which sparked controversy when the New Hampshire Union Leader reported the story on Dec. 6. That story generated more than 400 comments at Unionleader.com, and was featured on various national media outlets, including FoxNews.com.
First published in 2001, “Nickel and Dimed” is a first-person account of author Barbara Ehrenreich’s struggle to make a living at various minimum-wage jobs across the country. This fall, the Taylors complained to school officials about the book’s use of offensive dialogue, negative depiction of capitalism, references to drug use and portrayal of Christians.
In response, school district officials set up a materials review committee to assess the book. While the committee instructed teachers to notify parents before using “Nickel and Dimed,” it also ruled that the book’s educational merit outweighed its controversial content.
On Monday, the Taylors asked the board to remove the book and set up some sort of parental advisory panel to rate school texts. Dennis Taylor said all aspects of society, including television, enforce some content restrictions.
“Some of you may complain that we are trying to censor something,” Taylor said. “Well guess what? We live in a country where censorship is a part of life.”
Flanked by television cameras and photographers, several school board members agreed that the book was not the best choice for the personal finance class.
“I think this book is not a good book for us to use in our personal finance course,” said board member Scott Earnshaw. “I did a very unscientific survey of people in my family who have taken this book, and the one word response I got was ‘worthless.'”
While board members agreed that the book did not serve a crucial role in the personal finance class, they did not remove it from the curriculum.
The board will likely wait for the conclusion of a review of the class and its texts — performed by personal finance teachers and the school’s dean of humanities — before the start of the spring semester.
Superintendent of Schools Tim Mayes ordered that review after the materials review committee submitted their assessment of “Nickel and Dimed.”
“Quite frankly I saw an opportunity to possibly improve the course,” Mayes said. “And so I trust that staff will do that.”
Of the dozens of community members in attendance Monday, many spoke passionately in support of the book. Several Bedford High School students said the push to protect them from the book was wildly insulting.
Jordan Dempsey, the president of the high school’s senior class, told the school board that sifting through the book’s controversial content provided a formative learning experience for students.
“It’s part of the maturity process in school, I believe, that students and teachers work together to look beyond the obscenities and to find the educational value that lies within them,” Dempsey said.
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