School Board votes to keep 'Brave New World' on curriculum

The Seattle School Board voted Wednesday to keep Brave New World on the district’s list of approved books for high-school language-arts classes.

A Native American parent wanted the book removed from the list. Sarah Sense-Wilson took issue with Aldous Huxley’s numerous uses of the word “savage” and negative depictions of Native Americans. Her daughter read the 1932 classic in class at Nathan Hale High School last year.

Several board members apologized to Sense-Wilson, saying that the book was taught insensitively in her daughter’s class. But they said the solution is better instruction, not removing the book from the curriculum districtwide. The vote was unanimous.

Nathan Hale administrators dropped the book as a regular part of its sophomore Language Arts curriculum after Sense-Wilson’s initial complaint, however students can still read it as part of class “literature circles” in which students reading the same book discuss it in a small group.