Katy ISD ponders new policy over Native American book

HOUSTON – The Houston Chronicle reports that a Katy ISD proposal to institute a new training on how teachers should discuss “sensitive issues” with students ignited a heated and lengthy debate over critical race theory at a board meeting Monday. The proposed new training was sparked by one teacher’s use of an excerpt from a book about a Native American boy. Board members who want to implement the training said the book is designed to make white students feel bad about being white. Opposing board members accused others of “micromanaging” teachers and argued the book is simply a story told from the perspective of a Native American child and not critical race theory.

Sherman Alexie’s 2007 book, “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” follows the experiences of a Native American high school student navigating a predominantly white school. The novel “tells the story of Junior, a budding cartoonist growing up on the Spokane Indian Reservation,” according to Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, the book’s publisher. “Determined to take his future into his own hands, Junior leaves his troubled school on the rez to attend an all-white farm town high school where the only other Indian is the school mascot.” The book in its entirety was not taught in a Katy ISD classroom. Instruction was one chapter that addressed the character’s concern for his physical size compared to that of his white peers. The new training is designed to make sure teachers are aware of how to “provide guidance in alignment to board policy,” said Sanee Bell, assistant superintendent for teaching and learning.