I do not consider the modifications we’ve discussed to be in the same realm as a book ban.”

Director of Teaching and Learning Andrew Hodges,

To watch the full discussion of modifications to the Wit and Wisdom Curriculum, visit Hastings Community TV’s YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjmhHhvHv90&t=3110s

The Wednesday, July 31 District 200 School Board meeting discussed among other issues, modifications to the new Wit and Wisdom curriculum for language arts in grades K-5. Modifications to curriculums can range from making sure the curriculum fully meets state standards to making sure the curriculum is unbiased or even that it is age appropriate.
The changes discussed at the Wednesday meeting were the latter.

Wit and Wisdom Curriculum
The Wit and Wisdom curriculum, from the nonprofit Great Minds, was approved by the school board earlier this spring in order to comply with the state’s Reading to Ensure Academic Development Act, better known as the READ Act. Among other standards for literacy and reading professionals, the bill stipulates, “By the 2026-2027 school year, districts must provide evidence-based reading instruction through a focus on student mastery of the foundational reading skills of phonemic awareness, phonics, and fluency, as well as the development of oral language, vocabulary, and reading comprehension skills. Students must receive evidence-based instruction that is proven to effectively teach children to read.”
According to Director of Teaching and Learning Andrew Hodges, Wit and Wisdom was specifically mentioned by the READ Act as a curriculum that was recommended by the state in order to meet new standards and therefore able to be more fully reimbursed if purchased by the district.
As the Wit and Wisdom curriculum was approved, the texts were set to be reviewed by a 21-teacher review team and flagged for potentially inappropriate material. A list of five books came from that process.

Modifications to Wit and Wisdom
The texts approved to be modified at the meeting were My Five Senses by Margaret Miller for kindergarten and George vs. George and Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech for the fourth grade, and Thunder Rolling in the Mountains by Scott O’Dell and Woods Runner by Gary Paulson for the fifth grade.
Reason for text modification varied. For My Five Senses, teachers flagged an “image of a child in a bathtub with upper body exposed,” according to the Wit and Wisdom Curriculum Modifications list provided at the meeting, with the recommendation that teachers cover up the image with another picture but still use the text. For George vs. George, in a section that is not read by students, there is a reference to British soldiers looting and raping. Despite the fact that the reference is not part of the curriculum, the phrase was approved to be censored.
“Neither of these modifications affect the curriculum at all,” said Hodges.
The last three books, Walk Two Moons, Thunder Rolling in the Mountains, and Woods Runner were set aside for other texts: The Invention of Hugo Cabret, The Birchbark House, and Toliver’s Secret respectively.
The standards by which a book could and should be modified by Department of Teaching and Learning were based on three main questions: Does the material present any inaccurate content? Is the material appropriate for the age level you teach? Are there any other concerns you have about the literary content?
“It’s fairly normal to adapt a curriculum and make modifications to it,” said Hodges.
The process of modifying texts gives deference to the teachers who understand the specific needs of each age group and comprised the review team.
“It’s different per grade level which is why we asked the 21 teachers to look at them,” said Hodges.
While these five books were listed for modification or replacement, it is worth noting that they are among hundreds within the Wit and Wisdom curriculum that aren’t being modified.
“It’s a very small percentage,” said Hodges.
Other texts within the curriculum were identified as requiring pre-teaching. Pre-teaching is the practice of providing context, background and appropriateness of terminology to a subject. It is often turned to for texts rather than censoring them, which has been criticized for only drawing more attention to the omitted content, which Hodge refutes: “I don’t think that draws more attention to it.”
For example, historical texts that use terms that aren’t appropriate today are discussed before the students read the text in order to ensure that students understand the term in the context in which it was used and how that term isn’t acceptable today.
At the meeting School Board Chair Carrie Tate also voiced concern over other another text not mentioned by the review team: Separate but Never Equal by Sylvia Mendez, a book about desegregating California public schools in the late 1940s. The picture book is part of module three for the second grade in Wit and Wisdom.
“I do not think this book is age appropriate,” said Tate, citing remarks of a principal within the book during a courtroom scene on page 26-27.
Hodges responded, “The lens that I looked at it through was is the book portraying the stereotype or is the book dismantling the stereotype? And the books intent is to dismantle that stereotype.”
Separate but Never Equal was not voted upon to be modified at the meeting.

Modifications versus banning
The issue of banning books within public libraries and school libraries has become divisive across the country. The practice was recently prohibited in Minnesota with the passing of the 2024 Omnibus Education bill (SF3567), signed by Gov. Tim Walz on May 17, 2024. The process of modifying curriculum and the texts that compose them for age appropriateness is quite common, however.
“I do not consider the modifications we’ve discussed to be in the same realm as a book ban,” said Hodges.
The modification process has less to do with stopping students from seeing certain texts and more to do with assuring that texts are age appropriate. For example, even though Woods Runner by Gary Paulson was removed from the curriculum for “violent imagery in the first three chapters of the text,” according to the Wit and Wisdom Curriculum Modifications list, it would still be potentially be available for students in the school library.
“The goal is to make sure that no parent would feel the need to opt their child out of learning how to read, so we want to make sure we don’t have anything that would potentially cause that,” said Tate.
To watch the full discussion of modifications to the Wit and Wisdom Curriculum, visit Hastings Community TV’s YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjmhHhvHv90&t=3110s