Next year, New Hampshire teacher Patrick Keefe is putting Toni Morrison’s Beloved back into the hands of his AP English Literature students.
Since his union, NEA-New Hampshire, won its lawsuit last week, overturning their state’s “banned concepts” law, Keefe and his colleagues can teach the lessons that they know lead to critical thinking and student learning. They can include novels with Black people, such as Beloved, without fear that a classroom discussion will end their teaching careers. The judge’s ruling brings huge relief to New Hampshire educators who have been teaching in fear since the law passed in 2021.
“It’s a great victory, absolutely!” says Keefe. “I haven’t done Beloved in two years, and I know I’ll do it in AP next year. I’ll probably do To Kill a Mockingbird too, with my ninth graders—and I won’t have to worry about being brought before some kind of rigged panel!”
With its focus on “banned concepts,” the law limited New Hampshire educators from talking or teaching about race and racism, gender, sexual orientation, and disabilities, but it was never clear to educators what exactly they could or couldn’t say.
