Education: Rye on the Rocks

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After scanning a single page of J. D. Salinger's 1951 The Catcher in the Rye, the most avidly admired novel on modern American campuses, Tulsa's School Superintendent Charles C. Mason had one comment: "Shocking!" Mason was jarred when eight angry parents shoved the book under his nose and bitterly complained that English Teacher Beatrice Levin had assigned it to their 16-year-olds at Edison High School. The parents were not taken with Novelist Salinger's 16-year-old hero, a sensitive boy named Holden Caulfield who goes underground for 48 hours in Manhattan to escape insensitive grownups. The book, said they, had "filth on nearly every page." One four-letter word in particular made it "not fit to read." Their demand: fire the teacher.

The wife of an industrial physicist, Teacher Levin is the mother of three sons (aged 6, 10, 12) and a sometime novelist who contributes frequent book reviews to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. A University of Wisconsin graduate, she began teaching in Tulsa this year. As a supplement to the regular reading list, e.g., Canterbury Tales, she supplied paperback editions of Catcher because it seemed to her "a beautiful and moving story." It was not required reading.

When the irate parents hit Tulsa's newspapers, bookstores sold out all copies of Catcher the first day. More important, the Tulsa Tribune school editor failed to find one Edison High student opposed to Teacher Levin (adult citizens were about equally divided). Said Student Barbara Miller, 16: "I've learned a great deal from Mrs. Levin. Our whole fourth-period class is behind her 100%." Added Teacher Levin's husband: "What do they want high school students to read—Peter Rabbit?" That was not the way Superintendent Mason viewed it. But after commiserating with the complaining parents, Mason left Teacher Levin's fate to Edison's Principal Hiram Alexander, who said fretfully: "We all make mistakes. She's really a good teacher." Last week, after long mulling, Alexander issued a split decision—remove the book, retain Teacher Levin. Said he warily: "I can't forget the incident. But I will not dismiss her."