High school seniors at Valley View School District 365U will have the chance to take a class focusing on Latin American literature next year.
After three years of standard English, the elective can be chosen and serve as a complement to other African-American and World literature offerings, according to a district summary.
The course, which was approved by the school board at a meeting earlier this month, will reflect the diversity of the student body, which is 40 percent Hispanic, 21 percent African-American and 6 percent Asian, according to the district, which added it will allow students to explore their own culture while contributing to cross-cultural understanding.
“The best way to make such connections is to offer students literature that embraces them, their culture and their values,” the district summary states.
A September survey showed “an overwhelming number” of students supported such a class.
The course work will include narrative essays and literary analyses. Students will read Laura Esquivel’s “Like Water for Chocolate” and “El Bronx Remembered” by Nicholasa Mohr, the tale of one Puerto Rican’s immigration to the United States.
The course will examine writings by and about Latin Americans and South Americans throughout history.
“Students will ready a variety of novels, short stories, poems and nonfiction pieces, and they will examine texts within the social, cultural and historical contexts in which they were created,” according to a district summary.
Rachel Kinder, assistant superintendent for education services, said at the Nov. 10 meeting that staff is looking to ensure that books with any controversial material are vetted.
Board Vice President Rick Gougis said at an October meeting when the course was first proposed that some books inevitably broach touchy subjects, such as geopolitics or sexuality.
The district needs to let students and parents know about such material in advance, he said.
“I just want to make sure there’s clear communication on the front side,” Gougis said. “I never want to be in a position where we are censoring books.”