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Show Grendel wins endorsement By BRYAN GRAY Clipper Correspondent BOUNTIFUL Reading of the novel Grendel in the 12th grade English curriculum has been overwhelmingly over-whelmingly endorsed by a Davis County School District Review Committee comprised of educators and parents, a spokesman said Monday. Supt. Richard Kendell was expected ex-pected to release a statement Tuesday Tues-day approving the recommendations recommenda-tions of the committee's majority. The book came under fire from a parent group in January, offended by its use of swearing, violence and several references to the human anatomy. The Davis County Clipper has learned that the committee members voted 10-1 to approve the use of the book in the classroom. Only one member, Russell Holt, disagreed while two others approved approv-ed the book but questioned whether the novel should be reduced to excerpts. ex-cerpts. The approval included a majority of both the teachers and parents selected to review the novel. Among their recommendations was that the John Gardiner novel only be used in connection with the study of Beowulf or the Anglo-Saxon Anglo-Saxon period and that students continue con-tinue to have the option of choosing an alternative book. Individual reports from all committee com-mittee members were sent to the school district's administration. The reports ranged from Holt's condemnation con-demnation ("Praise of the book is an intellectual smokescreen") to wholehearted support ("A highly moral book which cannot be denigrated by taking passages out of context"). Before the decision was released, the Viewmont High School English faculty sent home an invitation to parents offering an evening seminar to explain the book, its themes and the "sensitive handling" of certain passages. By last week, however, no concerned parents had telephoned telephon-ed the school to request attendance. The book controversy erupted last month when Marie Burke, a parent of a Viewmont student, objected ob-jected to the novel in a meeting with school principal Paul Waite. Soon Burke and others were distributing a "facts sheet" containing con-taining passages from the novel which they said showed "extreme vulgarity and sexual violence." In a ! KSL radio interview, Burke com- j pared the novel to an X-rated movie. With the mounting objections, the school district formed the review committee under guidelines suggested by the National Council of Teachers of English. Following approval of the book by the Viewmont View-mont English faculty, the novel was then distributed to the Curriculum Review Committee, comprised of five parents and six Davis County educators. None of the educators were members of the Viewmont faculty. The novel is a contemporary retelling of the eighth century Beowuljlegend expressed in the viewpoint of the monster, Grendel. As in the Old English legend, good finally prevails over evil as the monster is slain by Beowulf, a Christian soldier. Grendel was listed among the 10 best books of the year by Time and Newsweek when it was published in 1971. |