Zeitoun In The Curriculum

As an AP Language and Composition student, I am writing to you regarding the issue of keeping Zeitoun in the curriculum. Over the summer, rising juniors were required to read Dave Eggers’ nonfiction narrative Zeitoun, which depicts a Syrian-American man who faced the injustices of the government post-Hurricane Katrina. However, a recent change of events has raised a question if the circumstances of domestic violence, premeditated murder, and stalking by Zeitoun may have affected Eggers’ purpose when writing Zeitoun. Due to its ability to spread awareness of the injustices post-Hurricane Katrina, Zeitoun should continued to be read in the AP Language and Composition curriculum.

Students are able to learn about the discrimination that many,

especially Muslims, faced following Hurricane Katrina. Before reading Zeitoun, all I knew about Hurricane Katrina was that it happened in 2005 and it was bad. However, after reading Zeitoun I was able to learn about what families went through physically, mentally, and emotionally. You do not get this type of learning experience from reading a textbook with a whole bunch of facts and statistics on how devastating Hurricane Katrina was, reading a personal account of a family that suffered helps students, like me, understand how catastrophic this natural disaster was. It really helped me open my eyes to what people had to live through post-Hurricane Katrina and how fast the government was able to blame a group for their problems. Keeping Zeitoun in the AP Language and Composition curriculum, will allow students like myself to learn about the injustices.

Removing Zeitoun would deprive AP Language and Composition students of learning about the injustices that Muslims faced post-Hurricane Katrina. As principal, I trust that you will make the right decision for the AP Language and Composition students and keep Zeitoun in the summer reading curriculum.