Today is the first day of school. Children across the province are gearing up to learn everything from their alphabets to their multiplication tables to historical events and great literature.
There is one area, though, where students in other parts of the world might have an advantage over our own Island boys and girls — and it’s knowledge we ought to excel in.
Lucy Maud Montgomery’s “Anne of Green Gables” is on the school curriculum in countless schools all over the globe. Perhaps the reason the novel set in Prince Edward Island and written by an Island native is popular in some countries because it’s pretty inoffensive and doesn’t inspire rebelliousness like some other classroom staples like, say, “Catcher in the Rye”.
On the other hand, though, Anne Shirley is hardly a shrinking violet. She may be best known for her exclamations of wonder and excitement over the Island landscape, but she also used her limitless vocabulary to question authority where she saw fit.
Besides being a good role model for children and apart from being a bit of a history lesson in how things were in P.E.I. near the turn of the last century, there is another reason “Anne of Green Gables” should be on the curriculum here.
It is a good book.
One needs to look no further for evidence than the respected and well-read scholars who took part in the recent international L.M. Montgomery conference in Uppsala, Sweden.
Speaker after speaker at the “L.M. Montgomery – Writer of the World” conference presented on the importance of this Island author. They talked about how “Anne of Green Gables” spoke to them; how the feminist themes, or the overcoming of adversity, or the rejection of an orphan helped make them appreciate something in themselves.
One of the presenters was told by a male colleague she was risking her career by focusing on Montgomery and feminism. It was a risk she took because the work was that important to her.
Island schoolchildren should be allowed to see “Anne of Green Gables” is more than a caricature to be exploited for tourism dollars.
It is classic literature of world renown.