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| SFReader Forums > SFReader > Anything Goes! > To Kill or Not To Kill? | Forum Quick Jump
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Edward Knight
Jack of all Trades and Master of None
      
Date Joined Jan 2004
Total Posts : 1038
| Posted 1/10/2006 5:02 AM (GMT -4) |   | Ours school system (at the request of a parent) is having a hearing on the 18th to determine whether or not To Kill a Mockingbird can remain on our school reading lists and taught in the classroom. The parent complaints state the book is too racial and the language too strong.
Give me a break, please.
I mentioned to my principal that the parents should be forced to read Fahrenheit 451. My principal (being the well educated person she is) said something about Fahrenheit 451 scaring her when she read it. After a moments conversation it was obvious that she had never read either book.
Arrgh!!!
I asked if I could be on the Mockingbird committe and she turned me down because I'm not a language teacher. She's going to represent our school. Double Arrgh!!!
Edward Knight
Editor
Journey Books Publishing
Amazing Journeys Magazine
http://www.journeybookspublishing.com
http://www.journeybooksonline.com | | Back to Top | | |
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Jeff Edwards
Neophyte
Date Joined Jul 2004
Total Posts : 160
| Posted 1/10/2006 5:56 AM (GMT -4) | | I can't seem to formulate a coherent response except to say that this is horrible news. Trying to keep a positive outlook, you don't know the result of the hearing yet - maybe there will be overwhelming support for the book. On the other hand, I worry about the knee-jerk reaction of committees that feel the need to be considered politically correct.
Don't people realize the importance of history and of reading literature from the past to understand the author's message? I guess the parent that requested the hearing would also want to ban any historical newscasts that depict racial tension in the past.
-Jeff | | Back to Top | | |
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Edward Knight
Jack of all Trades and Master of None
Date Joined Jan 2004
Total Posts : 1038
| Posted 1/10/2006 6:11 AM (GMT -4) | | I really think our school system won't let this happen. It seems to be only one set of parents making a stink. Now, the question is what happens after the media gets involed. Local news will try to inflate the situation and then others may jump on the wagon or attack other books. that's when it gets scary.
Edward Knight
Editor
Journey Books Publishing
Amazing Journeys Magazine
http://www.journeybookspublishing.com
http://www.journeybooksonline.com | | Back to Top | | |
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PaulMc
Adept
Date Joined May 2005
Total Posts : 992
| Posted 1/10/2006 6:58 AM (GMT -4) | | quote:
Originally posted by EdK
Ours school system (at the request of a parent) is having a hearing on the 18th to determine whether or not To Kill a Mocking Bird can remain on our school reading lists and taught in the classroom. The parent complaints state the book is too racial and the language too strong.
Give me a break, please.
I mentioned to my principal that the parents should be forced to read Fahrenheit 451. My principal (being the well educated person she is) said something about Fahrenheit 451 scaring her when she read it. After a moments conversation it was obvious that she had never read either book.
Arrgh!!!
I asked if I could be on the Mocking Bird committe and she turned me down because I'm not a language teacher. She's going to represent our school. Double Arrgh!!!
Of course - they attack the book for its content, but they've never read it. But they can't read it, cuz it's BAD!
Morons. Every frickin' one of 'em.
I'm reminded of all the attacks on Mark Twain for being "racist" when it's clear in the writing that only the villains are the racist ones, which is part of the morality of the stories.
Seems to me that's also the lesson of To Kill A Mocking Bird, right? Racial tolerance? Innocent until proven guilty? Etc.?
-- Paul McNamee
http://writer.paulmcnamee.net
http://www.dorancoyle.net
"Queen of the Sepulcher" still appearing at The Sword Review - Bonus Features | | Back to Top | | |
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Rob Santa
Sage
Date Joined Apr 2004
Total Posts : 1420
| Posted 1/10/2006 7:05 AM (GMT -4) | | So, if Mockingbird comes off your school's reading list because its racism is too harsh, is Huck Finn still on it? Perhaps we should only be reading sanitized material to keep our kids safe from "evil thoughts." And the following comment is in no way intended to stir up controversy, so please don't read more into it than what is on the surface. What about the Bible? There are more acts of violence and depravity (too strong a word, perhaps?) in the Old Testament than in just about any other book I've ever read.
Schools should be a safe haven for the intellectual and social development of our children. This includes exposing them in a safe way to ideas that we do not find socially acceptable: racism, addiction, violence (both personal and global). In this way our children can be better prepared for dealing with these problems in life. Censoring books with what adults feel would be "too hard" for children is a step backward. It does not protect our children by hiding their eyes from the worst of society's behaviors. It creates a naivity that keeps our children from having appropriate levels of defense.
Hell, while we're on the topic of F451, why don't we just burn all the copies of Mockingbird, Catcher in the Rye, and so on? The kids can sit back and watch TV. There's plenty of life lessons to be found on CSI, Desperate Housewives, COPS, soap operas,...
Rob Santa | | Back to Top | | |
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Edward Knight
Jack of all Trades and Master of None
Date Joined Jan 2004
Total Posts : 1038
| Posted 1/10/2006 7:53 AM (GMT -4) | | Well, I did receive a bit more clarification on the issue. It seems the parent isn't asking for the book to be removed from the list, just taken off the middle school list and left for high schools. That's not quite as bad, but I still think it's pretty silly. How many 8th graders have never heard the word "nigger" before? Heck it's used as a positive description in a lot of rap songs. I'm not sure if black kids even understand the negative history of the word any more. I think 7th or 8th grade is the perfect place to study Mockingbird.
Edward Knight
Editor
Journey Books Publishing
Amazing Journeys Magazine
http://www.journeybookspublishing.com
http://www.journeybooksonline.com | | Back to Top | | |
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Edward Knight
Jack of all Trades and Master of None
Date Joined Jan 2004
Total Posts : 1038
| Posted 1/10/2006 7:56 AM (GMT -4) | | btw/ The "n" word is not one I use in normal speech or writing unless I'm referring to literary or historical matters. I didn't want folks to think that it's a word I use often.
Edward Knight
Editor
Journey Books Publishing
Amazing Journeys Magazine
http://www.journeybookspublishing.com
http://www.journeybooksonline.com | | Back to Top | | |
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Dragon Angel
Lord Dragon
Date Joined Sep 2004
Total Posts : 1066
| Posted 1/10/2006 8:11 AM (GMT -4) | | I wonder if these same parents want to eliminate all books with any tension whatsoever because someone always ends up looking bad.
read free fiction and poetry at http://www.geocities.com/davidolson22/index.html | | Back to Top | | |
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erazmus
Master
Date Joined Jul 2005
Total Posts : 4496
| Posted 1/10/2006 8:19 AM (GMT -4) | | You have several problems here Ed. If "To Kill A Mockingbird" is on your reading list and your principle thinks its there to teach language arts, she's a real moron. If thats the basis for its inclusion they can move it to high school but you know and I know thats not why you have thirteen year old kids reading about Atticus Finch.
Now I suspect one reason its been included up until now is that the reading assignment can be 'supplemented' by viewing the film, which assures that kids can answer questions about the material without ever reading it, much like your principle. The assignment should be made in social studies and history class, not english, unless your school actually practices intergrated study (mine did but very few do) where you read for english and cover the same issues simultaniously in other classes. "To Kill . . ." is an excellent title for that, and such things are much easier to coordinate at the middle school level.
I think its important to expose student to all the really important ideas you want them to take away from school before they are in high school. High School is the place where you start to loose kids in significant numbers as they seperate into interest groups, seperate tracks of classes, get jobs, get cars, get sex and generally go their own way. You can seldom get something over to everyone in high school. Even with an assembly.
If your school system pushes "To Kill a Mockingbird" back to the high school reading list they will be pushing it right off the edge for at least twenty percent of the students. I would think that was a bad thing.
Mike
Michael D. Turner
"Psyched Up" in _Turn the other Chick_-ed. E. Friesner-Baen books
www.baen.com
"Two Ravens" in Amazing Journeys Magazine #9 Sept. 05
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EdMcfadden
Neophyte
Date Joined Sep 2004
Total Posts : 103
| Posted 1/10/2006 10:07 AM (GMT -4) | | | Ed, if they take the title off you list I'm gonna take a slow float to Cuba. CRAZY! At what point to we become so PC that our kids can't be exposed to anything that might make them think a little? | | Back to Top | | |
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Frank
Adept
Date Joined Aug 2005
Total Posts : 629
| Posted 1/10/2006 12:24 PM (GMT -4) | | | You could rebel in a rather extreme way (as I would) and have your classroom read Last Exit To Brooklyn as an alternative to To Kill A Mockingbird...and see how long it takes to get fired. HA! | | Back to Top | | |
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Edward Knight
Jack of all Trades and Master of None
Date Joined Jan 2004
Total Posts : 1038
| Posted 1/10/2006 3:57 PM (GMT -4) | | My principal and I already but head on little things. It wouldn't take much for her to send me packing. My bacon would have already been cooked if the superintendent wasn't a friend of mine. Here in the south we call it the "good ol' boy" system. Getting a job and keeping one depends on who you know, not what. :-)
Edward Knight
Editor
Journey Books Publishing
Amazing Journeys Magazine
http://www.journeybookspublishing.com
http://www.journeybooksonline.com | | Back to Top | | |
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ajjones
Neophyte
Date Joined Apr 2005
Total Posts : 73
| Posted 1/11/2006 7:03 AM (GMT -4) | | Calling To Kill a Mockingbird 'too racial' is ignorant on so many levels I don't even know where to BEGIN. You must be grinding your teeth to stumps.
http://www.ajjones.homestead.com | | Back to Top | | |
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Edward Knight
Jack of all Trades and Master of None
Date Joined Jan 2004
Total Posts : 1038
| Posted 1/11/2006 8:18 AM (GMT -4) | | Being a a part of the educational system, I'm ashamed.
Many bash US education for various reasons (most of which I disagree with).
But this kind of stuff drives me up a tree and then makes me want to hide there in the branches.
Edward Knight
Editor
Journey Books Publishing
Amazing Journeys Magazine
http://www.journeybookspublishing.com
http://www.journeybooksonline.com | | Back to Top | | |
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Jeff Edwards
Neophyte
Date Joined Jul 2004
Total Posts : 160
| Posted 1/11/2006 8:36 AM (GMT -4) | | Just saw this new article at Yahoo! and thought it was appropriate to post here:
"School Chief Says Book OK for High Schools"
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060111/ap_on_re_us/school_book_debate;_ylt=ArDPe2.FjhlbPh00.PwVgfBxFb8C;_ylu=X3oDMTA5aHJvMDdwBHNlYwN5bmNhdA--
I'm not comparing her book to the classic To Kill A Mockingbird, but the author in the article echoes what's been said here: "he expressed disappointment at the book being banned from middle schools, saying those students need access to 'honest books'..."
-Jeff | | Back to Top | | |
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