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1 posted on 12/07/2012 10:25:13 AM PST by grundle
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To: grundle
The passing of an era.

Perhaps there will be a whole new generation of disturbed stalkers mumbling to themselves, but with copies of "Recommended Levels of Insulation" in their trenchcoat pockets instead of "The Catcher In The Rye."

2 posted on 12/07/2012 10:28:36 AM PST by wideawake
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To: grundle
This is cultural vandalism, educational malpractice and -- as I see it --- psychological child abuse. It's not far from what Paul Goodman had in mind when he wrote "Growing Up Absurd," (1962) although it's actually much worse now, 50 years later.

It's Reason #8979458548 to Home School, no matter what the sacrifices.

You wouldn't trust these brain-deadeners with your car keys, your checkbook or your Online Banking password, would you? Why on God's green earth would you trust them with something imcomparably more precious: the mind of your child?

3 posted on 12/07/2012 10:32:23 AM PST by Mrs. Don-o ("God bless the child that's got his own." Billie Holiday / Arthur Herzog Jr)
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To: grundle
This is cultural vandalism, educational malpractice and -- as I see it --- psychological child abuse. It's not far from what Paul Goodman had in mind when he wrote "Growing Up Absurd," (1962) although it's actually much worse now, 50 years later.

It's Reason #8979458548 to Home School, no matter what the sacrifices.

You wouldn't trust these brain-deadeners with your car keys, your checkbook or your Online Banking password, would you? Why on God's green earth would you trust them with something imcomparably more precious: the mind of your child?

4 posted on 12/07/2012 10:32:32 AM PST by Mrs. Don-o ("God bless the child that's got his own." Billie Holiday / Arthur Herzog Jr)
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To: grundle

One trashy, worthless book replaced with several worthless books...


5 posted on 12/07/2012 10:33:23 AM PST by ROLF of the HILL COUNTRY
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To: grundle
How can the libs suddenly hate “Catcher”? (Ah yes; it’s because the NYT declared him to be a “whining preppy” and a “rich kid” that the revolutionaries can’t relate to, rather than his usual image as the “alienated anti-hero” that the libs used to love so much that they rammed him down our throats for several generations.)
6 posted on 12/07/2012 10:34:28 AM PST by Olog-hai
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To: grundle

With 3 out of 5 governors being Republican, there’s no excuse for their backing this drivel.

Rather, this is the sort of thing Romney could have run against!


7 posted on 12/07/2012 10:37:22 AM PST by 9YearLurker
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To: grundle

“Supporters of the directive argue that it will help pupils to develop the ability to write concisely and factually, which will be more useful in the workplace than a knowledge of Shakespeare.”

I’d argue that a knowledge of Shakespeare will help pupils develop the ability to THINK, which is a prerequisite to writing concisely and factually.


9 posted on 12/07/2012 10:40:58 AM PST by Boogieman
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To: grundle

Catcher in the Rye had its issues. To Kill remains one of my top favorite books.

But -

Catcher can be used to really reinforce sexual obsession and stalkiness. It is not about a mentally healthy person, but a snarky jerk. And To Kill can reinforce black on white hatred, although our hero is white, so is are our villains; the victim is black.

So if the teacher teaches the books in a politically correct way, I am not too enthusiastic. If the student is left to discover the author and his text on his own, well and good.


12 posted on 12/07/2012 10:46:10 AM PST by Persevero (Homeschooling for Excellence since 1992)
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To: grundle
Catcher in the Rye dropped from US school curriculum

Always hated that book.

Too bad they are not replacing it with something decent.

13 posted on 12/07/2012 10:47:35 AM PST by Harmless Teddy Bear (Fate plays chess and you don't find out until too late that he's been using two queens all along)
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To: grundle
A new school curriculum which will affect 46 out of 50 states will make it compulsory for at least 70 per cent of books studied to be non-fiction, in an effort to ready pupils for the workplace.

Don't see why this notion, as such, is inherently bad.

There is a lot of great writing in histories, biographies, etc.

The problem, however, is likely to be not the fiction/nonfiction issue. It's the books they will approve in both categories. No dead white males need apply.

14 posted on 12/07/2012 10:50:48 AM PST by Sherman Logan
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To: grundle

“Government is a parasite — a cancer that by nature tries to spread deeper into society. Those who want to run others’ lives won’t give up and start minding their own business.” -Harry Browne

“Schools have not necessarily much to do with education... they are mainly institutions of control, where basic habits must be inculcated in the young. Education is quite different and has little place in school.” -Winston Churchill

“Education should aim at destroying free will so that after pupils are thus schooled they will be incapable throughout the rest of their lives of thinking or acting otherwise than as their school masters would have wished ... “ —Johann Gotlieb fitche


15 posted on 12/07/2012 10:53:59 AM PST by Ruy Dias de Bivar (The parasites now outnumber the producers.)
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To: grundle

I am not crying over the removal of Catcher in the Rye (which I thought was pretentious tripe when I read as a teenager back in the day when dinosaurs roamed the Earth), but Recommended Levels of Insulation and the Invasive Plant Inventory as replacements?

Geeze, Louise. I think the objective must be to raise a generation of kids that hate reading. I cannot imagine anything less motivating than assigning bureacrateze to schoolkids.

*Another* reason to homeschool.


18 posted on 12/07/2012 10:59:32 AM PST by No Truce With Kings (Ten years on FreeRepublic and counting.)
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To: grundle
Catcher in the Rye and Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird will be replaced

If only.

19 posted on 12/07/2012 11:01:08 AM PST by Romulus
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To: grundle

A real shame. I would recommend books like 1984, Animal Farm, Manchild in the Promised Land (contains vulgar language). For my 13 year old, some books mentioned should be on his reading list for next Summer. He is definitely is being brought up NOT to be politically correct.


20 posted on 12/07/2012 11:02:37 AM PST by CORedneck
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To: grundle

Other than the propaganda, I don’t see a problem here. I got through school without having to read “Catcher in the Rye.” Thank goodness.

For some reason, English lit classes select only the most excruciatingly boring books as “literature.” Why not let the kids read Sherlock Holmes stories, “The Scottish Chiefs,” “Kidnapped,” “Beau Geste,” or even “Tarzan?” They’re good books, well written, and reasonably entertaining. The kids might actually learn to LIKE reading; something they won’t get from Catcher in the Rye or Earth-First propaganda.


25 posted on 12/07/2012 11:21:58 AM PST by Little Ray (Get back to work. Your urban masters need their EBTs refilled.)
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To: grundle
what Cartman thought of catcher in the rye
29 posted on 12/07/2012 11:24:10 AM PST by from occupied ga (Your government is your most dangerous enemy)
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To: grundle

Never cared for “Catcher in the Rye” - I found it incredibly boring. I do love “To kill a Mockingbird” - in fact I read it again last week! It’s a delightful story about growing up in rural Alabama during the depression. The only downside is that the story was interrupted by some sort of trial. (The trial part was boring, so I skipped over it).


30 posted on 12/07/2012 11:26:14 AM PST by Cowboy Bob (Greed + Envy = Liberalism)
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To: grundle

I think this is a tongue-in-cheek article. A brief look at the Common Core State Standards Initiative home page (http://www.corestandards.org/) doesn’t bear out any of the way-out elements from the article. The Telegraph was having a little fun.


32 posted on 12/07/2012 11:29:38 AM PST by Adolf Verloc
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To: grundle
Catcher in the Rye dropped from US school curriculum [replaced with environmental propaganda]

Replacing mid-20th century fiction with early 21st-century fiction

35 posted on 12/07/2012 11:44:01 AM PST by kidd
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To: grundle
I taught literature at a Catholic high school for 20 years. I found fictional literature a most excellent vehicle for young adults to discuss, analyze, and assimilate moral values. In fact, no work of non-fiction literature can take its place. I used the Introduction to Great Books, mostly comprised of non-fiction essays, also to delve into moral questions. They are equally important, but there is no replacing imaginative works.

Every so often on FR there comes the Catcher in the Rye thread, like clockwork. Because I taught it for many years, with excellent results, I can say that I know it very well, but I realize few have had the benefit of decoding it as I have. Like The Great Gatsby, which is an absolutely dazzling conglomeration of symbolism, putting it among our greatest novels, Catcher shares an intricate use of powerful symbols, but not with the complexity that Fitzgerald created. But Salinger's work is a loving, tender exploration of a search for God in a hostile, hypocritical world. He shows that the perversion of a worldly frigid materialism is combated and ultimately conquered by other-centered love, which comes from God. The bullets in the gut, the hunter's hat, the ducks, the pond, the merry-go-round, the museum, Phoebe, Christmas profanation, the nuns, the Rockettes, Sunny the prostitute, Maurice the pimp, Jane, etal all are assembled with great symbolic skill by Salinger, product of Catholic and Jewish parents, to convey that theme of God's love and human love and heaven as our destiny (quest) as antidote. And it's a hell of a funny book, it really is.
36 posted on 12/07/2012 11:50:55 AM PST by jobim (.)
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