Don't mind me, I am just an innocent bystander!
Posted on 03/14/2002 5:07:26 AM PST by HairOfTheDog
That's not my point (or my wife's). And actually it may be the school that is in for the shock. It's one thing to not want your kids to read certain things. And like I said, the reading list was a suggested list. They are free to read anything they choose. She was given some guidelines by the school administrator, and she has stayed within those guidelines.
I have trouble with labeling things "Christian" just because. And especially have trouble with accepting the mediocre just because it's "for the Lord."
She IS teaching things from a Biblical world view. But it's simply fantasy to deny that sex, drugs and rock and roll are happening. And, by the time these kids are in the 10th grade, they should be making some of those value judgements on their own.
IMHO, anyone who asks if a suggested list of reading materials is approved for "Christian" families has a very small world view.
"Sounds slightly hobbo-erotic to us."-Rebecca Ascher-Walsh,Entertainment Weekly, #662, July 12, 2002"
Am I reading it wrong or is that an irritating comment?
Don't mind me, I am just an innocent bystander!
"But it's simply fantasy to deny that sex, drugs and rock and roll are happening. "
Not to mention a good many other current events, past history, literature, etc.
I should've read through all the posts before responding the first time. That's exactly how she has approached it. She told the parent that, if there's a problem with a particular work, they should be the one to say to the child "I don't want you to read that." But she also was pretty strong in saying that they should have a reason.
Here's the list:
Fiction
Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman by Ernest Gaines
Rebecca by Daphne DuMaurier
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
The Testament by John Grisham
The Glass Lake by Maeve Binchy
Enemies: A Love Story by Isaac Bashevis Singer
Tar Baby or The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
The Chosen by Chiam Potok
White Fang by Jack London
My Antonia by Willa Cather A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court by Mark Twain
The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey
I Never Promised You a Rose Garden by Joanne Greenberg
Cold Sassy Tree by Olive Ann Burns
Member of the Wedding by Carson McCullers
The Giver by Lois Lowry
Night by Elie Wiesel
Summer of my German Soldier by Bette Greene
The Snow Goose by Paul Gallico
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
Kane and Abel by Jeffrey Archer
The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy
The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien
Mysteries
The Cat Who Knew Shakespeare by Lillian Jackson Braun
The Runaway Jury by John Grisham
Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie
“A” Is for Alibi by Sue Grafton
Vertical Run by Joseph Garber
I’ll Be Seeing You by Mary Higgins Clark
Intruder in the Dust by William Faulkner
Science Fiction / Fantasy
The Martian Chronicles or Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Jurassic Park or The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton
The Crystal Cave by Mary Stewart
Perelandra by C.S. Lewis
2001: A Space Odyssey or Childhood’s End by Arthur C. Clarke
Non-Fiction
All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot
Shakespeare of London by Marchette Chute
Gorillas in the Mist by Dian Fossey
Champions: Stories of Ten Remarkable Athletes by Bill Littlefield
Autobiography of Mark Twain by Samuel Clemens
Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt
Eleanor Roosevelt: A Life of Discovery by Russell Freedman
An American Childhood by Annie Dillard
Anna and the King of Siam by Margaret Landin
Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters’ First 100 Years by Sarah L. and A. Elizabeth Delany
Into Thin Air by John Krakauer
Eight Men Out: The Black Sox and the World Series in 1919 by Eliot Asinof
In These Girls, Hope Is a Muscle by Madeleine Blais
She Said Yes: the Unlikely Martyrdom of Cassie Bernall by Misty Bernall
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I think that's a pretty balanced list. She did get one complaint about Angela's Ashes because there is a (teenage?) sexual encounter. But again, if we say it's not happening, we're just avoiding reality. I think it far better to say it's happening and deal with why it's wrong.
I always think that sort of talk results from leftist (liberal) thinking and mindset. Anything that treats good and evil as absolute, they want to trash it somehow. It helps them trash our traditions.
The school is set up so that parents who home school can send their kids to classes with other home schoolers. The idea is that if a parent (particularly in the upper grades) is weak in a subject, they can band with other home schoolers. Some parents choose to only send their parents to the academy when they're older.
Well, what she wanted to say was similar to that...I told her last night to hang onto her bosses' number at Wal-Mart. We may be needing it around December. (I figure someone will spot her going to see the 2nd Harry Potter movie, then it'll all be over with...)
That is a funny typo... Can't trust the acadamy with my children, but maybe I will send my parents - when they are older!
Sounds like a school from pioneer days. Sounds good, potentially.
Anyway, it's kind of a leap to think that the state could bring up your children better than you could.
She'll also be teaching a unit on Shakespeare every year.
But her main point with the reading list is just that they are reading. She also offered them the opportunity to suggest books.
Oops. Now you see why she's the teacher...
WELL THEN If she is making exceptions, can you explain why Tolkien is not on this list? tap tap...
[harumph!]
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