James Clavell's "A Children's Story"

"Your daddy just has to go back to school a little. He had some strange thoughts, and he wanted other grown-ups to believe them. It's not right to want others to believe wrong thoughts, is it?" ... "Well yes, Johnny said. "But what wrong thoughts did he have?" "Just some grown-up thoughts that are old-fashioned." ... And the other children nodded, and they wondered if all their parents should go back to school and unlearn bad thoughts. "Sit down Johnny, and we'll start learning good things and not worry about grown-up bad thoughts..."

My son got home from his first day of middle school yesterday. He told me his new literature teacher had the class read a story that was really weird. He said it encouraged the students to not listen/trust their parents, to rip up the American flag and realize it's a silly symbol and stop praying to God since it's obvious God doesn't answer prayers...

So I went and to the school this morning, introduced myself to this teacher and asked him if I could have what my son was reading. I couldn't believe it! First off, this was boring, simplisticly poor writing. The only thing making it interesting is it's agenda. Secondly, the agenda is so twisted and philosophy so short sighted it's laughable people find this wise. Thirdly, it's a direct attack on my family. This teacher is encouraging my kid to have secrets from me, to think I'm old fashioned and unintelligent, to quickly dismiss any type of God from his mind, and to simply work hard and trust the system - instead of blindly trusting his parents, faith and morality.

Does anyone else find this offensive to teach our kids?

Here’s what is put out by the publisher about this book:

James Clavell, the author of Nobel House and Shogun presents a chilling tale of how patriotism can be reshaped in a person’s mind with a few simple and resonable explanations. Both disturbing and enthralling, this short and stunning story asks many questions, yet leaves the answers up to the reader.

I’d be interested to know how old your son is? I can see this might be appropriate to start older students to question how easily someone can turn their opinions around, but I’d say it would definitely have to be high school level. Maybe I’m wrong, but those are my thoughts.

I was shocked to see that Clavell wrote this.

Sorry, just saw - middle school. I don’t think I’d have just thrown this book out there without a lot of explanation as to WHY this book was being introduced.

Good luck ~ sounds as if you’ll need it this year.

What Clavell wrote in this story is a glimpse of what can happen in our schools (and perhaps is happening today).

It is an excellent observation of how modern liberalism/socialism will brainwash the children.

If you've never read it I suggest you do.

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