Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

South Carolina Teacher Suspended For Reading 'Ender's Game' To Middle School Students
Forbes ^ | 3/19/2012 | Erik Kane

Posted on 03/20/2012 12:36:10 PM PDT by fremont_steve

click here to read article


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-55 last
To: Jack Hydrazine
The Queen was captured and experimented on?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AjEdc-VDcw
41 posted on 03/20/2012 1:44:36 PM PDT by Deaf Smith
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 27 | View Replies]

To: driftdiver

i concur this book is not pornographic except to the left. they probably thing STARSHIPP TROOPERS is pornographics. what do they think 14 year olds see on the interent? and why is the teacher reading it it to the class.
using this same logic i think anything by that commie bastard howard zinn is pornographic.


42 posted on 03/20/2012 1:51:34 PM PDT by bravo whiskey (If the little things really bother you, maybe it's because the big things are going well.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: bravo whiskey

Forget pornographic. I can’t for the life of me figure out what the “profanity” is that they would object to. I guess there must have been some language in there, but I’ve read the book once, and listened to it on tape twice, and I don’t remember anything to be offended at.

In fact, I have either read or listened to the entire Ender’s series at least twice, and there is hardly anything at all sexual, and the violence is contained and entirely appropriate for the story. And I don’t remember any language issues, or thematic problems either.

Now, these are not religious books, nor do I find much religious allegory. I’d say they lean a bit toward humanist, although Catholicism plays a part in many of the books in the series (as it does in another good book by Card, “Empire” and the sequel “Hidden Empire”).

I wouldn’t look to these books for christian themes. The main character is agnostic at best. But I even found the bizarre “theology” of the latter books to be interesting. If you read SciFi to be put in an alternative reality, these books do that well.


43 posted on 03/20/2012 2:15:26 PM PDT by CharlesWayneCT
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 42 | View Replies]

To: GSWarrior

Card is perhaps the most uneven author I’ve ever read.

Some of his stuff, such as Ender’s Game and Tales of Alvin Maker, is innovative and excellent.

Others, even some in the two series started by the books above, are almost unreadable.

His SF retelling of the story of the Book of Mormon, The Homecoming Saga, is atrocious.


44 posted on 03/20/2012 2:21:25 PM PDT by Sherman Logan
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 30 | View Replies]

To: CharlesWayneCT; bravo whiskey
Forget pornographic. I can’t for the life of me figure out what the “profanity” is that they would object to. I guess there must have been some language in there, but I’ve read the book once, and listened to it on tape twice, and I don’t remember anything to be offended at.

In fact, I have either read or listened to the entire Ender’s series at least twice, and there is hardly anything at all sexual, and the violence is contained and entirely appropriate for the story. And I don’t remember any language issues, or thematic problems either.


I've read the Ender series many times. There is absolutely nothing remotely offensive in them (well, at least to those of traditional morality and support of the military). I've read most of Card's other books and they're unusually solid in promoting a view of the universe that is moral and, interestingly, Card's Mormon background doesn't intrude into these stories at all.
45 posted on 03/20/2012 2:23:11 PM PDT by aruanan
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 43 | View Replies]

To: GSWarrior; windcliff
And it was written by a conservative Mormon.

Well that eliminates Romney as the author.

46 posted on 03/20/2012 2:23:55 PM PDT by I Drive Too Fast
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 23 | View Replies]

To: Sherman Logan
Others, even some in the two series started by the books above, are almost unreadable.

Ender's Shadow is pretty good.
47 posted on 03/20/2012 2:26:09 PM PDT by aruanan
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 44 | View Replies]

To: Sherman Logan

I enjoyed Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus.


48 posted on 03/20/2012 2:27:03 PM PDT by GSWarrior (Some people tell me I worry too much.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 44 | View Replies]

To: Wuli
A few of the words of one poem were changed because they mentioned guns. I commented to the project leader that it was a wrong and a dumb thing to do.

You had paint, a ladder, and yet you did nothing. That's why we're losing.

49 posted on 03/20/2012 2:27:21 PM PDT by Lurker (The avalanche has begun. The pebbles no longer have a vote.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies]

To: aruanan

I had to stop reading Xenocide because I didn’t want it to spoil the Ender legacy for me.


50 posted on 03/20/2012 2:29:18 PM PDT by GSWarrior (Some people tell me I worry too much.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 47 | View Replies]

To: I Drive Too Fast

LOL


51 posted on 03/20/2012 2:32:47 PM PDT by windcliff
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 46 | View Replies]

To: fremont_steve

Nice to see that it’s likely not Ender’s Game but some other materials that the parent was objecting to.

Some of Card’s stuff has very Mormom themes. Ender’s Game doesn’t. It’s one of the top ten SF novels ever written and probably the best description of brilliant children I’ve read. Card is genius with character and knows a lot about writing (his books on writing are among the best I’ve read) but a lot of his books are kind of lame. Ender’s Game is a classic though.


52 posted on 03/20/2012 2:37:59 PM PDT by JenB
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Taylor42

The movie sucked so bad because the screenplay and director literally threw away every good idea Herbert wrote, and tried to replace them with nonsensical flash. If you haven’t seen the mini-series the Sci-Fi channel made, you missed a much better treatment.

http://www.amazon.com/Frank-Herberts-Dune-Three-Disc-Directors/dp/B0000639EV/ref=sr_1_1?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1332280415&sr=1-1


53 posted on 03/20/2012 2:56:05 PM PDT by Kellis91789 (The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 37 | View Replies]

To: fremont_steve

I think the later books in the “Ender” series would be too much for middle-schoolers . . . but “Ender’s Game” is a fine short story (actually I think maybe it’s a novella? can’t recall right now) and a fine book. They *are* pretty rough emotionally, sort of like Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” and I think they might be upsetting to some kids. But I would let my middle-school kid read them.


54 posted on 03/20/2012 11:16:15 PM PDT by Hetty_Fauxvert (If you back Newt . . . then SEND HIM MONEY!! "Be Breitbart, Baby!")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: fish hawk
I guess I have been out to lunch as I have never heard of this book, ever. To me though, the Dune series by Frank Herbert would be impossible to top. I've read the whole series. If any here has read both authors, how would you compare?

Similiar in the sense that both get into what it means to be a true warrior, and how the mind is the greatest weapon - and the greatest vulnerability.

In any event, if you read Dune, you MUST read Ender's Game.

55 posted on 03/20/2012 11:38:27 PM PDT by Talisker (He who commands, must obey.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 25 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-55 last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson