'Catcher in the Rye' assignment evokes shock

Washington Times ^ | 11/25/03 | Matthew Cella

[Tumbleweed_Connection]

A Chantilly High School student says his English teacher instructed the class to repeat a common two-word profanity 10,000 times as a way of desensitizing them to its appearance in the novel "Catcher in the Rye."

Jeff Daybell, 17, a senior at Chantilly, said he brought the incident to the attention of school administrators because he was shocked at the teacher's instructions.

[dead]

The kid is 17 years old. It might be time for him to toughen up a bit.

[r9etb]

Agreed. He should also turn up the gain on his leg-pulling sensors.

Personally, I think what the teacher said is pretty funny....

[MrB]

let's show them a video tape of a violent rape

over and over again


to desensitize them to its appearance in some novel, or on the street.
Makes a lot of sense.

[Jonah Hex]

...his English teacher instructed the class to repeat a common two-word profanity 10,000 times as a way of desensitizing them to its appearance...

I could say "Hillary Clinton" 100,000 times and it would still set my teeth on edge.

[TPartyType]

I'm happy to learn many in the class found this offensive! (What with the influence of "The Osbournes" and all . . .)

Maybe we're not as far gone as it seems!

[GSWarrior]

This guy would not enjoy Marine Corps boot camp.

[Conspiracy Guy]

Has anyone got the top 12 list? I read Catcher a long time ago, like 69 or 70. Need to see what else is bad.

[MHGinTN]

Not the point at all. The kid and his buds likely hear the phrase regularly ... but in his High School classes and from his instructors is indefensible. Now, if this was a college level course on social work, etc. where the individuals in the class would be confronting a 'new vocabulary' to deal with, the desensitization exercise is at least relevant.

[Sloth]

Between my junior & senior years of high school, I attended Arkansas Governor's School in the summer of 1992 (while X-42 was still governor, but running for POTUS). In one class, the teacher instructed us to chant the F-word in order to desensitize us.

[Sloth]

Has anyone got the top 12 list? I read Catcher a long time ago, like 69 or 70. Need to see what else is bad.

I expect Harry Potter would take up five of those slots.

[dead]

the desensitization exercise

The “the desensitization exercise” was a joke the teacher made, because the phrase appears in the book. He was kidding around with the class, warning them that the phrase is in there. Even the complaining student acknowledged that.

I was in Advanced Placement English class when I was seventeen. That word appeared in quite a few of the books we read. It’s in a lot of valid literature that a seventeen year old should be exposed to.

This faux outrage is just a publicity-seeking exercise for a kid with an agenda.

[MHGinTN]

As a teacher decades ago, I never considered 'Catcher In The Rye' to be good literature, and considered it used only for the shock and 'comradeship' between teachers and students ... a posture I don't buy into either.

[KarlInOhio]

Has anyone got the top 12 list? I read Catcher a long time ago, like 69 or 70. Need to see what else is bad.

1.Scary Stories (Series) by Alvin Schwartz
2.Daddy’s Roommate by Michael Willhoite
3.I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
4.The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
5.The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
6.Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
7.Harry Potter (Series) by J.K. Rowling
8.Forever by Judy Blume
9.Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
10.Alice (Series) by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
11.Heather Has Two Mommies by Leslea Newman
12.My Brother Sam is Dead by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier
13.The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

The rest is at http://www.ala.org/Content/NavigationMenu/Our_Association/Offices/Intellectual_Freedom3/Banned_Books_Week/Related_Links7/100_Most_Frequently_Challenged_Books_of_1990-2000.htm

[Conspiracy Guy]

Wasn't he one of the character's on M.A.S.H. ?

[Poohbah]

This guy would not enjoy Marine Corps boot camp.

Who's the (deleted) idiot who (deleted) thought that this (deleted) pantywaist would survive (deleted) boot camp, anyway?

[Conspiracy Guy]

Twain and Steinbeck. Ridiculus.

[Sloth]

The book, written from his perspective, contains a steady stream of mild swear words. Among them is the two-word phrase, which includes the "F word."

If the F-word is "mild", what qualifies as harsh?

[AnAmericanMother]

My daughter read this as part of her English class (9th grade) in an excellent private school. The kids were shocked by the language, but they also agreed that Holden Caulfield is an obnoxious, self-pitying, self-deluding jerk. My daughter's theory (for which she received an "A" on her final paper) is that Caulfield is insane and is writing this screed from the mental hospital. She compared this "untrustworthy narrative" to the similar Darl in Faulkner's As I Lay Dying who is only revealed to be in the mental hospital in Jackson towards the end of the book.

I don't see what the fuss is about. The book will convince any thinking reader that profanity (while not an infallible sign) does seem to follow classless, stupid, obnoxious people around . . . .

[Willie Green]

The kid is 17 years old. It might be time for him to toughen up a bit.

He obviously has the courage to stand by his convictions.

I call that being pretty "tough".