Book banned in Fort Cherry

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ^ | 11/29/03 | Jane Elizabeth

[Joe Bonforte]

In less than one year, the students cited in this story will be able to read Jaqueline Suzanne, Penthouse, "Lady Chatterly's Lover" - anything they want. Getting heated up over stuff this mild for students that are approaching 18 looks like an overreaction to me.

Does anyone here expect that there is a single student in that class who has not seen far more racy material in a PG-13 movie?

18 is not a magic borderline whereupon people automatically turn into responsible adults. Children need to gradually be exposed to the elements of an adult world, in such a way that they can begin to understand the sexual and violent aspects over a span of time, and while they can be guided and advised.

When I was in college, I saw more than one "sweet young thing" raised in a strict Christian family who went completely wild her freshman year. Never having been taught to deal with being an adult, such girls simply did not know what was sensible or prudent and what was not. I felt sorry for them.

Now I'm no fan of the NEA, but that doesn't mean that all teachers are vicious socialists bent on brainwashing our children. I see no evidence of highhanded tactics in this one, given the explicit instruction by the teacher to avoid anything a student found uncomfortable. It sounds like a legitimate attempt to give some high school seniors some content that would be interesting to adults, which some of them are in mind if not yet in age.

[uncbob]

I'd have to read the stories before I could comment. I remember too well the local highschool which had to ban "Catcher in the Rye." The parents who complained had not even read the book. My own daughter, as a sophomore in a private school, read it as a class assignment, and it was discussed and explained. It was a beautiful book.

Never could see why that book was hailed as a classic

I found it tedious and depressing

[mountaineer]

Not a fan of book-banning - but then, that doesn't meen they need to be on the shool cirriculum

Exactly. The books aren't banned. The kids still can purchase them or check them out of the local library. I think the classics of English and American literature should be in the high school curriculum, moreso than recent works of social commentary , primarily because the older books make better use of language and generally use proper grammar. Anyone who has encountered college students, as I have, may be shocked to find how poorly they write, which I attribute to the failure of jr. and sr. high school English teachers to teach fundamentals.

[patton]

LOL. On the other hand, I know some outstanding writers. Outstanding.

One thing they all have in common - they are multilingual, and suck at crossword puzzles.

[PAR35]

Textbooks are examined and evaluated by teachers and administrators before they're approved for use in the classroom, Cecchetti acknowledged. Can a parental complaint supercede that process?

I am surprised that this question is even asked. Everyone knows that in the New World Order parents should not be allowed to question the decisions of professional educators.

[Wilhelm Tell]

Getting heated up over stuff this mild for students that are approaching 18 looks like an overreaction to me.

I agree. There are several factors that make things a mess. On the one hand, mediocre artists cash in on shock value rather than trying to create something original (and risk being unpopular). They are helped by leftists, who as true levellers want art to be dumbed-down to the lowest common denominator. As a result of this, art is more coarse than ever. Add to this politically-correct offensiveness the politically correct doctrine that people are supposed to be hyper-sensitive and thus offended by just about everything.

People are just too sensitive. This is especially hypocritical of the leftists, who see a racist or a Nazi under every page. So much so, that they want to ban anti-racist authors like Mark Twain. Now, there are some on the right who see satan hiding behind every page, with fiery demons lurking in the spaces between every word.

I am convinced that idealogues cannot read things in context -- they just read literally word-for-word until they get to a word they don't understand or don't like. Then they get "offended" and blame the author. The more advanced idealogues might be able to read a book sentence-by-sentence. They will sooner or later happen upon a sentence they disagree with. They are less offended by what is said than they are offended that someone was free to say something they disagree with.

[KosmicKitty]

Having not read the stories in question, I cannot comment on whether or not they are appropriate for High School Seniors. My gut feeling is that they probably are.

My problem with this type of action is that a small groups of people is deciding for the majority. You don't want YOUR kid reading something, fine, but don't deny my child the opportunity to read it.

I never believed in banning ANY materials. I even let one of my boys read "A Clockwork Orange" for a book report when he was a Junior in High School. Had to sign a note saying that I was okay with it, but, why shouldn't I be. After all, I did a book report on it in High School too. I also went to private school were we could read anything we wanted, from Huckleberry Finn, to Gulliver's Travels, the Grapes of Wrath, the Bible, Crime and Punishment, 1984, Brave New World, Welcome to the Monkey House, to The Last Temptation of Christ (one of the best books I ever read, btw).

I very good friend of mine, a minister, always said it's not what goes in to the body, but what comes out.

Flame me if you want, but I feel that I raised my kids with a good moral background, disipline & love and I was not afraid that any book they read, movie they saw, or music they listened too was going to have a negative effect. Banning things just makes them more attractive. Remember, "no good girl was ever raped by a bad book".

[Snidely Whiplash]

Instead of this crap students should be reading Orwell's 1984, Hemmingway's A Movable Feast, Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn and Melville's classic Moby Dick.

All great titles, though Huck Finn is a bit below the reading level of a senior in high school. And Ellison's The Invisible Man isn't exactly avant-garde or anything...

Snidely

[RikaStrom]

Check this out.

[Snidely Whiplash]

When the country was founded, there were no public schools.

BZZT. Thanks for playing. Pennsylvania's state constitution (1785) called for the establishment of public schools, and by the 1820s there were public schools all over the place. The first publicly funded school was founded in Boston in 1635. Thomas Jefferson was a supporter of public education as far back as the 1770s.

If you're gonna be against public education, fine, but be honest and informed about it. Your idyllic time never existed.

Snidely

[Poser]

Moby Dick... Ugh.
And Silas Marner... Ugh!
And Catch 22... Ugh!!
And Lord of the Flies... Ugh!!!

With so many good, INTERESTING, books out there, one would think teachers could choose better reading assignments. I had to go to the library to get my hands on Asimov. Most school reading is unnecessarily dreary and boring.

[cyborg]

Invisible Man was REAL LIFE for many black men in America. If some people get offended by real life then too bad. I bet a lot of people championing banning this book from class didn't even read it. I read it. It was OK. I'm not going to trash someone's life experience. I had to read Color Purple for my senior year in my 'all girl catholic high school'. Half the girls in class were already having sex and abortions, and leading far worse lives than whatever a character in a book was doing.

[pamlet]

M TV is depraved as well. As a mom of 2 teenagers (well one is now nearly 20) it has been an incredible challenge to ensure that they stay on track with proper morals. It's not just TV and books - sex and violence are all around them. I remember way back when I was a kid (eons ago) my high school came about because a pastor of a church was concerned about the reading material his daughter was having to read in the public school. (Catcher in the Rye being one of them). Now, as an adult I'm incredibly thankful that there were parents (including my own) that loved their children enough to teach them balanced lives.

Kids today are presented with huge moral/ethical choices at an early age - and frankly I do believe it has to do with the moral decay of our society. Children (yes even teenagers) should not have to face those choices without having been taught step by step how to make proper choices. We moan and complain about how our nation is declining morally, yet we are not willing to admit that part of it is because we allow our children to grow up too fast. Just because a kid is 18 - or 16 - or 14 doesn't mean he needs to "experience" adult life (whether it be real or "vicarious" experience) They have plenty of time for that once they are more mature, and able to determine proper choices.

By the way - I read Catcher in the Rye in my LATE teens, in college and found it rather uninteresting - I really saw no value in it.

[ladylib]

Check out the Parents Against Bad Books in School (PABBIS) website:

The Chantilly HS English Department webpage says, "The English Department sees one of its major roles as helping young people branch out emotionally and intellectually. The reading of imaginative literature takes the students out of the narrow confines of the familiar and confronts them with experiences that reach out to their senses, feelings and minds. As students' responses grow more sensitive and sophisticated, they become more capable of sympathy, more aware of the range of human possibility."

PABBIS: What academianut psychobabble that is. Branch out emotionally, sensitive responses, more capable of sympathy, range of human possibility? Perhaps English Teacher Rich Tucker could explain how repeating "f*** you" 10,000 times relates to these dubious departmental goals. Is this the English department or the New Age Touchy-Feely Department?

The Chantilly HS English Department webpage also says, "Our program respects the diversity of the student population."


The kids must all be a bunch of raping, homosexual, deviant whatevers considering the selection of books offered in the Fairfax, VA, school system. Some objectionable books are on middle school library shelves.

Tell you the truth, I think the Fairfax schools' agenda is to desensitize kids so they accept any lifestyle under the sun.

[Tamzee]

For goodness sake, this book wasn't "banned"... it's just under dispute as appropriate for certain age groups and the school requiring them to read it.

Parents who approve of the book are still completely free to provide it to their own children.

[Pedantic_Lady]

Again JMO, but I don't think those stories are appropriate for a high school English class and kudos to Mr. Fanning for speaking out.

We were required to read this very book in my AP English class in high school (1992-1993). It didn't screw any of us up.

[Pedantic_Lady]

Instead of this crap students should be reading Orwell's 1984, Hemmingway's A Movable Feast, Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn and Melville's classic Moby Dick.

Interestingly, all of the above were required reading at my high school or junior high school. I still have the copies of all four that I purchased as a schoolgirl.

[Pedantic_Lady]

Post #15: Yes, or what about The Scarlet Letter. I don't think there's anything offensive in that.

It's too boring to be offensive. :-)

[Pedantic_Lady]

When I was in college, I saw more than one "sweet young thing" raised in a strict Christian family who went completely wild her freshman year. Never having been taught to deal with being an adult, such girls simply did not know what was sensible or prudent and what was not. I felt sorry for them.

I know EXACTLY what you're talking about! My first roommate in college was a fundamentalist Christian. She constantly harassed me for having a boyfriend that I *gasp* had SEX with (I was over 18 and on birth control and using condoms), but she had sex too. She asked guys to...ahem...use the back door. She thought that this wasn't really "having sex," and vehemently protested that she was still a virgin after doing this with several guys. She did more guys that first semester than I've ever slept with in my entire life.

[Holly_P]

you have advertised a No-No and that gets attention for the very thing you are trying to hide or silence.

O'Reily and F.N.C. learned that lesson with publicizing that idiot Franken's book didn't they?