[Dane]

JMO, but the writer is using Ellison's chapter as the main impetus of the "banning", but it seems that the three other stories are what caused the controversy.

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.

[kitkat]

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.

As I said, I'd have to read these stories before I could comment.

[Lyford]

bump for later

[HiTech RedNeck]

"Our teacher told us that 'some of this material could make you squirm in your seat

There are tens of thousands of English novels in the world, and today's educrats, sure nuff, zoom in to the "squirmy" ones, like flies to manure. Seems ta me most of this outrage ought to go to the likes of the NEA. Outrages over particular books are like trying to treat individual pustules of a case of measles.

[sauropod]

"kudos to Mr. Fanning for speaking out."

Agreed. If folks do not stand up against filth, filth is what you get.

[ladylib]

Here's another article about book banning in Florida. I think the girl has grounds for a suit (which the parents are looking into) because she was treated in a spiteful manner (hostile school environment) by her teacher.

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/content/auto/epaper/editions/saturday/news_f38cf14020fb32220039.html

When school administrators pull nonsense like this, don't they think that there will be some legal repercussions, especially in today's litigious society?

[KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle]

But he said no one was forced to read the material and that discussion focused strictly on literary, not lascivious, qualities.

Hard for me to work up any real sense of moral dudgeon over material no child was actually forced to read, if they didn't want to.

My opinion; worth what you paid for it.

[The Great RJ]

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.

[zook]

US Supreme Court is on record stating that school officials (principals, librarians, board members, teachers, etc.) may not simply "ban" a book or remove one from the library without some kind of regularized process for evaluating their merits.

[sourcery]

The problem is public education, which converts what should be family issues into political ones. When the country was founded, there were no public schools. Government schools make just as much sense as government newspapers: which is to say, none at all.

[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.

[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.

[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".

[RikaStrom]

Check this out.

[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.

[Cicero]

I'm a fan of Ellison's Invisible Man, which I think is one of the few great modern American novels. As you say, the real controversy seems to have been about the other stories, which I never heard of before, but they probably wanted the protestor to look like a bigoted Christian racist.

If one of the stories is about a young girl being fondled by an old man on a train, then I think that is indeed very questionable. Better to read The Great Gatsby.

[wideminded]

In the boxing scene in Invisible Man, one of the black boxers cannot help getting an erection when he sees the naked white woman. This is the part that Mr. Fanning was probably trying to keep from his daughter.

Invisible Man is a great piece of literature. If I was going to pick one chapter for a high school anthology, I might not have picked this one if I wanted to avoid controversy. Nevertheless as I recall the scene from reading it many years ago, the overall feeling is not a focus on sex, but the fact that the teenage boxers are being exploited for the entertainment of the white audience. And maybe this is a scene that young male readers can relate to.

[gcruse]

[The Great Gatsby] by F. Scott Fitzgerald is on the American Library
Association's list of most frequently banned or challenged works.

The dumbing down of America is beginning to parallel Winston Smith's
job of putting information down the memory hole to be lost forever. I'd
mention the book I am referencing, but the young ones might get jittery.
If ignorance is truly bliss, we should be getting happier by the year.