Posted on 02/20/2006 5:01:05 PM PST by wagglebee
(AgapePress) - A school district in Maine has reaffirmed its reinstatement of a sexually explicit book several parents want removed from the local high school's curriculum. The Orono School Committee recently voted to retain the controversial novel Girl Interrupted in the ninth grade English literature class at Orono High School.
Girl Interrupted, a novel written by Susanna Kaysen, was affirmed for use in the high school curriculum over the objections of parents and local residents who take exception to the profuse profanity and sexual content in the book. Michael Heath, head of the Christian Civic League of Maine (CCLM), says this graphic work of fiction has no place in schools where impressionable young people will be exposed to it.
"It's a book about an 18-year-old," Heath explains, "who ends up in a mental asylum and has a number of conversations with mentally disturbed people -- conversations of the most graphic sort, especially sexual. The f-word [appears] 30 times in one page, and this is being given to freshmen in high school as literature. It's absolutely horrifying."
School board members argue that using Girl Interrupted in the classroom honors free speech and that prohibiting it would amount to unconstitutional censorship. However, the CCLM spokesman feels the board members are making a spurious claim when they cite First Amendment freedom as a justification for obscenity.
The Civic League's representative at the board's meeting contested that idea from the floor, Heath points out. "When one of the school board members said to not have the book in the curriculum would be the practice of censorship," he notes, "our representative objected and said, 'Look, you censor Playboy. You don't allow people to read Playboy in the schools, so that's a non-issue. You're lying.'"
The Orono school board has the responsibility to make decisions about content and does in fact make such decisions all the time, Heath contends. He feels parents and pro-family citizens in the Maine community have every right to be outraged over the school committee's decision to retain a sexually explicit novel in Orono High School's ninth-grade English literature classes.
I tried reading Catcher in the Rye when I was about 16 or so. The whininess and the f- word just annoyed me. I do not think I could have made it through a similar book as required reading.
>They want children reading this because it's all part of their agenda<
You've got that right! I am happy to report that due to much hard work here in Vancouver, USA, the library board of trustees has voted to filter all their computers. It wasn't easy, but now we will have a safer environment for our wee ones to come to storybook time, and our students to research for their homework without incident, because the deviant pornography lechers will not be rubbing elbows with them. Thank God! Check into the libraries in your areas and see if free porn is offered there, then do something about it by getting bonds voted down, writing letters to the editor, etc. Good luck. Now about the National Education Association.......
Oh because you just said they did, and that is why I responded to it.
Melville was attempting something quite different and far more complex than Salinger. Melville I think in large part succeeded in holding it together for almost 1000 pages . . . Salinger failed -- even in a very short novel, just over 200 pages IIRC. He's not just not in Melville's league - it's another one of those comparisons it's almost too embarassing to make.
Actually "Moby Dick is about 440 pages, so I'm almost inclined to believe you never read it. Secondly, I was demonstrating that the voice in "Catcher" was more consistent than the voice in "Moby Dick" because you specifically criticized the book for inconsistency in voice. I never said Saligner was in Melville's league. I do believe he wrote a great book though. For you to call his book a failure is the what is embarassing. I would like to know in what way he failed since the book is one of the most widely published novels ever, and is still considered a great book almost 60 years after it was written
Thanks for looking out. I like the diversity of opinion that exists on FR. I've never been on DU because I'm inclined to think it is possibly all lefties who rarely disagree.
>I would as soon throw my kids into a snake pit as to into the local public schools here. I homeschooled my son... until we could find him a private school placement<
But most parents don't have the choice to homeschool because both mom and dad are, or just mom is, trying to earn a living. And the school's slice of the property tax pie in the NW is enormous, leaving little left over for private school.
Education was superior by far when the main text book was the Bible. Students in elementary school knew more than the college freshmen of today in many cases. And kids are left without supervision as never before to watch raunchy television, let alone objectionable books as mandatory reading at school! Doesn't look too promising for future, does it?
According to my son, who is 15, so you have to take that into consideration. My guess is that this is somewhat correct because I doubt a Catholic School would have them read it unless there was some sort of moral objective to it.
I didn't worry because I have always been one to expose my children to more vs. less. I personally think it opens the door for me to talk to them about things that don't come up otherwise. Just the way that I prefer to do it.
The movie was 'R' rated, so teenagers under 17 were not allowed to see it without their parents permission. Why should the novel be forced on 14 and 15 yr olds. without their parents' permission?
Too young to know anything about the soap opera.
Oh, this thread is about books isn't it?
I think we owe Peyton Place to East of Eden.
I was a little bit older than that when I checked out "Wifey" by Judy Blume from the library. It was VERY explicit.
I think the issue is different when the book is endorsed by a teacher, however. I have not read the book in question, so I can't comment on it directly.
I just finished reading Peyton Place and Return to Peyton Place. Both stories were bound into one book and I'm nearly certain I found them in the new releases section of my local library.
It wasn't nearly as racy as I had expected! LOL!
It is a good story line as a teen 'coming of age' book. It is set in the Viet Nam era in a women's mental hospital and explores America of the sixties (sex, drugs, racism, eating disorders are woven into the plot). Wynona Rider was the 'girl interrupted'; Angelina Jolie is troubled, abused, and serial hospital escapee (her character drops the F bomb like the phrase 'you know'); Whoopee Goldberg was great in the movie as a nurse at the hospital. Added into the mix are a girl living at the hospital as a respite from living in the real world (she is severely disfigured from a childhood fire that her family died in) and another character has an eating disorder (her suicide bring catalyst for change in the other characters' lives).
I decided to post this synopsis from my recollection of the movie and book. I figured after 280 plus posts, some brief explanation of the story in question should be made. I am totally against censorship; but I do believe that parents should have the opportunity to review course matter and have their child put into another class if the parents are not comfortable with the material. I don't think 'Girl Interrupted' is a great choice for course material but it does have its merits. I wonder how many of the objecting parents (and FReepers) actually read the book or watched the movie? Its easy to criticize anyone one page (the 30 F bombs) but how does that word fit into the character or context of the story?
Good post. Thanks for providing some context.
It probably just seemed like 1,000 pages.
I agree. I don't think money should be spent to put junk like that in a school library to the exclusion of something else more "worthy" (which is admittedly a subjective classification) but if a copy was given to the library I wouldn't care.
However, I think it is wrong to have it in an English class where the assignment reads "You must read at least one of the following books and write a report: "Huck Finn", "Girl Interrupted", "The Color Purple", etc..."
One of the best lines in all of literature...
"He saw God's foot upon the treadle of the loom..."
Not a straw man at all. It is precisely the logic you employed to make your case.
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