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'll bet you SIXTY bucks I don't have to read the book. I read the description of what it contained in the article. A book doesn't need to have the "F word 30 times on one page" to. Once will do it.
"What book doesn't have sexual content?"
Are you kidding?! Is that supposed to be a reasonable argument for pushing more sexuality into the lives of 9th graders? Don't read much do you?
I was just going to alert you to this.
People don't realize (or maybe some do...?) how influencable kids are to what they read/see/hear.
Reading and seeing raunchy crap will stay with them a long time. There is no doubt about it. Not saying every kid will turn into a werewolf. But the mind absorbs everything you put into it, to one degree or another. And highly emotional content, especially sexual and violent, stores better.
There is plenty of good literature that isn't offensive that high school kids could read with benefit.
LOL!!! I rest my case.
Because I'm not familiar with the movie and just wondered. Kids have to be 17 to get in to see the movie. I don't think many ninth graders are 17.
I know for a fact that Jake Barnes doesn't have sex with Lady Ashley in Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises!
So if the school board has to keep out everything that offends you, whats to stop the Muslims from trying to keep out everything that offends them?
With the movies kids are watching today whats a bit of profanity in a book.
Maybe it should be rated PG17.
I could not agree with you more. There are countless great novels that kids could read.
A few years ago I read a couple of Harry Potter books, wanted to see what all the fuss was about (plus for research on style as I have some writing plans). What amazed me as much as the nasty content was the two dimensional shallow junk writing. Like comic books without pictures.
People will keep complaining as long as it gets them publicity (like this).
Sad, but true.
Ninth graders. Back when I was in school, ninth grade was junior high.
Oh, yeah...instead of decreasing the profanity, what's wrong with giving kids more?
Are you serious?
BINGO! Many FReepers live in a world where Bibles should be allowed in the schools, but not the Koran. The Christian Right reeks of hypocrisy.
I was in english literature honors classes and read books advanced for my age. There should be an alternative to the book if some parents find it so offensive.
"What amazed me as much as the nasty content was the two dimensional shallow junk writing. Like comic books without pictures."
"Like comic books without pictures"? Are you sure you were reading Harry Potter?
There's a difference between books available in a library and books students are assigned to read with no choice. Do you have kids in public school?
That's fine, but let's not force them to read it.
There are bunches of people wondering where to live, whose mug shots are on sex offender lists across the nation, who think this very way. Sorry. They are kids. They might think they are adults, but they are kids. Predators might think they are adults, but they are kids.
And do any of those assumed facts make it then OK for the school to promote the book?
And as far as the DU thing....can't you at least be original if you're going to accuse me of something?
I could care less about originality. Being conservative, I don't have that obsession. (you might note I don't have tag line envy either)
You are welcomed to your opinion.
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