PARENTS ACT ON SCHOOLS' OFFENSIVE READING MATERIAL

PACIFIC COAST NEWS ^ | 03.10.06 | Cara Cook

[Coleus]

In the spring of 2004, a group of parents in Overland Park, Kansas, sat down with some of their children's assigned reading from school. What they found appalled them-and motivated them to do something about it.

Janet Harmon, one of the parents, told Concerned Women for America (CWA) her reaction to her son reading one of the books: "This is a 14-year-old freshman boy, and [the book] had references to oral sex and homosexuality. . I thought it was a mistake!"

When these parents spread the word about the books' contents to others, they were met with disbelief.

To address the school's failure to provide appropriate reading material, Janet joined Lisa Friedrichsen and Sherry Millen to create www.Classkc.org (Citizens for Literary Standards in Schools), a Web site to inform parents about the contents of their children's reading material and about how to get involved to make changes.

"As parents and taxpayers, we find these influences on our children absolutely unacceptable when hundreds and perhaps thousands of other award-winning and classic literature choices that meet course objectives could be made," the Web site reads. Examples given include Dickens' David Copperfield and Melville's Moby Dick.

While a portion of the Web site provides information for local parents about the Blue Valley Board of Education in Overland Park, Kansas, it still offers much for out-of-town parents. One link leads to a list of commonly assigned reading for high school students that contain profanity and sexually explicit material. Next to each book is the "Lexile grade level," or the measurement of the book's reader ability and text difficulty.

Books assigned to 11th and 12th grade Blue Valley students, such as Song of Solomon and Beloved, are given 5th and 6th grade levels of difficulty by the Lexile system. The books, therefore, are not only vulgar but provide little intellectual challenge for high school students. Other links on the site include parent-written reviews of books on school reading lists.

One of Classkc.org's fundamental principles is that parents should have final say regarding the formation of their children's values, not the state: "The state should not have open season on when, where and how to indoctrinate and form children's sexual attitudes, but rather, the parents should have the primary role in values education and overall worldview, particularly in the area of sexual values, for their own children."

One area where the state should have more impact, Jane Harmon asserts, is in its application of obscenity laws. Each state, she points out, has obscenity laws that public schools are not obligated to follow. "That's something that needs to change," Harmon said. "We feel it should become a nationwide law that public schools should follow state obscenity laws."

"In the battle to protect our children from harm, there has to be an effort on two fronts. Parents must be involved and aware of the material to which their children are exposed, and the community itself needs to respond in keeping community standards high so that obscenity is viewed by all in the same way," said Judy Smith, State Director for CWA of Kansas. "I applaud the efforts of these parents and stakeholders to protect children from vulgarity, violence and inappropriate themes in school reading lists. They have gone about this in a reasonable way, using the process available, and they have exercised the ultimate in local control."

[Coleus]

For more information, click here and here.

[cowdog77]

Some things never change....

we went thru the same "cycle" of astonishment, anger and disbelief over the assigned reading of "Go Ask Alice" in our local Jr High. But, when we took a petition to a school board meeting signed by 90% of the parents, we were met with "tough luck, you don't have any say over what your kids read."

Consequently, we pulled our kids out and started home schooling...with great success...... they were way ahead of their peers at graduation time!

The public school system is "owned" by the liberals....better be prepared for a good fight to make even a smidgen of difference.

[Senator Bedfellow]

"We feel it should become a nationwide law that public schools should follow state obscenity laws."

Such conservative values they promote, dictating educational policy from Washington.

[cgk]

"We feel it should become a nationwide law that public schools should follow state obscenity laws."

But then what would the children wear? Say? Listen to in the way of music? They would have to shut down the school dances! (:::sputtering outrage!:::) (/sarc)

[Frwy]

No one has less rights than parents of school children these days. The only thing the schools require from parents is more and more money which is squandered, on what, I don't rightly know. There was so much less money per student when I was in public schools and yet the biggest problems were spit balls and chewing gum. We learned well and had a great time doing it.

BTW,
When the time comes to vote, remember, Hitlery thinks it takes a village to raise a child - not parents, and she's dead wrong, as always.

[YankeeGirl]

Interesting about "Go Ask Alice." When my husband was a hs senior in the early 70s, he and some classmates (at a prestigious Catholic hs) experimented with LSD for 2 or 3 months, just before graduation. He was busted one night, however charges were never filed.

His mom was disappointed & furious. The next day, when he woke up, he found his mom had left that book, "Go Ask Alice," in his room for him. She never said a word to him, didn't even attend his graduation, she was so mad. From that night, all through college he never even smoked pot once, just drank beer for recreation (drinking age was 18 then), studied and worked like a dog for 4 years.

We read that book in HS too, I think. It was supposed to shock you and horrify you and point out the evils of drug use and how it turned a nice suburban hs girl into a mess.

I found it at home recently and looked it over. Seemed kind of hokey to me now, not sure if my kids would get much out of it. They and their friends aren't into drinking, and the drugs of choice they may see and hear about in school are different from LSD, although pot may be still in vogue in some groups.

My oldest was more shocked when they read some book about ebola virus. It was pretty graphic in the description of the illness and had some bad language. I think it was the first time she saw some of those words in print. I think she was a freshman. It didn't bother me, I just noted that the time of "young" reader books had passed and it was time for them to deal with more mature themes.

[Galveston Grl]

Parents have to follow up with school board elections or there is no use in even challenging the perverts.

[nonsporting]

When one turns his/her children over to the State for education, they "belong" to the State. You have no say over what they're indoctrinated with or whether they have certain medical procedures without your approval.

When are these folks going to figure it out. You cannot reform this system. It must be allowed to die.

Homeschool. It's so easy, anyone can do it.

[Tired of Taxes]

Ping!