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Let Sleeping Beauties Lie (Review: Anthology of Children's Literature marks genre's end)
The Claremont Institute ^ | August 2, 2006 | Dorothea Israel Wolfson

Posted on 08/02/2006 7:39:12 PM PDT by Stoat

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Dorothea Israel Wolfson is a teaching fellow at Johns Hopkins University's Washington, D.C., Center for the Study of American Government.

She is a free lance writer and has been teaching courses in American Political Thought in the Hopkins program for six years. She earned her Ph.D. in political theory from Cornell University's Department of Government. A former policy analyst at Empower America, she later collaborated with William J. Bennett to write Our Sacred Honor and Our Country's Founders. Among her most recent publications is an essay on Thomas Jefferson in The Founders' Almanac (Heritage Foundation, 2001).

Government Program--Faculty biographies

1 posted on 08/02/2006 7:39:16 PM PDT by Stoat
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To: Stoat
Don't know whether to barf, cry, or just nod my head -
ping
2 posted on 08/02/2006 7:47:48 PM PDT by norton
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To: Stoat

Ironically, I thought immediately of Bennett while reading this excellent article. Thanks for posting it.


3 posted on 08/02/2006 7:49:04 PM PDT by sageb1 (This is the Final Crusade. There are only 2 sides. Pick one.)
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To: norton
Don't know whether to barf, cry, or just nod my head -
"As the editors declare in the preface, "In our choice of texts and in our introductions, we have paid close attention to…perceptions of race, class, and gender, among other topics, in shaping children's literature and childhood itself." Practically every text and every author (save for the "emergent") is subjected to a wicked scolding from the editors for its racism, sexism, and elitism. Forget about ogres, witches, monsters, and evil stepmoms; today's villains are gender stereotypes, white males, the middle class, and the traditional family. Retrograde literature must therefore be replaced by a new one, one that is, as it were, beyond good and evil: "In our postmodern age, in which absolute judgments of 'good' and 'evil' are no longer easily made, the distinction between heroes and villains is often blurred."

It is indeed heartbreaking when  there is an entire industry dedicated to destroying the innocence of childhood and of rewriting History as well as Literature.

We truly live in a Dark Age, and must protect children and our cultural heritage with zeal.


4 posted on 08/02/2006 7:54:21 PM PDT by Stoat (Rice / Coulter 2008: Smart Ladies for a Strong America)
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To: sageb1
Ironically, I thought immediately of Bennett while reading this excellent article. Thanks for posting it.

You're quite welcome and I'm delighted that you enjoyed it.  I hope that you as well as all visitors to this thread might consider forwarding the article to their friends, as it deals with issues that are absolutely essential to the future of humanity and the sort of world that is to come.

5 posted on 08/02/2006 7:56:41 PM PDT by Stoat (Rice / Coulter 2008: Smart Ladies for a Strong America)
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To: Stoat

pingage for later...and we're teaching Veritas Omnibus at home this fall, by the way...


6 posted on 08/02/2006 7:58:22 PM PDT by Oberon (As a matter of fact I DO want fries with that.)
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To: Stoat
". . . in which absolute judgments of 'good' and 'evil' are no longer easily made . . ."

Maybe for them . . .

7 posted on 08/02/2006 7:59:11 PM PDT by jeffc
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To: Oberon

A very rigourous course. Which year?


8 posted on 08/02/2006 8:22:12 PM PDT by Vor Lady
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To: Stoat
Let me guess, the Anthology omitted Little Black Sambo and Uncle Remus. The first is set in India and the second is set... um... in the briar patch. Both are excellent and enjoyable stories.
9 posted on 08/02/2006 9:34:14 PM PDT by Jemian (PAM of JT ~~ Thanks for putting our boys in harms way, Rep. Murtha, you treasonous jack@ss!)
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To: Oberon
pingage for later...and we're teaching Veritas Omnibus at home this fall, by the way...

That sounds absolutely wonderful and your children are luckier than they probably know   :-)

Full steam ahead and I wish you and your family the very best with it...I believe that it would be quite difficult for them to be served better than by the path you have chosen..

Veritas Press - classical education curriculum for Christian schools and home schools

10 posted on 08/02/2006 10:11:33 PM PDT by Stoat (Rice / Coulter 2008: Smart Ladies for a Strong America)
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To: jeffc
". . . in which absolute judgments of 'good' and 'evil' are no longer easily made . . ."

Maybe for them . . .

Fortunately, there are still some who fail to bend so easily to the winds of relativistic fashion.  It is these brave souls who will save Civilization.

11 posted on 08/02/2006 10:14:12 PM PDT by Stoat (Rice / Coulter 2008: Smart Ladies for a Strong America)
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To: Jemian
Let me guess, the Anthology omitted Little Black Sambo and Uncle Remus. The first is set in India and the second is set... um... in the briar patch. Both are excellent and enjoyable stories.

I am guessing that if they are mentioned at all, it will be in the context of using them as examples of how utterly evil, racist and depraved White America is, and how lucky the reader is that they have bought this Anthology which will put them on the Golden Path to Liberal Enlightenment.

"gag"

With the combination of so many children being essentially raised in "day care" centers and as such largely deprived of their Mother's guidance, spoon-fed Marxist ideology and propaganda in the guise of bedtime stories and subjected to Eviro-Religious, anti-American cartoons such as Captain Planet it truly gives me great cause for alarm as to the future of our Civilization.  Thank Goodness for the Homeschoolers and others who are courageously swimming against this insidious current.

12 posted on 08/02/2006 10:24:56 PM PDT by Stoat (Rice / Coulter 2008: Smart Ladies for a Strong America)
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To: Stoat; All
It's sorta off-topic, but I like the image:


13 posted on 08/03/2006 3:03:52 AM PDT by backhoe
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To: Stoat

As I get older and reflect back to the "other world" of the 50's and early 60's, I thank God that I was allowed to be a child. After that, I was allowed to become a man.

Today, there is no such childhood left from the "other world."


14 posted on 08/03/2006 4:38:52 AM PDT by DH (The government writes no bill that does not line the pockets of special interests.)
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To: Stoat

Welcome to the Brave New World of deconstruction and critical theory. Why anyone would send their children to public indoctrination centers (given a *choice*) is inexplicable. And these folks are just getting wound up.


15 posted on 08/03/2006 4:46:42 AM PDT by Freedom4US
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To: backhoe
It's sorta off-topic, but I like the image:

Not off-topic at all and highly relevant and appropriate

  :-)

 

16 posted on 08/03/2006 9:51:05 AM PDT by Stoat (Rice / Coulter 2008: Smart Ladies for a Strong America)
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To: DH
As I get older and reflect back to the "other world" of the 50's and early 60's, I thank God that I was allowed to be a child. After that, I was allowed to become a man.

Today, there is no such childhood left from the "other world."

Although I share your unhappiness with the state of our culture, I would only suggest that the ways that we go about achieving the lives that we want for ourselves and our children have changed radically.  No longer can we depend upon public schools and once-esteemed academic institutions to fulfill their charters of educating our children in the timeless truths of the ages; we must do it ourselves.  It is indeed truly sad that children can no longer be sent off to a public school with the expectation that a parent's values will be upheld and augmented (unless the parent is a moonbat) and it is very sad that most of the public media culture can similarly be counted on to actively fight the messages from saner parents.  Today we can still provide a good life and education for children through the embrace of alternative educational options and the rejection of the mainstream television media culture.  This means considerably more work and expense for parents but it is a labor that many are willing to give, as there are signs that the Left is running out of steam and there may be a day sometime soon when the children who have been properly raised can bring the goodness of Western Civilization back to the world.  The lies of Socialism and it's attendant cultural cancers can only sustain themselves for so long, as they have no solid foundations in truth and logic.  I suppose I have a marginally optimistic outlook because we are changing the media culture quite rapidly (when the President calls Peter Jennings a 'has-been' you know the end is near for the MSM) and with the changing media culture, other elements of the Left will soon follow.  It will be a long and hard road, but I don't believe that it's time yet to throw in the towel.

17 posted on 08/03/2006 10:33:27 AM PDT by Stoat (Rice / Coulter 2008: Smart Ladies for a Strong America)
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To: Stoat
The Norton editors break with him on this central issue. They do not believe in the possibility of a more rational world, or even, it would seem, in childhood itself. And so they have more in common with the New England Primer than they dare to admit. They, too, are obsessed with death and the apocalypse, only they don't believe in redemption.

They also know that propaganda works best on the most innocent.

18 posted on 08/03/2006 10:35:27 AM PDT by LexBaird ("Politically Correct" is the politically correct term for "F*cking Retarded". - Psycho Bunny)
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To: Freedom4US
Welcome to the Brave New World of deconstruction and critical theory. Why anyone would send their children to public indoctrination centers (given a *choice*) is inexplicable. And these folks are just getting wound up.

They are indeed just getting wound up, but I would also suggest that they are fighting in an ever-shrinking arena.  There are a growing number of options available to students and parents, and thanks to the New Media there is now an opportunity even for people who aren't passionate news consumers to learn of the dangers faced in schools as well as options that may be available to them.  It wasn't so very long ago that we would never even hear about the problems with books such as this Norton Anthology, but nowadays we can learn that this sort of garbage is coming before it even hits the bookstores.  I agree that things are bad, but I'm trying to keep some optimism....I'm not going to let the Left steal that from me.

19 posted on 08/03/2006 10:44:51 AM PDT by Stoat (Rice / Coulter 2008: Smart Ladies for a Strong America)
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To: Grannyx4
We're just starting in on Year 1. We've never tried classical education at home before, so it's going to be a learning experience for everyone concerned. Another homeschooling family and mine are getting together to team-teach both families' children during three evening sessions per week.

I and the other family's dad are doing Omnibus, and our wives are planning to cover the rest.

20 posted on 08/03/2006 3:33:44 PM PDT by Oberon (As a matter of fact I DO want fries with that.)
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