Modesto Mom fights to rid classrooms of X-rated literature

[xrp]

Strengthening the argument for homeschooling. Why doesn't this woman just do this instead?

[sd-joe]

LaChappell has three children in college and a fifth-grader that she is home-schooling.

[sd-joe]

LaChappell has three children in college and a fifth-grader that she is home-schooling.

[laweeks]

Get her kids the hell out of the public schools now. If she doesn't, she has NOBODY to blame but herself. Grab them by the collar and get them out! God is out; perversion is in, and there's no groundswell to put a lid on this nonsense?

[Bob]

She is. From the article:

LaChappell has three children in college and a fifth-grader that she is home-schooling.

[Zavien Doombringer]

To be honest it is called money...Homeschooling isn't free, it costs close to the cheapest private school. about $4000 a year depending on the curriculum you are doing.

[InvisibleChurch]

which so far has refused to drop books containing graphic details of child rape, incest, and necrophilia.

a zillion books out in the world and the school picks these certain ones ... it's not done unintentionally ... one day someone will have to answer to God for their actions

Mark 9:42 "And if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a large millstone tied around his neck.

[freedomcrusader]

Isabel Allende's House of the Spirits and David Guterson's Snow Falling on Cedars

Never heard of them (authors or works). Do they belong in a high-school literature curriculum, regardless of sexual content?

[Zavien Doombringer]

Hey, some of the works of Shakespeare could be considered vulgar and pornographic!

[aardvark1]

She has her kids out of public school. She is concerned what is passed off as education in the schools she is FORCED to support. Imagine that...concern about where her tax dollars are going.

[Tax-chick]

Are you serious ($4,000 a year)? You could get a whole family the Calvert School program - which includes all your school supplies - for less than that.

[Zavien Doombringer]

yes, I am serious! I have mine in private school (Sweethaven Christian School) only because it was the same price as the homeschooling curriculum. They are in elementary school, High school curriculum is higher! My two oldest are in the Public High School, it isn't that bad here, yet...

[Tax-chick]

Both were award-winning novels in the past 20 years or so. I read "House of the Spirits" (in the original Spanish) in a college Spanish literature class. Frankly, I don't think high school students would like it. It's about Latin American politics.

I've only seen the movie of "Snow Falling on Cedars"; it was not unsuitable for high schoolers. However, there's no telling what was in the book!

[Tax-chick]

Which curriculum were you considering? I don't think I could spend that much homeschooling my whole family, if I tried!

[templar]

Way back when I was in Jr. High School, To Kill a Mockingbird and The Catcher in the Rye were made required reading. They were very, very controversial and generated a lot of community opposition. Times have changed.

[Okies love Dubya 2]

As a homeschooling mother, let me tell you it doesn't cost that much. We are a one-income family, so we don't have lots of extra $ to throw around, but we spent less than $200 on our daughter's curriculum for this year (which we just started last week). That covers phonics, writing, art, math, music, religion, and science. It also includes the supplies I bought like paper, chalk, etc. that we use to complete her lessons. There are also tons of online resources that make it easier and cheaper to homeschool. Compare that to the closest Catholic school to us which costs about $2,500/year.

Even next year when our daughter does the first grade curriculum, it will only be about $350, and we are enrolled with a school that will keep records, grade papers, and provide lots of other services. We could do it cheaper but we elect to utilize those services so that when we move in a few years, we have those records. This will come in handy in case we decide to put them into a regular school or if we move to a state that is not as homeschool friendly as Oklahoma.

I am not trying to flame you, just point out that it is not as expensive as a lot of people think it is. It can be as expensive or inexpensive as you make it.

[logician2u]

Anyone who sends their kids to government indocrination camps can expect them to get a well-rounded education in the ins and outs of all sorts of things they may not be exposed to at home.

The whiners can complaain 'till the cows come home but it's not likely to change until a critical mass has a)recognized the putrid smell emanating from the "public" schools; and b)taken remedial action.

We went 'round and 'round with the school board over our daughter's being forced to read Catcher in the Rye a dozen years ago and got nowhere, so we know exactly what this parent is up against. One parent or even three parents have zero influence on the school establishment.

When the source of their funding is challenged, though, you may see a new customer-friendly attitude emerge.

Or, maybe not. They could just hunker down and fight off the homophobic, radical right wing Christian fundamentalist anti-government activists who would burn their children's books with every dirty trick in the book, aided by a sympathetic media. You know that's how Clinton would handle it.

[Redwood71]

I graduated high school at 17. I believe showing explicit material to a minor is a felony offence and can be jail time. I don't think their first amendment rights fall into this catagory when it is required reading for graduation purposes making a minor required to read it. If society determines it is a crime, then how is the school exempt? At that point, you can't call it literature but erotica.

[goodnesswins]

I read the "Snow" book.....I don't remember anything x-rated about it.....young sexual encounter (oblique, if I recall correctly).....and a very boring book, to me.