LA Times tells us of the End Times Coming due to yet more book banning from library reading lists. One of them is "Of Mice and Men" and, in my view, banning that one is just absurd. The other one is "The Kite Runner." (L.A. Times: Parents want 'Of Mice and Men,' 'Kite Runner' removed from high schools)
For the latter I would have a problem with it as well. A segment is said to portray the homosexual rape of a boy. That's a clearly adult theme and yet the audience is not adult so it's not, in my view, appropriate.
Maybe my objection is invalid because "Of Mice and Men" portrays adult themes as well but they're not sexual.
For my own kid, I would not open that kind of material until I judged he or she was ready for it or the kid finds it alone. For it to be introduced on a fixed schedule is not appropriate to me as it's not the same for every kid.
So free speech has to be honored and this book is part of that. It's the Will of the People that the book is in the reading list so what do I do. I don't like it and I'm not willing to give that aspect of raising the kid to someone else.
There's no way to do a selection from a reading list as classroom discussion would make little sense after that. I can pull the kid out of school and do a half-ass job of home-schooling him so he has no chance of any useful college. Maybe you need more English teachers so there's an option to select by title to pass any given year.
Maybe it means nothing at all as the only things I remember from high school English are "Silas Marner" which I hated and writing a poem so pretentious it included the words 'azure majesty.' Who knows where I stole that but I hope my eyes burn before I see it again.
One more thing in English class: there was a debate over the use of LSD ... and I won it. The sixties were a little bit different. (I had not used LSD at that time but, looking back, it was inevitable. That's not regret.)
For the latter I would have a problem with it as well. A segment is said to portray the homosexual rape of a boy. That's a clearly adult theme and yet the audience is not adult so it's not, in my view, appropriate.
Maybe my objection is invalid because "Of Mice and Men" portrays adult themes as well but they're not sexual.
For my own kid, I would not open that kind of material until I judged he or she was ready for it or the kid finds it alone. For it to be introduced on a fixed schedule is not appropriate to me as it's not the same for every kid.
So free speech has to be honored and this book is part of that. It's the Will of the People that the book is in the reading list so what do I do. I don't like it and I'm not willing to give that aspect of raising the kid to someone else.
There's no way to do a selection from a reading list as classroom discussion would make little sense after that. I can pull the kid out of school and do a half-ass job of home-schooling him so he has no chance of any useful college. Maybe you need more English teachers so there's an option to select by title to pass any given year.
Maybe it means nothing at all as the only things I remember from high school English are "Silas Marner" which I hated and writing a poem so pretentious it included the words 'azure majesty.' Who knows where I stole that but I hope my eyes burn before I see it again.
One more thing in English class: there was a debate over the use of LSD ... and I won it. The sixties were a little bit different. (I had not used LSD at that time but, looking back, it was inevitable. That's not regret.)
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