Two Classic Books Banned By VA School District

[Spare_change]

Two classic, yet oft-challenged, novels have been temporarily removed from bookshelves at public schools in a Virginia school district.

A student’s mother complained at an Accomack County school board meeting in November that her son, who is biracial, had struggled to read passages containing racial slurs. Superintendent Warren Holland recently informed local news station WAVY-TV that To Kill a Mockingbird and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn had, as a result, been temporarily pulled from the schools.

There’s no denying that the books depict bigoted conduct and offensive language. According to the AP, racial slurs appear 219 times in Huck Finn and 48 times in To Kill a Mockingbird. The American Library Association rank both among the most banned and challenged books in the nation, and no wonder: according to ALA statistics, offensive language is one of the most common motivations for a challenge.

Nonetheless, both books remain widely read and taught in the U.S., for their literary quality and for the manner in which they grapple with the nation’s sordid racial history.

The parent who filed the complaint saw the books differently:

“Right now, we are a nation divided as it is,” the mother is heard saying in an audio recording of the meeting on Nov. 15[...] “So what are we teaching our children? We’re validating that these words are acceptable, and they are not acceptable by any means,” the parent said.


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry...ia-county-schools_us_58407884e4b0c68e047fa947

 

[HenryBHough]

Those who fail to read history are doomed to repeat it.

 

[Bleipriester]

Caution. Big Book Burning ahead. Put on "Gas" masks and drive quickly.

 

[LA RAM FAN]

Two classic, yet oft-challenged, novels have been temporarily removed from bookshelves at public schools in a Virginia school district.

A student’s mother complained at an Accomack County school board meeting in November that her son, who is biracial, had struggled to read passages containing racial slurs. Superintendent Warren Holland recently informed local news station WAVY-TV that To Kill a Mockingbird and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn had, as a result, been temporarily pulled from the schools.

There’s no denying that the books depict bigoted conduct and offensive language. According to the AP, racial slurs appear 219 times in Huck Finn and 48 times in To Kill a Mockingbird. The American Library Association rank both among the most banned and challenged books in the nation, and no wonder: according to ALA statistics, offensive language is one of the most common motivations for a challenge.

Nonetheless, both books remain widely read and taught in the U.S., for their literary quality and for the manner in which they grapple with the nation’s sordid racial history.

The parent who filed the complaint saw the books differently:

“Right now, we are a nation divided as it is,” the mother is heard saying in an audio recording of the meeting on Nov. 15[...] “So what are we teaching our children? We’re validating that these words are acceptable, and they are not acceptable by any means,” the parent said.


Classic Books Yanked From Virginia County Schools After Parent Complaint | The Huffington Post

holy shit dancing must not be allowed either. if not,would be FOOTLOOSE brought to real life.

 

[Spare_change]

Caution. Big Book Burning ahead. Put on "Gas" masks and drive quickly.

Are you somehow trying to indicate that the election of Trump will lead to "Big Book Burning"?

I'd be real interested in that flight of logic.

 

[Spare_change]

Two classic, yet oft-challenged, novels have been temporarily removed from bookshelves at public schools in a Virginia school district.

A student’s mother complained at an Accomack County school board meeting in November that her son, who is biracial, had struggled to read passages containing racial slurs. Superintendent Warren Holland recently informed local news station WAVY-TV that To Kill a Mockingbird and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn had, as a result, been temporarily pulled from the schools.

There’s no denying that the books depict bigoted conduct and offensive language. According to the AP, racial slurs appear 219 times in Huck Finn and 48 times in To Kill a Mockingbird. The American Library Association rank both among the most banned and challenged books in the nation, and no wonder: according to ALA statistics, offensive language is one of the most common motivations for a challenge.

Nonetheless, both books remain widely read and taught in the U.S., for their literary quality and for the manner in which they grapple with the nation’s sordid racial history.

The parent who filed the complaint saw the books differently:

“Right now, we are a nation divided as it is,” the mother is heard saying in an audio recording of the meeting on Nov. 15[...] “So what are we teaching our children? We’re validating that these words are acceptable, and they are not acceptable by any means,” the parent said.


Classic Books Yanked From Virginia County Schools After Parent Complaint | The Huffington Post

holy shit dancing must not be allowed either. if not,would be FOOTLOOSE brought to real life.

Not too sure ... I think Kevin Bacon is too old to dance like that any more. Maybe he can lead a secret wheelchair square dance, or a walker hoe down!!

 

[Auld Phart]

this shit again?

Won't the fools ever learn?

 

[CrusaderFrank]

Progressive Book Burning

 

[Bleipriester]

Are you somehow trying to indicate that the election of Trump will lead to "Big Book Burning"?

Ehhhhhmmm, no.

It is just a road sign warning against the smoke the political corrects cause with their book burnings.

Germany: Where the books are burning again.

 

[SYTFE]

Those who fail to read history are doomed to repeat it.

Like the idiots who didn't learn from Mussolini and Hitler. History is already repeating itself.

 

[mgh80]

Some people are dumbasses...I teach To Kill a Mockingbird and have NEVER had a problem from ANY of my students.

I tell them the following:

-When they're reading they don't need to use the word-but they may (if they're quoting the text).

-I will use the word (only quoting the text mind you), because I don't want to sugar coat history and what the book is about.

-If hearing the word makes them uncomfortable-it's a good thing because it SHOULD.

-Mockingbird isn't supposed to be a comfortable novel to read. It should challenge them, it should test them and it should make them think. It should make all of the students squirm in their seats a little bit.

-We juxtapose the classroom from the novel to our classroom.

PS: I'm a white male teacher and teach in a school with a white population of about 20-25%

Anybody who think that any part of the novels are racist in the slightest either A) have never read them, or B) lack the reading comprehension skills necessary to understand the novels.

If anything the books actually highlight why the words aren't acceptable.

The dumbing down of America continues.

 

[Spare_change]

Some people are dumbasses...I teach To Kill a Mockingbird and have NEVER had a problem from ANY of my students.

I tell them the following:

-When they're reading they don't need to use the word-but they may (if they're quoting the text).

-I will use the word (only quoting the text mind you), because I don't want to sugar coat history and what the book is about.

-If hearing the word makes them uncomfortable-it's a good thing because it SHOULD.

-Mockingbird isn't supposed to be a comfortable novel to read. It should challenge them, it should test them and it should make them think. It should make all of the students squirm in their seats a little bit.

-We juxtapose the classroom from the novel to our classroom.

PS: I'm a white male teacher and teach in a school with a white population of about 20-25%

Anybody who think that any part of the novels are racist in the slightest either A) have never read them, or B) lack the reading comprehension skills necessary to understand the novels.

If anything the books actually highlight why the words aren't acceptable.

The dumbing down of America continues.

It's an epidemic.

 

[regent]

I think boards of education like to show parents they are protecting their children from certain ideas. There are a few books that are frequently banned by boards, one is Huck Finn;. Tom Sawyer is not quite as evil but it too is shaky.

 

[mgh80]

I think boards of education like to show parents they are protecting their children from certain ideas. There are a few books that are frequently banned by boards, one is Huck Finn;. Tom Sawyer is not quite as evil but it too is shaky.

How is Tom Sawyer "evil"?

What ideas are they protecting children from in To Kill a Mockingbird?

 

[Unkotare]

...

What ideas are they protecting children from in To Kill a Mockingbird?

Boredom?

 

[yiostheoy]

Two classic, yet oft-challenged, novels have been temporarily removed from bookshelves at public schools in a Virginia school district.

A student’s mother complained at an Accomack County school board meeting in November that her son, who is biracial, had struggled to read passages containing racial slurs. Superintendent Warren Holland recently informed local news station WAVY-TV that To Kill a Mockingbird and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn had, as a result, been temporarily pulled from the schools.

There’s no denying that the books depict bigoted conduct and offensive language. According to the AP, racial slurs appear 219 times in Huck Finn and 48 times in To Kill a Mockingbird. The American Library Association rank both among the most banned and challenged books in the nation, and no wonder: according to ALA statistics, offensive language is one of the most common motivations for a challenge.

Nonetheless, both books remain widely read and taught in the U.S., for their literary quality and for the manner in which they grapple with the nation’s sordid racial history.

The parent who filed the complaint saw the books differently:

“Right now, we are a nation divided as it is,” the mother is heard saying in an audio recording of the meeting on Nov. 15[...] “So what are we teaching our children? We’re validating that these words are acceptable, and they are not acceptable by any means,” the parent said.


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry...ia-county-schools_us_58407884e4b0c68e047fa947

I never read or saw the movie "To Kill A Mockingbird".

And all I remember about "Huckleberry Finn" was a lot of N-words.

I think the editor of H.F. should go through and change all the N-words simply to "negroes" and then it would be fine to let little kids read.

But then again a lot of Negroes don't like that word either.