P.C. Police Propose Book Banning

[chanel]

West Orange school officials will reassess the district’s diversity training and curriculum after a Liberty Middle School teacher handed out a paper containing a racial epithet to a seventh-grade class.

The veteran teacher, who was not named, gave students a handout about the Agatha Christie mystery novel "And Then There Were None" during a language arts lesson last month, school officials said. The paper contained a scene from the stage adaptation of the 1939 novel that referred to the book’s original title, "Ten Little *******."

Demond and Tauheedah Baker-Jones complained to school officials after their son, Timothy, told them he read the racial epithet in class.

Earlier this month, a Michigan family sued their school district after excerpts from a book about slavery containing the n-word were read aloud in their daughter’s fifth-grade class. Last week, Flagler Palm Coast High School in Florida canceled a student production of "To Kill a Mockingbird" after parents and students complained about the use of the n-word in some scenes.

In addition to complaining to the school district, Baker-Jones’ family filed complaints with the NAACP and the ACLU. Cavanna, the superintendent, said the incident sparked an important dialogue about race and diversity in West Orange.

West Orange school officials review diversity training, curriculum after class handout includes racial epithet | NJ.com

Has anyone in Flagler read "To Kill a Mockingbird"?

 

[jillian]

you're right... it shouldn't be banned. it should be used to teach people what creeps and racists some people are.

 

[RetiredGySgt]

you're right... it shouldn't be banned. it should be used to teach people what creeps and racists some people are.

You liberals have created conditions where that will never happen, instead words and books are banned because of political correctness and people are punished for asking students to read important literary material.

 

[jillian]

you're right... it shouldn't be banned. it should be used to teach people what creeps and racists some people are.

You liberals have created conditions where that will never happen, instead words and books are banned because of political correctness and people are punished for asking students to read important literary material.

I think you'll find its the rabid right that does the book banning thing.

but thanks for your input.

 

[Madeline]

Lots of great writers' works would be banned in such a sweep. Toni Morrison, Mark Twain, Tolstoy, Charles Dickens, Ernest Hemingway......

 

[chanel]

you're right... it shouldn't be banned. it should be used to teach people what creeps and racists some people are.

and that's the point in To Kill a Mockingbird and Of Mice and Men. It's historically significant and integral to the plot. These race baiters need to read a few books.

Do you think the teachers need "re-educating"? I am almost certain that the West Orange School District will censor ANYTHING that can be deemed offensive in the future. It wouldn't surprise me if it had a chilling effect on all schools in NJ.

 

[California Girl]

you're right... it shouldn't be banned. it should be used to teach people what creeps and racists some people are.

You liberals have created conditions where that will never happen, instead words and books are banned because of political correctness and people are punished for asking students to read important literary material.

I think you'll find its the rabid right that does the book banning thing.

but thanks for your input.

I think you'll find that both sides do the book banning thing. But, please don't let facts get in the way of your argument.

 

[Madeline]

Karl Marx, Kurt Vonnegut, Stephen King, Robert Burns, Robert Heinlein, Amy Tan, Dashiell Hammett, Bernard Malamud, Salman Rushdie......

 

[chanel]

Yes. And it wouldn't surprise me if the complainants were white either.

 

[Ravi]

I think the whole thing is pretty silly, but what did the word ****** have to do with the lesson at all?

Oh, right...nothing.

 

[chanel]

It was the original title. God forbid the kids know that.

 

[Ken84]

It is unfortunate that such a situation leads to a lawsuit rather than an open and honest discussion between the two parties involved. If we cannot solve these small issues without wasting money going to court how can we expect to handle the real issues we are facing.

 

[chanel]

I agree. However being an educator in the litigious nanny state of NJ, I can assure you that any and every accident or perceived offense to children is "remedied" through public policy. It would not surprise me in the not too distant future, that teachers will be forced to read from a board approved script like a bunch of robots. No risk taking,; no controversy; no higher order thinking required for teachers or students. Hence - no more lawsuits.

 

[Ken84]

Sadly I don't disagree with you. It seems to me that is up to the parents to make sure that doesn't happen.

 

[editec]

If we start rewriting (or hiding) history ( in this case the history of past literature) we do oursevles and our children an enormous disservice.

I'm in the business of dealing with antique literature.

Believe me a lot of what's in that collection is not PC.

There's something there for everybody (right, left or center) to object to.

I publish it anyway because it is important that we understand the mindset of the societies of the past.

And things like these old books ARE historical artifacts that need to be there for us to read, think about and discuss.

Books banning is really foolish policy, regardless of what your poltical POV is.

 

[strollingbones]

and yet there is a major outcry to ban the peddie guide.....so do you ban any books...i think not...

ideas cannot be banned

 

[California Girl]

and yet there is a major outcry to ban the peddie guide.....so do you ban any books...i think not...

ideas cannot be banned

I agree. Sure the Pedophile Guide is horrifically offensive.... but it's a slippery slope.

 

[chanel]

Definitely. But there is no comparison between use of the n-word, when historically accurate, and teaching people how to rape children.

The "outrage" over this issue is so baffling to me. I'd love to know what TV programs or music these parents allow their children to listen to. I smell hypocrisy.

 

[RetiredGySgt]

I think the whole thing is pretty silly, but what did the word ****** have to do with the lesson at all?

Oh, right...nothing.

Context and history you fucking retard. So the PC police should change the words of Great Authors cause some people are to STUPID to know a word does nothing by itself?

 

[Ravi]

It was the original title. God forbid the kids know that.

I don't care if they know, heck, I was taught that in kindergarten.

I'm saying that that knowledge had nothing to do with the lesson plan...which was to teach deductive and inductive reasoning, according to your link.

How did the teacher fit the original title into the lesson? What exactly did it have to do with the lesson plan?