VA School PullTo Kill A Mockingbird’, ‘Huck Finn’ From Shelves

[Coyote]

Banning books is kind of nazi don't you think?

Totally.

 

[Darkwind]

 

[Coyote]

Books scare people....they represent knowledge, enlightenment, ideas, freedom. Everything an authoritarian regime is afraid of. Knowledge.

 

[bripat9643]

Absolutely you must NEVER push a book on a kid. If you bring it home and leave it on your bed stand and tell them they're too young to read it, it might work though. LOL I can see where Passage to India would be like bamboo under the fingernails for you. I felt the same way about DH Lawrence.
I'll have to check out Clancy--loved Crichton.

My parents never had to do that with me....I read voraciously...I hid books inside textbooks and pretended to read the textbook

I used to get my stepson books about boogers and other stuff that he thought was hilarious. It was definitely not on good taste, but it got him to read.

And that is the point...I HATED the "required" reading...I mean seriously how many times can you read about the adventures of Dick and Jane? My parents suggested they give me books on dinosaurs and I would read them

Dinosaurs
Astronomy
WW II
Airplanes.

Dinosaurs
Civil War
Horses
Fantasy

I forgot science fiction.

I was interested in the Civil War in middle school. I recall the class they offered on the causes of the Civil War. I have never experienced any history so dull as that. They would get a lot more interest from kids if they had a class on what happened during the war. Boys love that stuff. They couldn't give a rat's ass about what caused the war. Watching CSPAN would be more interesting.

 

[Coyote]

Thing is...books written in another era often contain ideas and views that we no longer share - but don't ban them. Teach kids the context and history surrounding them and let them appreciate the literature for what it is. DON'T BAN BOOKS because you are afraid or offended.

 

[Darkwind]

Books scare people....they represent knowledge, enlightenment, ideas, freedom. Everything an authoritarian regime is afraid of. Knowledge.

All the more reason to ignore such a stupid edict as banning a book because of language.

 

[bripat9643]

‘Huckleberry Finn,’ ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ return to Virginia classrooms after vote

well isn't that nice, a resolution that everybody can be happy with, let's just leave the books in the school library - glad to see that

Huckleberry Finn is the single most banned book in America. Leftwingers don't like it because it has the N-word in it. They think it's racist, when it's actually precisely the opposite.

 

[ScienceRocks]

I want more freedom and more ability to say what you wish to say. Isn't that why we have the first amendment?

 

[depotoo]

A year or so ago I heard of a teacher that was teaching it through re-enactment and the kids were enthralled, excited and hungered for more.

My parents never had to do that with me....I read voraciously...I hid books inside textbooks and pretended to read the textbook

I used to get my stepson books about boogers and other stuff that he thought was hilarious. It was definitely not on good taste, but it got him to read.

And that is the point...I HATED the "required" reading...I mean seriously how many times can you read about the adventures of Dick and Jane? My parents suggested they give me books on dinosaurs and I would read them

Dinosaurs
Astronomy
WW II
Airplanes.

Dinosaurs
Civil War
Horses
Fantasy

I forgot science fiction.
I was interested in the Civil War in middle school. I recall the class they offered on the causes of the Civil War. I have never experienced any history so dull as that. They would get a lot more interest from kids if they had a class on what happened during the war. Boys love that stuff. They couldn't give a rat's ass about what caused the war. Watching CSPAN would be more interesting.

 

[Rustic]

@Ascleipias?
Is use of the word n*gger in the novels' dialogue of certain characters more important than the overall message?

Political correctness is for asswipes

 

[Coyote]

My parents never had to do that with me....I read voraciously...I hid books inside textbooks and pretended to read the textbook

I used to get my stepson books about boogers and other stuff that he thought was hilarious. It was definitely not on good taste, but it got him to read.

And that is the point...I HATED the "required" reading...I mean seriously how many times can you read about the adventures of Dick and Jane? My parents suggested they give me books on dinosaurs and I would read them

Dinosaurs
Astronomy
WW II
Airplanes.

Dinosaurs
Civil War
Horses
Fantasy

I forgot science fiction.
I was interested in the Civil War in middle school. I recall the class they offered on the causes of the Civil War. I have never experienced any history so dull as that. They would get a lot more interest from kids if they had a class on what happened during the war. Boys love that stuff. They couldn't give a rat's ass about what caused the war. Watching CSPAN would be more interesting.

I was fortunate in that my father was a Civil War buff - if I had to rely on the dry history we were taught, I would never have been interested.

I've had a variety of teachers in my life - some good, some bad, some surprising. A highschool history teacher. Mr. vonBretzel was so dry and so boring students would drop books to startle him. Later I found out he had escaped the Soviet Union on horseback...and gone across Mongolia and China I think. He was elderly then (1975 or so)...imagine if he could have told the story of his life instead? Wow...

 

[Rustic]

progressives are scared of reality

 

[cnm]

In the first place God made idiots. This was for practice. Then he made school boards
Mark Twain quotes ​

 

[cnm]

Bonus quote...

“It is by the goodness of God that in our country we have those three unspeakably precious things: freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, and the prudence never to practice either.”
Mark Twain quotes​

 

[Vandalshandle]

This really doesn't have much to do with politics, Flacaltenn. It's an approach to accessing literature for young people. Delve into works involving issues and settings they can relate to. I was among those kids who read The Outsiders and a lot of other young adult lit, AS WELL as Tom Sawyer and Shakespeare's plays. As a huge admirer of Mark Twain, I hate to see him off the shelf, but he is a hard slog for some readers, and the kids would be far more interested in stories about their own time and place. There are counter arguments to all of this, I realize, but I really don't think it's about left and right so much.

It really IS politics when you've confronted it in a place like California. It's a belief that the American past and heritage is SOO ugly and tainted, that it OFFENDS too many groups and identities. And HAS to be removed.
Things like Mark Twain -- who happens to be one of the ONLY fictional authors that I've read the MAJORITY of his work..

That's the LEFT perspective that I've observed. THEN FlaCalTenn moves from lefty Cali to righty Tenn. Largely to prevent my daughter from fully transforming into a fluff-head Valley Girl. And I'm right in the middle of a fight started by the RIGHTY censors -- trying to pull "To Kill a Mockingbird" and others OUT of the libraries and reading lists here. THEIR MOTIVES were simply morality issues. NOT a better excuse, except maybe for grade appropriate use.

In the Cali case -- these zealots had a WHOLE LIST of replacement reading. Which was worse than a night watching HBO series. And there was NO WAY that was an intellectual or academic replacement for all the lit they did BAN.. In the Tenn case -- it was ISOLATED classics that conflicted with way folks exposed their children to adult topics.

It doesn't end there. Parents in both places were "protecting" their children. In Cali it was madness with helicopter parents STILL arranging playdates for Middle School kids and getting into adult fights about texts their children sent. While in Tenn, those kids are driving ATVs across yards/fields/woods without helmets, playing paintball, soft pellet gun games in the woods, and shooting Roman Candles on 4th of July at each other while the parents giggle about it. Seems like they TRUST their kids more and teach responsibility and respect in different ways.

That's why -- we're NOT "Stronger Together" or one big happy village. Because those choices have very DIFFERENT principles and goals attached to them. And having fought with BOTH sides about keeping the public schools NEUTRAL in those choices --- they both need Tolerance, Consistency, and Respect for that "neutrality".

Because THIS thread is nothing but a whole can of hypocritical whining to me.. .

Twain would be tickled, of course, that people are still screaming about his works. It's exactly what he meant to do.
I know it's occurred to you that you can share these great works with your daughter by going to the public library, even if the school believes it's damned.
You should read Merry Men by Carolyn Chute. All about class war between poor and rich/rural and not. I think you might actually enjoy it. It was an awesome novel, even if it is set in Maine.

My grandparents, who lived like survivalists, but weren't, had the entire Twain library. I later bought one for myself. Visited his newspaper room in Nevada City. Just crazed about his writings. Especially the preachy ones !!!

I'd never PUSH a son/daughter towards any fictional work. Not even the Bible or Harry Potter. Being pushed to read "Passage to India" completely BROKE ME in College. Went to the prof and told her -- I JUST COULD NOT DO IT.. I've touched very little fiction since if it wasn't Clancy or Creighton. And that is what was insidious about REPLACING classics with current literal shit in California. The replacement stuff was mind-blowingly bad.

All that said -- I made a note -- to take a look at Merry Men.

Absolutely you must NEVER push a book on a kid. If you bring it home and leave it on your bed stand and tell them they're too young to read it, it might work though. LOL I can see where Passage to India would be like bamboo under the fingernails for you. I felt the same way about DH Lawrence.
I'll have to check out Clancy--loved Crichton.

My parents never had to do that with me....I read voraciously...I hid books inside textbooks and pretended to read the textbook

So did I, and was busted when I started laughing out loud in class while reading Catch-22 inside my chemistry book........

 

[bripat9643]

A year or so ago I heard of a teacher that was teaching it through re-enactment and the kids were enthralled, excited and hungered for more.

I used to get my stepson books about boogers and other stuff that he thought was hilarious. It was definitely not on good taste, but it got him to read.

And that is the point...I HATED the "required" reading...I mean seriously how many times can you read about the adventures of Dick and Jane? My parents suggested they give me books on dinosaurs and I would read them

Dinosaurs
Astronomy
WW II
Airplanes.

Dinosaurs
Civil War
Horses
Fantasy

I forgot science fiction.
I was interested in the Civil War in middle school. I recall the class they offered on the causes of the Civil War. I have never experienced any history so dull as that. They would get a lot more interest from kids if they had a class on what happened during the war. Boys love that stuff. They couldn't give a rat's ass about what caused the war. Watching CSPAN would be more interesting.

That's racist! Did they have the Confederates carry that racist flag?

 

[depotoo]

Seems a few different schools have been doing it-

A year or so ago I heard of a teacher that was teaching it through re-enactment and the kids were enthralled, excited and hungered for more.

And that is the point...I HATED the "required" reading...I mean seriously how many times can you read about the adventures of Dick and Jane? My parents suggested they give me books on dinosaurs and I would read them

Dinosaurs
Astronomy
WW II
Airplanes.

Dinosaurs
Civil War
Horses
Fantasy

I forgot science fiction.
I was interested in the Civil War in middle school. I recall the class they offered on the causes of the Civil War. I have never experienced any history so dull as that. They would get a lot more interest from kids if they had a class on what happened during the war. Boys love that stuff. They couldn't give a rat's ass about what caused the war. Watching CSPAN would be more interesting.

That's racist! Did they have the Confederates carry that racist flag?

 

[Moonglow]

Attempting to remove Mark Twain and Harper Lee from the public conscience is just stupid. Losing Joel Chandler Harris was a national tragedy already - we literally destroyed THE voice that brought to life and gave a voice to African folklore in the United States.

What is hilarious here, and unfortunately under-reported (or rather, ignored) is that Samuel Clemens, Lee Harper & Joel Chandler Harris were actually some of the loudest and strongest proponents against actual racism during their lives.

JCH actually preserved "African heritage" more so than anyone else in the literary world. The fact that his "tar baby" became synonymous as a hateful racist term is one of the great tragedies in race relations in America...

I mean, this is right up there with taking George Washington & Thomas Jefferson off of public building because they were slave owners.

It USED to be that "book banning" was a pastime for the far right & religious fundamentalist, but our leftist friends and the hardcore social justice warriors have picked up the torch in a big way!

Ni**er Jim, we hardly knew ye...

and here is a little peek into the inner workings of a day in Social Justice Warrior Paradise -

VA School Pulls ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’, ‘Huck Finn’ From Shelves


ACCOMAC, VA (CBS/AP) – Two American literature classics found across thousands of library shelves in the U.S. have been shelved, potentially for good, in one Virginia school system.

The Accomack County Public Schools removed “To Kill a Mockingbird” and “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” after a parent filed a complaint for the books’ use of racial slurs, according to multiple media outlets.

I never read the damn things when I was in school....I did at the library at home...

 

[dcbl]

It really IS politics when you've confronted it in a place like California. It's a belief that the American past and heritage is SOO ugly and tainted, that it OFFENDS too many groups and identities. And HAS to be removed.
Things like Mark Twain -- who happens to be one of the ONLY fictional authors that I've read the MAJORITY of his work..

That's the LEFT perspective that I've observed. THEN FlaCalTenn moves from lefty Cali to righty Tenn. Largely to prevent my daughter from fully transforming into a fluff-head Valley Girl. And I'm right in the middle of a fight started by the RIGHTY censors -- trying to pull "To Kill a Mockingbird" and others OUT of the libraries and reading lists here. THEIR MOTIVES were simply morality issues. NOT a better excuse, except maybe for grade appropriate use.

In the Cali case -- these zealots had a WHOLE LIST of replacement reading. Which was worse than a night watching HBO series. And there was NO WAY that was an intellectual or academic replacement for all the lit they did BAN.. In the Tenn case -- it was ISOLATED classics that conflicted with way folks exposed their children to adult topics.

It doesn't end there. Parents in both places were "protecting" their children. In Cali it was madness with helicopter parents STILL arranging playdates for Middle School kids and getting into adult fights about texts their children sent. While in Tenn, those kids are driving ATVs across yards/fields/woods without helmets, playing paintball, soft pellet gun games in the woods, and shooting Roman Candles on 4th of July at each other while the parents giggle about it. Seems like they TRUST their kids more and teach responsibility and respect in different ways.

That's why -- we're NOT "Stronger Together" or one big happy village. Because those choices have very DIFFERENT principles and goals attached to them. And having fought with BOTH sides about keeping the public schools NEUTRAL in those choices --- they both need Tolerance, Consistency, and Respect for that "neutrality".

Because THIS thread is nothing but a whole can of hypocritical whining to me.. .

Twain would be tickled, of course, that people are still screaming about his works. It's exactly what he meant to do.
I know it's occurred to you that you can share these great works with your daughter by going to the public library, even if the school believes it's damned.
You should read Merry Men by Carolyn Chute. All about class war between poor and rich/rural and not. I think you might actually enjoy it. It was an awesome novel, even if it is set in Maine.

My grandparents, who lived like survivalists, but weren't, had the entire Twain library. I later bought one for myself. Visited his newspaper room in Nevada City. Just crazed about his writings. Especially the preachy ones !!!

I'd never PUSH a son/daughter towards any fictional work. Not even the Bible or Harry Potter. Being pushed to read "Passage to India" completely BROKE ME in College. Went to the prof and told her -- I JUST COULD NOT DO IT.. I've touched very little fiction since if it wasn't Clancy or Creighton. And that is what was insidious about REPLACING classics with current literal shit in California. The replacement stuff was mind-blowingly bad.

All that said -- I made a note -- to take a look at Merry Men.

Absolutely you must NEVER push a book on a kid. If you bring it home and leave it on your bed stand and tell them they're too young to read it, it might work though. LOL I can see where Passage to India would be like bamboo under the fingernails for you. I felt the same way about DH Lawrence.
I'll have to check out Clancy--loved Crichton.

My parents never had to do that with me....I read voraciously...I hid books inside textbooks and pretended to read the textbook

I used to get my stepson books about boogers and other stuff that he thought was hilarious. It was definitely not in good taste, but it got him to read.

I got really excited when my 15 year old daughter came to me last week and asked what she should read

I have a bunch of old books on the shelves; she decided to start with Treasure Island

I am probably going to give her Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, she will probably like that; but she wants to read a bunch of "the classics"

Makes me happy

 

[dcbl]

And tried TWICE to read Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and failed.

read that in the 80's

the only thing I remember is that dolphins were actually from outer space and had been monitoring us...