I’m too busy being righteous to read!
Chicago Sun-Times – May 22, 2006:
A northwest suburban high school board member seeks to ban seven books from classroom use because she thinks the profanity, depiction of graphic sex, and drug and abortion references in the literature are inappropriate for teenagers.
Leslie Pinney admits she only read passages of the controversial selections, including Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five and Toni Morrison’s Beloved, which were on the American Library Association’s 100 most challenged books list between 1990 and 2000.
But Pinney said perusing the questionable parts of the books made it clear they weren’t suitable for children and should be taken off Township High School District 214’s proposed required reading list next year.
(Flame suit on)
I believe that if a person has the ability to READ a specific book, GO FOR IT.
BUT, be available to answer questions.
We are here, only to TEACh our children, and answer question, and Protect them, from physical harm, until they are Old enough to defend and decide for themselves.
They must make the choices…not US. They will get into trouble No matter what you do, and saying NO, only makes them WANT to see WHY..
It would be easier to place Every book written, infront of them, and say.. REAd anything you wish…Odds are, they will NEVER find it.
Hey Max (#5), just so you know, it’s not the “liberal left” that has a history of banning books. It’s the crazy religious right wing.
>it’s not the “liberal left” that has a history of banning books.
Whatever. They’ve been complaining about Huckleberry Finn forever. There was even a New York TImes article about a Federal Reserve guy who had Harry Stein talking about the book, and an audience member who thought he was racist. Just last month, a librarian was accused of harassment for books he put on the freshman recommended reading list(the professor felt threatened).
Speaking of bringing a Playboy to school…I remember growing up during the 70’s and a friend of mine did bring Playboys to school and we’d trade them and what-not. A few teachers would catch us with them at the lunch table and they would confiscate them….and that’s all they would do. They just laughed it off I suppose and threw them away and we got on with our lives.
But in this day and age they would probably have a lock-down at the school, have it surrounded with SWAT and bring in an army of grief-counselors and therapists to discuss what had happened….not to mention the kid that brought it would be arrested and expelled.
We sometimes talk about how bad it was “back then” but how bad is it now? People in school districts have been trying to ban books for a LONG time. This story is nothing new, but it’s good that we shine the light on these people and hold them up to ridicule when they do try to pull this shit now. Back in the “day” they would of course get away with it.
Now schools would be handing otu the playboys themselves to kindergardners and call it sex-ed. Anyone who tried to stop it would be called a book burner.
Lots of sex in that there bible, ain’t there? Murder, mayhem, revenge, lynchings, sex and sex and sex…yet THAT one we’re SUPPOSED to read.
These fascists don’t even read the books that they push on us, let alone the ones they want to take away.
Maybe they’re just idiots…
And don’t forget all the on-line porn the highschoolers can look at on the school computers. There was a fuss a while ago in my town because one of the county librarians asked a patron to stop viewing porn sites on the public libary computers and he said NO. They kicked him out of the library.
The ACLU got involved and were quick to pull the CENSORSHIP card. WTF?!?
Did you hear the list of children’s books taken off the libraries??
Mommy’s On Crack and I Don’t Care
Garfield gets Feline Lukemia
Fun Four-Letter Words to Learn & Use
The Face in the Moon Is Really Satan
“The Road Less Traveled” is Really The Psycho Path
How Car Fumes Kill Cute Little Penguins
How Bug Sprays Poison Everything You Eat
Why Mom & Dad Don’t Love Each Other Anymore
Where Your Chick McNuggets Come From
The Arab Palestinian Who Made The Magic School Bus Blow Up
The Little Sissy That Lost
All Dogs Go To Hell
Alexander The Awful, Terrible, No-Good, Very Bad Brat
A Pocket Full Of Condoms
A Casket For Grandpa
Aliens Are Everywhere
How The Big Bad Government Tortures People And Spies On You
Why Can’t Mr. Fork and Mrs. Electrical Socket Be Friends?
Seriously, I don’t think there is enough censorship. Nobody censored the Bush-bashing Filmstrip International “Asshole” video from being displayed to a class of teenagers!
Everyone on this board should send this nazi an email expressing your disgust about this. You can get the email address by clicking on her picture.
I got an email back from her! Check it out…
“Dan,
I appreciate your thoughtful and respectfully written concerns.
First of all, the Bible has already been banned from the school, so there is no need to argue about that book.
Secondly, the excerpts such as those from in some of the books to which I object would never be found in the Bible.
I would attach the excerpts, but since you may be a younger reader, I do not wish to do that.
Please remember, I am not asking that books be banned, simply replaced with different selections on required reading lists. Should students wish to read these books on their own time, they can check them out of the library.
Regards,
Leslie Pinney
School Board Member Dist 214
…Pinney cares about what counts…your children and your checkbook!”
So the books remain in the library just not on the required reading list. Not so bad as I thought must have misread it, I thought it was an outright book ban.
fortunately, it didn’t happen. That’s why it’s nice to have more than one person on a school board. I’m interested in the “I’m not asking that books be banned, they can stay in the library.” That’s a slippery slope. I can see an agrument like, if they’re not appropriate for the reading list because they’re so objectionable, we should probably take them out of the library, too. and step by step we become iran. Yuck.