There are a few actual monkeys (as opposed to apes) which are tailless.
Yes, but the barbary macaque doesn’t look a thing like him.
But my mistake. I should have known to include the exception in my off-hand remark 8-|
I still remember reading Huckleberry Finn in elementary school. The teacher explained to us that the book contained offensive language and to remember that the book was written in a different time period. This is not a difficult concept for children who are reading at the level of Huck Finn. If a parent is concerned one of these books encourages the use of offensive language, they should read the book themselves and discuss it with their child.
Going out on a limb, but I’d guess that banners of this book and others like it DID read it, DID understand the message, and want it banned precisely because they don’t want their children hearing that message. They might take it heart or something.
@LasMa , in an age when racism is very openly discussed, aren’t the kids going to hear that language and those issues discussed anyway? Haven’t they already heard all about BLM et al? And isn’t it perhaps missing an opportunity to educate the non-black kids about the history of racism in the US, which ultimately benefits POC?
I can absolutely understand that, especially in a situation where the kid is “the only one” in the class, it would make them feel singled out. I think that a thoughtful discussion led by a well-prepared teacher would be necessary, and maybe it should involve bringing in older black people from the school or broader community, so that the black kid(s) in the class are not put in the untenable position of speaking for all black people.
I can always understand a parent’s desire to protect their child, though.
I am with Consolation. While I don’t want to ban any books, those may no longer be the most appropriate choices for school reading. They are books written by white folks about racial injustice. Why not read the same story told by those most impacted?
eta and an aside: I think Watchman is a much better and truer book than Mockingbird. I am not at all convinced Lee didn’t want it published and think there are several ways to interpret what happened. But I do respect those who have the opposite opinion. I don’t know Lee or anyone else involved, so have no inside knowledge. I can be absolutely wrong here. But I think it is a very good book, though probably could have benefited from a bit of editing.
you need not worry about banning books , most kids do not read (including class reading assignments) the only thing they read is shorthand text on their smart phone from their BFF…IMO
" … And Beloved (the book challenged in my high school) condones rape and infanticide."
Interesting. I know of a teacher who is disturbed by those aspects of Beloved, and has told her classes they will skip over the passages where the text explores them. I am aghast at this. Maybe this teacher attended romani’s high school.
My comment/observation is really a question - why is it surprising that people would try to ban books when college students are encouraged and backed by admin to ban current, living authors who say things that make the students uncomfortable?
This “book banning” is just an extension of this behavior into high schools by the very same parents who are raising the aforementioned college kids who cannot handle things they do not approve of by attempting to ban them.
This strikes me as much easier because the authors here have passed and cannot defend themselves in any way. I just do not find this surprising at all. Just wait till the college students today have kids. I predict we are only seeing the beginning of the effort to ban books etc. because these future parents cannot seem to be able to handle an idea that they do not like without needing therapy of some sort.
I am not saying they are going to succeed, as I believe many have caught on to the silliness of it all. However, I expect the effort to continue to an even greater extend. Par for the course given everything else, which has been condoned.
Interesting observation. ^^^Speakers like Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Condi Rice have been disinvited from speaking on college campuses, Students coddled by not being assigned books that challenge their pre-set notions are unlikely to be more open and tolerant when they get to college, but are likely to expect more of the same.
I’m trying to imagine teaching Beloved while skipping over infanticide.
@Waiting2exhale the students and teacher that taught it were completely in favor of teaching Beloved in its entirety. IT was part of the AP English course and the books are sent home in a list for the parents to sign off on before the student can even enroll in the course. (Waterland was also challenged and removed but for whatever reason, Beloved was the one that had the most attention.)
The reason there was a war on the book was purely political. Two individuals who were not elected to the school board decided to wage this war. The superintendent immediately gave in and the outrage from the community against this decision was immediate and intense. The book was quickly reinstated and the SI ended up resigning at the end of the year.
It was just a bizarre thing all the way around. Many of us former students of this AP English teacher came back to speak at a town hall hearing about the book. The supporters of the teacher were pouring out the door and there may have been about 10 supporters of banning it.
A few years ago in my neighbor district, Anne Frank was challenged because there was an explicit and frank description of Anne’s genitalia. The other horrors of the book were totally fine but it was the description of her vagina that was too much. The district didn’t even bother entertaining the idea and the book was kept as part of the curriculum.
I called my school to complain about “Oryx and Crake” by Margaret Atwood, which is assigned reading in an elective English class at my children’s HS. I read it when my first child to be in that class read it and found it foul, vile, offensive and disgusting. I had a long chat with my youngest son’s teacher when he took the class. She attempted to justify the book in the context of the curriculum but I didn’t buy it. I did, however, agree to have him read it because I don’t believe in banning books. I asked the teacher if perhaps there isn’t another book that could convey the same concepts but without so much disgusting language and imagery. He tried, couldn’t get past page 108, and almost failed the quarter until he told me why. At that point, I just helped him with all of his HW assignments on the book and he submitted them. I could not force my child to read a book that made him cry and was giving him nightmares, so I reread it and we discussed it so he could answer the questions sufficiently. As an aside, the same class read Fahrenheit 451, which is often a banned book, and my son loved it so much he has reread it three times, recommended it to friends, and even bought himself a T-shirt with the slogan on it at Comic Con.
My oldest son read an abridged version of Huck Finn in first grade. When he asked to read the full book in 4th grade, I didn’t hesitate. The next day, he came over to me and asked what is a “n-word.” I was so pleased that my son had reached 4th grade without ever having been exposed to that word! We had a long talk about the use of language and how words can be hurtful. I don’t know that we would have had that talk if the book was banned. My youngest son (the Oryx and Crake kid) also read Huck Finn in American Lit. He said that his class had discussions about the concepts that were interesting and enlightening.
On a funny note, I attended a very traditional Orthodox yeshiva through junior HS. In 8th grade, we read excerpts of “Gulliver’s Travels” on mimeod papers, not an actual book. On one page a couple of paragraphs were crossed out and edited. The portion made no sense, so I went home and compared it to the copy we had in my house. It turned out that my school had censored the portion where Gulliver puts out the fire in Lilliput by urinating on it! My kids laugh when I tell that story., especially the ending. I went to school the next day and told everyone what had been cut out and we all started asking our teacher about it. The teacher we had that year was, bizarrely, a young Irish-Catholic woman who was convent educated. Boy, was her face red! My parents, to their credit, defended me when I got into trouble.
I’ve been reading Atwood probably 40 years and I really like her. I especially enjoyed the Maddaddam trilogy. For me, there were moments of comic genius. And I found it very timely.
I can barely remember Curious George, but isn’t the point not to model his behaviors? Aren’t these teaching stories with a moral? I sort of categorize them with Berenstain Bears.
adding: I wouldn’t force anyone, of any age, to read something that gave them nightmares. I support alternative assignments. But, then, I’m okay with folks being super sensitive. I think we need people like that.
I am astonished that a few posters on this thread seem to think that book banning is a recent invention affecting only today’s college students. Are you serious?
I should add to the Beloved and Waterland kerfuffle that there WERE alternative assignments given. The student was given an alternative book and went to the library during discussion.
The two parents who brought the complaint claimed that the teacher was discriminating against her because of her religion (Christianity) by giving her an alternative assignment.
Cannot make this up.
ETA: When I was teaching a course a while ago, I had a student come up to me privately to say that she didn’t think she could watch a certain required film because of (insert reason here). I went to the professor and we arranged an alternative film for her. It was not a big deal in the least.
@alh - My son wasn’t offered an alternative assignment. He isn’t actually a particularly sensitive kid; we watch Law and Order SVU together all the time, but for some reason, Oryx and Crake just upset him.
Straw man, as I never said “only.”
If you read my post philosphically, what I said is the current environment has been made even it more conducive for this behavior and to expect more of it, as it is no different than what is proliferating across college campuses.
Specifically, nowhere did I state that book banning efforts are a new thing. And, nowhere did I state the intolerance to ideas they do not like or agree with was limited only to college students.
The larger point is, in this age of social media. culture is not limited in its effect; the effect is more widespread. And people have accepted that they can be offended for any reason, no matter how stupid. And worse, there are people who will take them seriously not matter the level of stupidity or illogic. The result is this widens the playing field for those who do not like something and would like it banned, but would never have asked for it in the past.
I do believe if colleges and universities did not openly accept banning of authors, speakers and presentations of ideas that students do not like and cannot cope with, it would have been a strong message to people who try to ban books and similar actions at middle and high schools that this is not an acceptable way to go.
However, we are long past this as higher education has said, by how easy most cave to banning demands, that such banning is more than acceptable, and that logic need not apply - just a feeling of being offended, claiming PTSD or some other nonsense are required to ban. And thus it is not surprising if more and more people go after important literature for whatever reason they feel offended, regardless of how stupid the reason may be.
Forrest Gump comes to mind - “Stupid is as stupid does.” And colleges have normalized a new era of stupid, across the culture, by allowing students to get away with thinking if they simply say they are offended, then they can get something banned.
(Emphases mine)
There is a cultural history in our country. Many books are on required reading lists for that specific reason.
Books are one way to bridge the gap between generations and present new concepts.
What is important literature? Who decides that?
What are the cultural/history/moral lessons to be learned?
In HS I started reading the “classics” on a regular basis. NOT as part of any class. “Dracula” and “The Three Musketeers” (plus sequels), Shakespeare. Loved sci-fi, Mark Twain and any other author that had a name. I’ve used “suggested reading lists” as a stepping off point.
POINT (lol) : I read somewhere that these books were basically the “top 10 bestseller” list of a certain era and that you should read them from that viewpoint. So grab some popcorn and just dig in.
Some were pure entertainment and some had a message that at the time couldn’t be conveyed any way other than a story with a message that could resonate. But since everyone read them they have a resonance in our culture.
Right, gouf. To Kill a Mockingbird is a good example of that. It was the first exposure that lots of white readers had to the other side of segregation and racism. For that alone, it deserves to be read in 2016. Even if we had somehow magically cured our racism/Otherism problem – which we most assuredly have not – the book would warn us against the siren song of “the good old days” when America was “great” (for straight white Christian men).
There’s also the quote from Atticus, a call to people of conscience always and everywhere:
“You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view … until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.”