<p>“The call to ban books is timeless, but it is important to continue supporting literature that makes people think.”</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-0605240139may24,1,7884747.story?coll=chi-news-hed[/url]”>http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-0605240139may24,1,7884747.story?coll=chi-news-hed</a></p>
<p>The books on the high school reading list under fire include Kurt Vonnegut’s “Slaughterhouse Five” and Toni Morrison’s “Beloved”.</p>
<p>“If the media are bombarding our children with explicit sexual images and graphic violence and prolific profanity, can’t a school relent from that?” Pinney said. “Is there a different level of standards? That’s my question.”</p>
<p>This is a quopte from the school board member who wants the reading list evaluated. I’d hardly call it book banning! The list involved includes some very mediocre books. Much of the material would be better suited for college age readers. I’d object simply because if schools are focusing on these books, truly great works of liturature will never be covered.</p>
<p>I haven’t read all of the books which that individual finds objectionable but I have to say that the ones I have read are excellent and absolutely suitable for high school students. Slaughterhouse Five, Beloved, The Awakening, and most especially, The Perks of Being a Wallflower are wonderful books. SS, which are you referring to when you say that they are “very mediocre” and “better suited for college age readers”?</p>
<p>The titles on Pinney’s list are “Beloved” by Toni Morrison, “Slaughterhouse-Five” by Kurt Vonnegut, “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien, “The Awakening” by Kate Chopin, “Freakonomics” by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner, “The Botany of Desire: A Plant’s-Eye View of the World” by Michael Pollan, “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” by Stephen Chbosky, “Fallen Angels” by Walter Dean Myers and “How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents” by Julia Alvarez.
“garcia girls” isnt a college age book here- I think classrooms typically read it in 6th or 7th gd.
One of the nice things about where my daughter attended 3rd through 8th grade was that it was a K-12 school and all books were available according to your interest and ability.
I am wondering if these books are unsuitable for high school students, which books would be more suitable and why?</p>
<p>Book lists should be inclusive of all genres and eras of literature, including classic British and American, as well as more modern voices and experiences from Africa, Asia, poverty, etc.</p>
<p>Problem with some book lists is that they tend to be too Eurocentric. Problem with others, is that they ignore Renaissance literature, etc. altogether, only focused on more modern novels.</p>
<p>I have no problems with any of the books on this proposed ban list, but I would like to see the rest of the choices as well, to see how well balanced it is.</p>
<p>And I do not agree that any book on that list in inappropriate for high school.</p>
<p>Guess they need to ban the bible as well- we have sex, murder, deaths, incest, slaughter, </p>
<p>Or Shakespaere- we have pre-marital sex, rape, murder, incest</p>
<p>Taking a book off a list because it is mediocre is VERY different from taking it off because of content</p>
<p>And to use the excuse of it being mediocre is deceptive</p>
<p>I would like to see what books the people have in mind to replace the books they want to remove</p>
<p>That would be very informative</p>
<p>And oh yeah, A Tale of Two Cities gots to go…rape, murder, lust
And the Odyssey- now thats a book that will give kids ideas and damage them with all that war, and stuff</p>
<p>someone who is 16 or 17 may be * going to* war in a year or so, why is it inappropriate for them to * read* about it?</p>
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<p>When we homeschooled my older one, I would look for lists of books that were banned or being considered for bans across the country, and made sure that she had access to them, and (usually) read them.</p>
<p>How could one learn about societal laws and norms (as well as reading great literature) without reading the banned books? I’ve always considered lists of banned books an honor roll.</p>
<p>Add “The Marketing of Evil” by David Kupelian to your honor roll.</p>
<p>Recently the head librarian at Ohio State University’s Mansfield campus was put under investigation bu OSU because he recommended that “The Marketing of Evil” be read by incoming freshmen. The Office of Human Resources put him under investigation because of his recommendation after faculty at the campus complained.</p>
<p>When some in the national media got wind of what OSU was doing, OSU decided to drop the matter. The librarian is currently weighing his options regarding litigation.</p>
<p>CGM:</p>
<p>Guess the Vatican had the same idea. It’s only recently that the Bible got off the Index.
I remember as a 15 year-old debating with my classmates whether Nausicaa was wearing anything when Ulysses espied her frolicking on the beach; and what’s that with the rape of Europa? Or Agamemnon trying to sacrifice Iphigenia so that the wind would blow? or Electra killing her mother? Our minds were warped forever!</p>
<p>EK: Tim O’Brien was also in my S’s reading list.</p>
<p>I still don’t get what’s so bad about Freakonomics.</p>
<p>My Ds library has a display dedicated to “banned” books, censured books, controversial books…its great</p>
<p>They rotate books and show why some people are trying to ban them, and why it is ridiculous</p>
<p>Pretty sad when they had to showcase Harry Potter</p>
<p>“Perks of being a Wallflower” caused a huge stink at a neighboring public high school, and sales at the bookstore where I work soared.</p>
<p>The school board backed the English department, as they found redeeming quality. Also, the book was offered in an elective class, so no one had to be exposed to be against his/her will.</p>
<p>Evidently, the district also has a policy that they will offer an alternate book if the parents find the one chosen completely objectionable. I would imagine such policies are not unique, so are the “book police” just trying to sharie their beliefs/values with other people’s children, since they already have control over their own kids’ school reading.</p>
<p>Go to Slate.com and click on the Alice in Wonderland “pulp fiction” cover.<br>
My favorite is for the Iliad: “Gore! Glory! Greeks!” (Greeks referring to the historical ones, not fratboys–although there is a connection. The behavior of Achilles being one).</p>
<p>citygirlsmom-not to mention a teenage double suicide!!!</p>
<p>In addition the school board member who proposed the ban on these books admitted that she had not read all of them. So how did she come up with the list. I suspect some kinda conservative Christian culture police group.</p>
<p>originaloog - good point. I can understand that a parent might find a certain book questionable or even objectionable for classroom discussion but I really would prefer that the parent read it before launching a mini-crusade against “edgy” literature especially one that lumps it all together with bad television and other forms of media exploitation. Precisely because there is a different level of standards.</p>
<p>orinaloog</p>
<p>I have no idea what the school board member’s political, religious leanings are. Interestingly the librarian at OSU was criticized and maligned by faculty who readily admit their leftward tendenicies. In fact one of his critics, Christopher Phelps, describes himself on his personal homepage on OSU’s website as politically “on the left of the left”.</p>
<p>David Kupelian, The Marketing of Evil: How Radicals, Elitists, and Pseudo-Experts Sell Us Corruption Disguised As Freedom (Hardcover).</p>
<p>This would not be the first title that would come to mind as suitable for incoming freshmen, though I think it would excite plenty of discussion. And that would serve a primary purpose of assigning books to read to incoming freshmen (though I remember the stink over assigning excerpts from the Koran at UNC a couple of years ago). </p>
<p>I can also see why someone who describes himself as left of the left would feel targeted by the book, though I would personally deplore having the book banned or the librarian investigated. But I am not original in thinking that the hard right and the hard left have a lot in common.</p>
<p>The irony, of course, is that my defense of the book and the librarian is made in the name of the very freedom which Kupelian deplores.</p>