"If I do not like it, you cannot read it" seems to be the new motto of the radical christian right group Called2Action today. WakeEd informs us that they are lobbying the Wake County Public School System to ban four books from the schools.
As the group proclaims, there was a:
discovery of terribly offensive and inappropriate books that are currently on required reading lists in Wake County middle and high schools.
And those terribly offensive books are: "The Color Purple", "Beloved", "Princess in the Spotlight", and "The Chocolate War". These books' offense appears to be that they deal frankly with matters of sex. And these people are so naive as to think that middle and high schoolers do not deal with sex in a much less mature manner.
As Called2Action says:
Please join these parents as they seek to protect their children...and yours!
I for one do not want my children "protected" in that way.
Update: (from comment below) Stinging Nettle has found that these books are not even on the middle school reading list. Called2Action is merely lying about them being required.
Comments
Mintz is associated with these people
As Lance noted here
It's C2A day at BlueNC!
Sorry, I didn't see this post before I posted on C2A. The offenses are different, so I guess I'll let my post stand.
How do people like this even obtain children in the first place? They must feel awful about having had sex at all.
I finished mine after you finished yours
So even though I started first, yours showed up as earlier. So I changed the time stamp.
Those books aren't required reading!
DrFrankLives at Stinging Nettle has done the work and found that NONE of these books are required reading in Wake County schools.
http://stinging-nettle.blogspot.com/2006_04_01_stinging-nettle_archive.html#114530128792600414
Mr. Noble is lying. Period...
Interesting
Obviously, lying is not beyond them.
Agreement
Unlike some people who call themselves conservative, I am truly conservative. And that means staying out of other people's business. If someone wants to read or not read a book that is up to them. I am sure every good Christian soul who does not want their child reading those books can simply tell the kids not to do so. They do not have to attempt to keep everyone else from reading them. Their job is not to protect the world. Just their own children. On this point I agree with the freedoms granted in the Constitution. If the parents are so enraged that these books are available they can ban their children from the library or better yet, place them in private schools. The public school is public and must represent the whole public. Diverse, sometimes offensive to somebody, but public. So please good Christians, don't push for censorship. It is a two edged sword. One day it is "The Color Purple". The next it is the New Testament. Be careful what you wish for, you might not like what you get.
The Bible
Is full of stories of rape, incest, murder, etc. Which it what makes it such good reading.
I considered putting something in the post about the fact that the bible would fail their standards, but it is difficult to work in without making the piece much longer.
Staying out of others' business
Hear, hear. I'll just add that staying out of other people's business is only a conservative value inasmuch as it is a response to the perceived meddling on the part of liberals. In other words, you won't find "minds his own business" in any dictionary definition of "conservative." I think that respecting diversity is something that liberals and conservatives should be able to agree on (as we do here). Thanks for the comment, RV.
How about mind your own business and ...
put your kids in the public schools before you criticize. Steve Noble's defense of C2A (and the name means What?) members having their children in "private" schools or home-schooled is disingenuous at best.
Butt out, pal. Anyone can complain and write letters to the press and school board.
Go do the PTA meetings if you really mean it. Make a real commitment.
Talk about elitist.
Ignorant of the facts
Nice try, folks.
First, the parents are not seeking a book "ban", they simply want to be informed of books with profanity & vulgarity that teachers want to assign, and then decide for themselves if they want their child to read them. It's called "Parental Notification & Consent", not banning.
Secondly, there are multiple reading lists in every school in the system (141 schools). Additionally, teachers and principals can go outside of these lists. Thus, the reading lists "stinging nettle" has seen on the WCPSS are just for the core curriculum and don't represent a fraction of the lists that are actually in use. Who has the facts wrong?
Finally, it is up to each parent, not each one of you (or "us") as to what they feel is appropriate for their child to read. I hope you would be unhappy if your 13 year old were shown an R-rated movie in class without your consent. These first three books contain vulgarity and profanity that is: filtered out by the public school internet filters...against the rules of the school to say or distribute materials with this content...not allowed by the vast majority of parents in their homes.
I have no idea what makes you folks so mad, but the vast majority of adults don't think middle schoolers should read this type of material at all...and in high school, the parent has the LEGAL RIGHT to make the call. With so much incredible literature in the world, why does any teacher need to use books with such generally offensive and age-inappropriate language?
On last note for you...the School Board was shocked to learn of this material, and they are cooperating with the parents to identify these types of books in the system and deal with their distribution. The parents will win this one hands down.
Steve, Maybe you didn't read the article
It clearly says that Called2Action lobbied parents to attend a meeting to have the four books "removed". That's not leaving it up to individual parents to make the decision that's right for their family. Removing the books eliminates the ability of parents to make these choices for and with their children.
I don't think anyone here has a problem with individual school reading lists, but we do have a problem with a group like called2action lobbying to ban books from these school reading lists.
I'm not sure which parents win - the parents who chose to have the books banned? Personally, my children are prolific readers and at 12 my oldest has read many books with mature imagry and themes...many of them were found in the Bible. I guess we need to have that banned as well. I mean...that whole Adam and Eve nudity/sin thing...might give kids ideas about sex.....with snakes.
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