Meet the Pensacola English teacher waging war on books

I don’t give a shit about glamorizing it. I think it is the new normal so acting that way is a positive. The only difference between you and me is I have empathy and you are a backward looking fossil.

 

So in your view, depiction of hetero marriage is OK because nobody opposes it, but depiction of gay marriage is not ok because it is controversial and some people oppose it?

What about depictions of interracial marriage? I imagine you can still find some people who oppose it. Should that be excluded because it is not supported by everybody?

You will go as far as eliminating any mention of any marriage in order not to offend those who oppose gay marriage? How is this different than universities squelch and suppress certain viewpoints and content because some people feel triggered by it and they want everybody to always feel safe?

 

No, it's because it's genuinely and reasonably controversial.

Interracial marriage is obviously normal and no reasonable person opposes it.

Because we're talking about preserving the innocence of literal children. Yes, safe spaces make some degree of sense for literal children. My critique of its use on college campuses is because it's grown ass adults wanting to be treated like children.

 

You don't seem to have a lot of empathy towards myself or those "backwards looking fossils" you clearly hate so much.

"The difference between you and me is that I'm not an ugly, despicable, disgraceful, and hateful human being like YOU."

Your statement is up there with this one in irony:

 

This you?

I understand your point in that I made a blanket statement that is really not provable or falsifiable and I am not the arbiter of such things. Here's the thing though, someone or some group is going to have to draw the line regarding these things somewhere. There is simply no way around that.

 

I apologize I was out of line with my last comment. I stated it poorly and was insulting. I get frustrated at times. You can’t win an argument on line. lol

 

Grand Haven school board addresses concerns over sexually explicit books | wzzm13.com

 

I would be curious as to the titles of these books because they were not mentioned in the report. I’m sure you realize that some of the people complaining have never actually read these books.

Having said that, parents have the right to restrict their own children’s reading material as indicated in the report.

 

Yeah as @swampbabe said, it’s hard to comment without knowing what the books are. Given only a handful of parents are complaining, my guess is there’s more to the story.

Books on bodily autonomy, for example, can be age appropriate for fifth graders and even important to read. Yet folks with an agenda might try to mischaracterize their content as prurient or obscene.

 

"I think censorship is a slippery slope," one woman said. "Children's book organizations give books age appropriateness.

I was wondering about this: whether there is an MPAA-style rating system for books like there is for movies and video games. Like swampbabe said, I was also curious to see the titles at issue.

 

Would a factual account about a historical homosexual couple be different than a fictional account? Or does that matter? Or is the key distinction really whether the book casts the characters/relationship in a normal or positive light? My understanding is that the penguin book was based in part upon real events at Central Park Zoo.

 

Apology accepted.

 

I remember when I was in high school at lake Brantley in the early 80s the librarian had three or four shelves of books that were kept behind her desk. I think they were your usuals like slaughterhouse 5 and brave new world along with Art books that had nudes in them. I think I had read every book in the library before I started high school. I had a humanities assignment to write a paper on the artist Modigliani. That book was on the shelves behind her desk. I asked her why they were there. She said it was for when a church got a bee in their bonnet and would make a show of the smut that kids had access to. She would box those up quickly and put them in her minivan. I liked her. I think most librarians are sensible people who make sensible decisions. I doubt the elementary school librarian is an educated “librarian”

 

So who defines “normal”? Who defines “controversial”? Gay marriage is now legal and mainstream. You seem to think that the school system should base policies on religious beliefs. Perhaps we should consider Muslim sharia law when evaluating book and ban anything that is offensive to that concept.

 

So we know that at least one school board is conducting an independent evaluation of certain undisclosed titles that have been objected to. What should we conclude from that report?

The two most likely explanations.

First that there are in fact more objectively objectionable titles that need to be reviewed at the school board level than existed a few years ago, as they could not be addressed at the school level through an actual parent of a student at the school bringing it to the attention of some school official.

Second, that a nationwide coordinated campaign, well funded and promoted of the highest level of state governments, is trying to cause a moral panic with the intent to foment and rationalize irrational hatred, create fear among marginalized peoples, towards the end of political gain in order to oppress.

I know which one I think is far more likely

 

Note that the books, none of which were specified in the piece, were available to fifth graders and up. There are huge differences between 5-6 yr olds and 10-11. Also note what the parent said when provided with several discretional options for their children's educational materials:

"Putting the burden on parents to give them all the titles that they can't read means that we have to go and find out every book in the library that's sexually explicit and I don't think that's our job. I think they have librarians and I think they should be doing that"

So this parent wants to have input on the items their child reads, but doesn't want to have to do any of the work . In fact, the parent agrees with my point about relying on credentialed experts to make those decisions.

 

Had the same kind of thing at my high school. There was a round of book banning going on and they removed some books, including Catcher in the Rye, from the library. I was in 10th grade I think. Of course I immediately went out and got a copy and read it. So thank you ignorant Christian fundamentalists, you got me to read one of the great books of the 20th century. Of course I would have gotten around to reading it, but they motivated me to read it sooner.