First Rebuttal: It is a blog. The phraseology is well within the standard for blog entries (and above the standard for plenty of ‘journalism’, since it’s actually accurate according to a reading of the source material.
Something you clearly did not do.
It’s AgentBJ09’s job not to make such an obvious mistake before acting like one knows what they’re talking about.
Second Rebuttal:
Really? You have the ability to arbitrarily decide what’s boring (and therefore relevant) and you’re pretty sure you know that some of them are only there for ‘progressive reasons’.
Explain to me what these reasons are and why they’re bad.
I’m intrigued.
Third Rebuttal:
Explain these ‘progressive’ ideas that kids should make their own choices about. So far all we have is 'non-heterosexual person is treated with dignity. We also have an example given by one of those speaking to the board on the issue as to why said nasty ‘progressive teaching’ could have helped a young person.
“One person who spoke for the book was Madison Bacon, a young girl who attended Cape Henlopen High School. She said that she personally experienced bullying high school, and believes that if she and her peers had the opportunity to read “The Miseducation of Cameron Post,” it could have been lessened.”
So…yeah. Add that to the fact that the sequence of events was…
List put together by people far more qualified than said board is procured.
Individual parent complains about Cameron Post book.
Board arbitrarily decides to remove that book and only that book, using the argument that it ‘contains swears’
During follow-up meeting, upon being informed that multiple books in the list ‘contain swears’ the group takes the lazy way out and bans all of the books.
I’m thinking that the sequence of events points to bigotry as their ‘very good reason’ and to your arguments as largely invalid.
Which of the following better enables teenagers to form their own opinions:
A reading list without any positive portrayals of gay characters.
A reading list with some positive portrayals of gay characters.
Which of the following encourages teenagers to form their own opinions:
A school board that trusts that teenagers, exposed to a variety of ideas, can form their own opinions about those ideas.
A school board that believes that some ideas are too controversial to expose teenagers to.
Which of the following will convince teenagers that books suggested by teachers are relevant to any opinions they would make:
Book suggestions that are representative of their experiences, and those of their classmates.
Book suggestions that pretend that some large category of these experiences do not exist.
As someone who’s actually been in high school, it never ceases to amaze me that some adults believe anything teenagers read could be as shocking as what they’re already talking about during lunch, or the popular music they listen to.
I think we can’t expect to read about the real reasons of killing the list, as they may not be as socially acceptable as “boring” or “we should not tell kids what to think”, the latter being almost unbearably ironic.
“I am afraid that if my child reads about gay people, he/she will like it and become gay!” just does not have the same ring to it.
The ignorance (“hearing about gay people makes you gay”), the fear, and the learned hate are what speaks through these actions.
The actions will likely not change until parents have a better understanding of sexuality, feel safe around their children’s sexuality orientation, and have respectful relationships with people of non-heterosexual orientation in their communities.
How will this happen and how long will it take? I wish I knew. I only know that we are moving in this direction.
Actually, I’ve been all over the Delmarva Peninsula. I spent a great deal of time as a child sailing on the Chesapeake Bay, and I’m quite familiar with the geography of the Eastern Shore of Maryland as well as Virginia.
The area is not all that different from any other rural region in America. But go ahead, characterise the entire region as one populated by country bumpkins and hicks in contrast the the exquisite high culture and rareified intellectualism constantly on display in DC and SF. I find it amusing.
No. 1 - That’s why I pointed to Kotaku and Polygon. They are blogs that people mistake as, and hold up as, news sources. Same with BoingBoing, because of the size and reach of the site. So, keep that in mind here.
No. 2 - That’s my view, and my opinion. If this is an opinionated blog, that’s my opinionated answer, because the minute I elaborate, no matter what I say, I get jumped on. Learned that in every forum I’ve been on where I’m told, by someone who doesn’t do it first, to elaborate.
No. 3 - You don’t confront bullying through education, unless your goal is not the bullies but the people in the middle who don’t care and who you want to demean. That I’ve seen, trying to force re-education on people and kids who are simply living their lives and doing their jobs. See also: diversity training.
My mother in law lives in Delaware, in a part of the state referred to as “Slower Lower Delaware”, and there is no shortage of bible thumpers in that area. Delaware is a blue state in elections because it is such a small state that there isn’t enough rural area to prevent the city votes from overpowering the total electorate, but if you do go out into the rural areas it’s just as rural as North Dakota.
I tell ya, these fucken libraries and schools with their books and their various and multiform ideas and their writin’ are leading this fine country down into hell, one person at a time. Something has to be done!! hashtag burnallthebooks
/snark
A famous author once had this to say about censorship: “There is more than one way to burn a book. You don’t have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.” Fella named Ray Bradbury (author of much stuff) who knew more than a little about having his works banned.
For anyone interested, some links:
Well, technically the rural area of Delaware is quite a bit more than twice the size of the non-rural area. And when I manned a voting booth during the Obama elections, I did not see the dynamic you describe (although admittedly I was in New Castle County, I did pay attention to the rest of the state).
Anyway I’ve lived in Delaware most of my life, and have over two dozen relatives living here, mostly below the canal. And while there’s certainly no shortage of bible-thumpers or bigots in any part of the USA, I don’t believe there’s any exceptional number of them here. By US standards that is. We’re not in a league with Virginia or West Virginia, for example, where I’ve also lived and have relatives.
But Delaware does have some amazingly fscked-up school boards, and an exceptional number of people who are quite literally dangerous to children and to the educational process on those boards. Some of those people are indeed bible-thumpers, but that’s not why they are dangerous.
We are world-famous for our zero-tolerance policies, charter and magnet schools, “choice” programs, “neighborhood schools act” and so forth, none of which are religiously inspired, and all of which are detrimental to our culture and society. So while I think it’s a serious mistake to blame our broken school system on religion (or on lack of citified sophistication and nose rings) there’s still plenty of bad stuff going on here. Most of it is caused by purposeful discrimination by the rich and wannabe rich against the children of the poor and lower middle-class, and since the latter groups have a higher proportion of people of color, it all tends to play out in a way that also brings joy to the shriveled hearts of racists.
Are you aware that summer reading lists are entirely optional and basically never mentioned during the school year?
Are you aware that when adults censor their opinions on topics important to teenagers such as sexuality, these teenagers will distrust those adults on such topics and form their opinions solely based on their peer group?
Are you aware that gay people actually exist, in this forum, and in those schools as both teachers and students?
Are you aware that if you believe schools should never be allowed to say anything positive about gay people, or even combat bullying of gay people, you aren’t likely to be convincing anybody here?
Are you also aware that you’ve effectively made the argument that students can be trusted to form their own opinions, only if they’re never exposed to positive portrayals of gay people?
Those were all 9th-10th grade books in my high school, certainly not senior year honors and AP. Pretty sure Of Mice & Men and Tale of Two Cities were even earlier than that.
We do have public libraries, but the schools have been firing their librarians and closing school libraries for a decade or so now. Oh, except for the magnet, charter and private schools that is… if you have a library in your home, chances are you have a library in your school, and vice-versa.
Interesting. Every time BB calls out bullshit like this, there’s always a few people who lead a charge in favour of the BS, and curiously their accounts are always created the same day.
So, I guess hello to the members of the Cape Henlopen School Board who’ve stumbled on here, and also go get f****d.
Wrong. In our rural, split between liberal and conservatives area, our school system is specifically mandated to NOT include religious beliefs in the school system in any way, shape or form. It is a local law and one that has stood the test of time (it’s 30 years old now).
We need to have it so that NO religious beliefs are allowed in schools and on school time. If you want to preach about something to children? Do it on your time and not the school teacher’s time.
