Posted on 08/15/2007 11:16:07 PM PDT by napscoordinator
An angry parent has blasted the East Penn School District for requiring its students to read books he said are "full of filthy vulgarity."
Richard Jones of Upper Milford confronted the school board Monday about some of the books on his 15-year-old son's 10th-grade summer reading list at Emmaus High School, saying they're trash.
Following its standard practice, the board limited Jones to three minutes and didn't respond to his criticism during the meeting. But later, board President Ann Thompson said, "We listened carefully and it is being investigated carefully."
(Excerpt) Read more at mcall.com ...
C.S. Lewis’ The Abolition of Man sums it up.
The entire public education systems is one big “Experiment House”
“Why schools are going away from classics is beyond me.”
The reason is simple. The classics were written by dead white men mostly and schools today think kids have to read books written by a diverse set of authors. So they select contemporary books written by women, blacks, Native Americans, Peruvians, Guatemalans, drug addicts and convicts, etc., etc. so all the kids’ “voices” will feel “represented” by the authors. Never mind that the books are poorly written, have little redeeming value, or may have been outright frauds. It’s the diversity that counts.
Nice summary.
Right up there with Math problems: 2+2 and 3 joints + 2 joints.
Probably because sound thinking, and the basis for it, is a real threat to some people.
I read some pretty skanky books in high school. After I’d read them I wondered what all the rush was for me to read them.
Look, I’m not in the business of advocating the banning of books or setting limits on what movies portray to our kids. I’d just like to think that a few movie makers and book writers could produce products that would teach our kids some positive things, without dragging them through filth to do it.
Today only leftist propaganda qualifies as material that needs to be taught, and as for dragging kids through filth, every aspect of a wholesome value system will be destroyed if at all possible.
I agree and more. The classics require thought and the ability to discern meaning. The new books are simply words the reader hear in everyday life. It's like watching tv - it requires no imagiation or thought to "get" the story.
Meant to add:
Therefore the teachers don't have to do any work to get the children to understand the books. They don't have to stand in front of the class and draw out a discussion about the story.
When one of the books he was having to read last year had bad language in it, I commented to his teacher. She has to pick material from the AP English website. She can't pick her own material (not that she would make different choices).
Because new classics have been written since then? Tom Wolfe's Electric Kool Aid Acid Test is a very good book. I like Huck Finn as much as the next guy, but there's nothing wrong with bringing things up to speed a bit. We don't ride horses and buggies anymore, either. Beowolf? Totally worthless.
Ouch!
Maybe The 13th Warrior was totally worthless, but the Beowulf story itself is great. It provides an interesting glimpse of a pagan society through Christian eyes (Grendel and his mother are described as descendants of Cain, for example). The struggle of good to overcome evil is inspiring.
Then it might have some use in a history class. But it's worthless as literature, particularly for 21st century teens. Totally pointless, and will only serve to turn them off to reading, literature, English class, and school.
At least they are not reading Harry Potter novels. Those books are riddled with murder, kidnapping, torture, slavery, theft, child abuse, animal cruelty, voyeurism, interspecies lust, underage drinking and inter-racial dating.
I kind of liked the screen play based on Michael Crichton's Eaters of the Dead. Granted, it's a pre-9/11 sympathetic view of muslims, and it's pretty difficult (if not impossible) to now view it without thinking about our enemies in the WOT, but I wouldn't call it, "worthless." It certainly had its entertainment value and celebrated some virtuous themes like heroism, courage, and good vs. evil...Given what Hollywood has cranked out in the past few decades, it wasn't a bad effort.
It sounds rather like the Iliad and the Odyssey, now that you mention it ... and Beowulf!
I agree that some classic literature is not likely to be of interest to most teenagers. Dickens, Hardy, Austen, the Brontes, etc., weren't writing for teenagers - these authors are considered "classic" because their books were popular with adults.
However, the Greek and Roman classics are blood-and-thunder thrillers - sex, drugs, drinking, and interspecies excitement. My teenagers really like them, especially if I read aloud. Excellent new translations have come out in the last few years.
lol. You can always count on the Romans. My point is that those works should be a part of the Roman history curriculum. Dickens is awful. Worse than water boarding. Bronte is for chicks. Never heard of the others.
I guess it comes down to the question of whether literature is a dead art or not. It's as if you had a music class and only offered classical music and jazz. It gives the impression it's a dead thing. No offense to old music, but what's wrong with bringing it up to date a little bit?
If the issue is cultural literacy (sounding smart at cocktail parties) fine, make sure they know all the know-it-all's favorite books. But otherwise, find some new stuff that might actually have something to do with current life, something that will demonstrate the usefulness of the art form, if indeed it has any usefulness.
ping
If you were reading Lord of the Flies in 10th grade, your school had some low expectations.
I read all of those books, but Lord of the Flies was required reading in 6th grade.
As for Dickens, there is plenty of violence, child abuse and class warfare in his stuff. What do people want their teenagers to read in school anyway? Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew and Tom Swift hardly qualify as literature.
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Your willingness to exhibit ignorance of one of the most important books and authors in American literature is astounding.
There is the problem. If you use public housing, expect to be living in a slum. And, if you use public schools, expect your children to be steeped in filth and leftist indoctrination.
That's a good question.
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John
Psalms and Proverbs
Genesis, Exodus, Revelation
...and many more!
Excellent suggestions.
“Beowulf” is anything BUT worthless! It picks up quite a bit when Beowulf rips off Grendel’s arm and beats him with it.
Public schools don’t have a Roman history curriculum. These days, they barely have an American history curriculum ... just “possibly-true historical background of modern leftist grievance groups.”
I like the part where he fights the dragon best. Great descriptions!
Of course, the father in this article might object to the depiction of dragons. I know he’d never let his teenagers read P.J. O’Rourke ... I’m such a bad mother.
“My grandsons are in AP English. the one who will be a freshman has to read ‘My Antonio’ (or something like that) (the one who will be a junior also had to read it as a freshman - the topic or the author is ‘a lesbian/ism’).”
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“Your willingness to exhibit ignorance of one of the most important books and authors in American literature is astounding.”
Repeated “knee-jerks” have been shown to diminish brain cells. :)
Tom Wolfe is usually pretty even-handed in portraying the reality of all kinds of situations. I have not read the Electric Kool-Aid acid Test, but I would be interested to see if Wolfe actually glamorizes drug use as the aggrieved father states.
Not true.
At the College Board Web site you can download the description for AP English Lit. It specifically states, "There is no recommended or required reading list for the AP English Literature and Composition course. The following authors are provided simply to suggest the range and quality of reading expected in the course. Teachers may select authors from the names below or may choose others of comparable quality and complexity."
Here are SOME of the authors in the list; some modern authors are also listed.
Poetry: William Blake; Robert Browning; Geoffrey Chaucer; Samuel Taylor Coleridge; Emily Dickinson; T. S. Eliot; Robert Frost; John Milton; Edgar Allan Poe; Alexander Pope; William Shakespeare; Percy Bysshe Shelley; Alfred, Lord Tennyson; Walt Whitman; William Wordsworth; William Butler Yeats
Drama: Aeschylus; Samuel Beckett; Anton Chekhov; Oliver Goldsmith; Henrik Ibsen; Ben Jonson; Molière; Eugene O’Neill; Harold Pinter; William Shakespeare; George Bernard Shaw; Sophocles; Oscar Wilde; Tennessee Williams.
Fiction (Novel and Short Story: Jane Austen; Charlotte Brontë; Emily Brontë; Joseph Conrad; Stephen Crane; Charles Dickens; George Eliot; William Faulkner; Henry Fielding; F. Scott Fitzgerald; E. M. Forster; Thomas Hardy; Nathaniel Hawthorne; Ernest Hemingway; Herman Melville; Jonathan Swift; Leo Tolstoy; Mark Twain.
Expository Prose: Ralph Waldo Emerson; Samuel Johnson; H. L. Mencken; John Stuart Mill; George Orwell; Henry David Thoreau.
Ain’t that the truth.
You forgot lying. :p
It is also an interesting study in politics of the day ... why would a novel expounding the virtues and heroism of a Danish prince be written in Gaelic and found in England that dates back to being written less than 100 AFTER the Danes (Vikings) were driven from the British Isles?
It had as much excitement and drama for the 11th century villagers as a summer blockbuster does today for you. It was also not written in English (which is why I have 3 copies, they are 3 different translations). If you want to read a version of Beowulf that captures some of the original poetry, try my favorite, the translation by Seamus Heany.
Beowulf may not have been the original story developed and delivered in that form, but it is the oldest one that survived and that we know about. In English literature, it is story number 1, nothing is older. As such, it created a style and genre that was reflected in authors such as Shakespeare and Dickens. It not only survived the ages, it was the blueprint for English literature for the next 1000 years. Worthless? I don't think so.
Now ... who the h#ll is Tom Wolfe again, ‘cause I don't think he is in the same league?
Your 3 copies of Beowulf are proof that you’re on the extreme end of the Beowulf curve. I’m not saying someone can’t be a fan of Beowulf. People are fans of a lot of worthless things (NASCAR races, for example.) I’m saying it’s worthless to teens. It was to me and remains so. The best you can say for it is it’s really big and long (so is the phone book) and really, really old.(So is a rock.) Who cares?
So, is it your position that students should dictate (1) what is important to teach and (2) what should be read to support (1). I don’t accept the premise that, in this “Game Boy” age, students can’t be required to read things of more substance than comic books and left wing sloganeering. School is supposed to facilitate learning about real life, discerning fact from fiction and thinking. Little or none of that is going on in most public schools today. When I went to school there was no requirement that I think a certain way. The only requirement was that I think. Of course, this did not apply to morality, civility and ethics. These areas, unlike today, were viewed to be absolutes—not relative to individuals or groups. There was a commom understanding of what these things meant; and a general concensus that they were essential for societal perpetuation. Of course, these are precisely the areas the left incessantly attacks. Why? To break down society and create the chaos necessary for it to emerge from the ashes with a monopoly on power.
If a student can be disciplined for using certain words, those words should not appear in the assigned literature.
I wish Ayn Rand were on the list.
That's an interesting book. (If you don't believe me open the book and read about the life story of the potato king J.R. Simplot.) But getting teenagers to read these days is like leading a horse to water. There's nothing wrong with knowing where our food comes from.
He should have announced that he was going to read a selection from his son's summer reading list. Bet he would have been stopped before he finished the page.
Which of Dickens’ novels have you read? I can’t stand his overt social crusade stuff, myself, but the man certainly knew how to craft his characters and turn a phrase. Thoughtful, merry, entertaining novels like Nicholas Nickleby and The Pickwick Papers are often overlooked at school, overshadowed by the dreary snore-fests like Oliver Twist and Bleak House. You rarely ever find, for example, Our Mutual Friend in a classroom, despite it being Dickens’ most integrated and mature work, finally managing a cohesive blending of the optimism of his early novels with his desire to humanize those at the margins of Victorian society.
From my memory, not always accurate, Wolfe is like the one sober guy at an all night drunk. The beauty of the book is that he exposes the vapidity of the whole LSD thing.
I certainly didn’t have three copies of Beowulf as a teen. I got by just fine with the Penguin edition Old English gloss and a copy of Heaney’s translation, thank you very much. I miss being a student. It’s never so easy to enjoy literature as when you’re trying to avoid math.
i recall reading The Odyssey, The Iliad, Canterbury Tales, Grapes of Wrath, Othello in high school... and MacBeth, Red Badge of Courage and Oliver Twist in jr. high...
check out the following link and listen to excerpts of Beowulf in Old English... you can follow along with the provided text... my boys got a kick out of this...
http://www.engl.virginia.edu/OE/Beowulf.Readings/Grendel.html
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