Posted on 12/27/2020 5:26:53 PM PST by RightGeek
A sustained effort is under way to deny children access to literature. Under the slogan #DisruptTexts, critical-theory ideologues, schoolteachers and Twitter agitators are purging and propagandizing against classic texts—everything from Homer to F. Scott Fitzgerald to Dr. Seuss.
Their ethos holds that children shouldn’t have to read stories written in anything other than the present-day vernacular—especially those “in which racism, sexism, ableism, anti-Semitism, and other forms of hate are the norm,” as young-adult novelist Padma Venkatraman writes in School Library Journal. No author is valuable enough to spare, Ms. Venkatraman instructs: “Absolving Shakespeare of responsibility by mentioning that he lived at a time when hate-ridden sentiments prevailed, risks sending a subliminal message that academic excellence outweighs hateful rhetoric.”
The subtle complexities of literature are being reduced to the crude clanking of “intersectional” power struggles. Thus Seattle English teacher Evin Shinn tweeted in 2018 that he’d “rather die” than teach “The Scarlet Letter,” unless Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel is used to “fight against misogyny and slut-shaming.”
Outsiders got a glimpse of the intensity of the #DisruptTexts campaign recently when self-described “antiracist teacher” Lorena Germán complained that many classics were written more than 70 years ago: “Think of US society before then & the values that shaped this nation afterwards. THAT is what is in those books.”
Jessica Cluess, an author of young-adult fiction, shot back: “If you think Hawthorne was on the side of the judgmental Puritans . . . then you are an absolute idiot and should not have the title of educator in your twitter bio.”
An online horde descended, accused Ms. Cluess of racism and “violence,” and demanded that Penguin Random House cancel her contract. The publisher hasn’t complied, perhaps because Ms. Cluess tweeted a ritual self-denunciation...
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
I guess they will replace it with Homer Simpson.
He will be targeted for cultural erasure eventually.
I can’t get past the paywall. Does it say which school system?
They didn’t burn it. It was just a little old book that wasn’t there.
A straight White male that works in the nuclear industry?
Heather Levine, an English teacher at Lawrence (Mass.) .
Of course...
Homer did actual work?
That’s weird! There was no paywall when I read the article, but there is now. Anyhow, It was Lawrence High School. That part of the article is available at https://pjmedia.com/instapundit/422510/
All these new fancy-dan terms being used to butter the moldy muffin of censorship.
Ableism? What Marxist fop invented that one?
And why doesnt this Hindi red dot author not mention tomes from the homeland, such as the bhaghavad gita?
I couldn't either. Why was The Odyssey banned?
Like ebonics and rap?
Things happen in the Odyssey that the Woke believe are bad things. Murder and stuff.
I expected Cambridge. Because they are ultra woke.
Lawrence kind of surprises me. But then again, I can only imagine how stupid their staff is.
archive.vn/
Original article URL:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/even-homer-gets-mobbed-11609095872
Add our friend archive.vn/, thusly:
https://archive.vn/www.wsj.com/articles/even-homer-gets-mobbed-11609095872
Someone will probably have archived the article, bypassing the paywall - or you may archive it yourself by choosing archive this URL, then [save].
These idiots get more silly by the day. When they start banning stuff that has been around for hundreds of years, you would think normal people would see the stupidity of this kind of nonsense. Homer has been accepted for more than 1800 years. People who would ban him now are dipsticks. They are low people with a bad agenda who are trying to disrupt society today. They are weird and should be ignored. They will continue to make noise but if no one is listening, it will not matter.
“antiracist teacher” Lorena Germán complained that many classics were written 70 years ago.
I do not remember anything really worth reading written in last 70 years. Ditto music, fine arts etc.
Art kind of run out of beauty about 70 years ago. Since then, art seems to just like perversion, consumerism, blood, dirt.
It is not art it is just Yuckiness. Kind of makes people vomit, not admire!
I do not believe that antiracists are able to produce anything of any lasting beauty!
Kind of like the Soviet socialistic realism or the art of Nazism. Whatever still reminds, it is looked down with despise. There is nothing of value there!
Standby by for a rebooted “Our Miss Brooks” along those lines.
George Orwell’s “1984” was only a few decades off.
Doh!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.