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 ...
The next thing you know they’ll ban Moby Dick because it’s about a white whale.
Really. A white Dick. Totally unacceptable.
Probably would have been the correct year, except Ronald Reagan was Elected President. Twice.
55 years too late, IMO. I really struggled with all those names.
If we don’t eliminate these communist whack jobs, we enter the darkest of dark ages.
Thanks. The archive.vn hack worked!
I hate it when someone takes a stand and then caves. Be like President Trump. Stand tall and never, never, never, never apologize if you are in the right. When you do, you let down your supporters and look weak to your detractors.
These people have made racism like their God, or all consuming thing, to them it’s everywhere and in every subject they see racism. They’re effing kookoo.
Makes sense to me. I never did understand Shakespeare, Chaucer, Faulkner, much of The Bible, and more. There is much that would have a greater effect on more people if it were translated into readable language BEFORE forcing students to spend time on it.
‘The past was erased, the erasure was forgotten, the lie became the truth.’
—George Orwell, 1984
Just say it. The goal is to ban all reading except the current communist party line.
I read Homer’s The Odyssey in my freshman year of high school.
30 years later, my wife went back to school to finish her master’s degree, and The Odyssey was one of the books she was required to read in one of her classes. Another book she had to read was Beowulf which I read my sophomore year LOL.
I got my love of reading back in 1962 when our high school Literature books had THE ODYSSEY. Since those days I have read both the Iliad, Odyssey and Aeneid several times along with other great pieces of literature.
On the other hand Silas Marner and Jane Eyre probably caused lots of kids to swear off reading forever! “DULL!” beyond words!
Why have school?
I hope they ban Lysistrada.
Eventually, it’ll be See Dick want Presidency of 1st grade, see blue machine, see Dick win Presidency of 1st grade, see everyone moan “Yeah.”
Should Lorena's gang attempt to expunge that particular tome from the library shelves, some bloody #DisruptTexts heads will be bouncing across the pavement.
My father finished HS in 1931. All students were required to do 4 years of Latin and 3 years of Greek.
I went to the same HS in the 60s. All students were still required to do 4 years of Latin. 3 years of Greek had become an option. Another option was 3 years of college physics and chemistry. In addition, 2 years of either German or French was mandated.
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.”
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.
