Banning books in schools (3 Viewers)

[Optimus Prime]

Excellent article I thought deserved its own thread
=========================

On the surface, it would appear that book censors and censored authors like myself can agree on one thing: Books are powerful.

Particularly books for children and teens.

Why else would people like me spend so much time and energy writing them?

Why else would censors spend so much time and energy trying to keep them out of kids’ hands?

In a country where the average adult is reading fewer and fewer books, it’s a surprise to find Americans arguing so much about them.

In this election year, parents and politicians — so many politicians — are jumping into the fray to say how powerful books can be.

Granted, politicians often make what I do sound like witchcraft, but I take this as a compliment.

I’ll admit, one of my first thoughts about the current wildfire of attempted censorship was: How quaint.

Conservatives seemed to be dusting off their playbook from 1958, when the only way our stories could get to kids was through schools and libraries.

While both are still crucial sanctuaries for readers, they’re hardly the only options. Plenty of booksellers supply titles that are taken off school shelves.

And words can be very widely shared free of charge on social media and the rest of the internet. If you take my book off a shelf, you keep it away from that shelf, but you hardly keep it away from readers.

As censorship wars have raged in so many communities, damaging the lives of countless teachers, librarians, parents and children, it’s begun to feel less and less quaint.

This is not your father’s book censorship…..

Here’s something I never thought I’d be nostalgic for: sincere censors. When my first novel, “Boy Meets Boy,” was published in 2003, it was immediately the subject of many challenges, some of which kept the book from ever getting on a shelf in the first place.

At the time, a challenge usually meant one parent trying to get a book pulled from a school or a library, going through a formal process.

I often reminded myself to try to find some sympathy for these parents; yes, they were wrong, and their desire to control what other people in the community got to read was wrong — but more often than not, the challenge was coming from fear of a changing world, a genuine (if incorrect) belief that being gay would lead kids straight to ruination and hell, and/or the misbegotten notion that if all the books that challenged the (homophobic, racist) status quo went away, then the status quo would remain intact.

It was, in some ways, as personal to them as it was to those of us on the other side of the challenge.

And nine times out of 10, the book would remain on the shelf.

It’s not like that now. What I’ve come to believe, as I’ve talked to authors and librarians and teachers, is that attacks are less and less about the actual books.

We’re being used as targets in a much larger proxy war.

The goal of that war isn’t just to curtail intellectual freedom but to eviscerate the public education system in this country.

Censors are scorching the earth, without care for how many kids get burned.

Racism and homophobia are still very much present, but it’s also a power grab, a money grab. The goal for many is a for-profit, more authoritarian and much less diverse culture, one in which truth is whatever you’re told it is, your identity is determined by its acceptability and the past is a lie that the future is forced to emulate.

The politicians who holler and post and draw up their lists of “harmful” books aren’t actually scared of our books.

They are using our books to scare people.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/2022/09/23/standing-up-new-censorship/

 

[Optimus Prime]

If the owner of the company made a comment that he didnt agree with x law that was passed, his company can easily be targeted and hurt monetarily. basically like Desantis is doing.
If a cafeteria vendor sold brozen breakfast pizza to the school that was contaminated with salmonella, that falls on the manufacturer of the product. If Win-Dixie sold those same frozen Pizza that were contaminated with salmonella, do you blame them ,or do you blame Totinos? Now if found that they mis-handled the pizzas and left them sitting in the September heat all weekend, then still shipped them to the school, well, thats a different story...

reminds me of the Ford/Firestone scandal for awhile back

Ford: you knew those tires were garbage when you sold them

Firestone: You knew those tires were garage when you bought them

 

[MT15]

Yes, that was a good plan. I apologize for not immediately mentioning the Brandon plan. I did not realize that saying that it was not a bad plan committed me to mention it in every post about the topic of books in school libraries.

I think the problem with that plan is that the school librarians would object to it. Their organization is not interested in allowing parents to have any kind of say over what books are children read. Their goal is exactly to overcome the provincial ways of typical parents and substitute their judgment for that of families.

I have heard of no case where only a few parents caused a book to be removed. Of course I guess that depends on your definition of a few. MTwas claiming that only one parent could have a book removed, which is obviously not true. How many do you think it takes?

It takes one parent to set the wheels in motion, at which point they pre-emptively remove the book for however long the “investigation” takes. Even if they put the book back on the shelf, then one more parent can start the process all over again. A very small group of parents can keep any number of books off the shelves basically as long as they want by working together.

There is a lady in one state who is writing complaints about hundreds of books, all by herself. She admits she hasn’t read any of them.

How about parents take responsibility instead of expecting the state to step in and ban books? If you want to forbid your high schooler or whatever from reading sexually explicit books, that’s your call. But you shouldn’t expect the school or the state to parent your children. It’s a ridiculous premise. It’s just like the push to censor rock or rap music lyrics. Don’t want your child to hear them, that’s your call. But you cannot stop everybody from hearing the music that they want to hear.

Libertarians, or at least real ones, would think this is a vast overreach of the state intruding on parent’s rights to raise their own children. That you claim to be a libertarian is pretty crazy.

 

[zztop]

Libertarians, or at least real ones, would think this is a vast overreach of the state intruding on parent’s rights to raise their own children. That you claim to be a libertarian is pretty crazy.

They (the right) don't know definitions of things. Ask them to define crt or woke or libertarian and they come up with inaccurate facts. Sorry, alternative facts. They just want to be mad at something/some target. Hatred, prejudice, manufactured outrage. Blaming minority groups. Pretty sad

 

[Snarky Sack]

It takes one parent to set the wheels in motion, at which point they pre-emptively remove the book for however long the “investigation” takes.

And how long would that be? It would depend on the book. If it were a totally innocuous book but someone complained because there was a tree with two branches spreading apart that she found suggestive, that investigation would take as long as it took the
librarian to take a picture of the page, and send it to her principal and to the Superintendent and have them email back "It's fine."

If the book turned out to be questionable, then the librarian could again let her principal know and a real investigation could procede.

Even if they put the book back on the shelf, then one more parent can start the process all over again. A very small group of parents can keep any number of books off the shelves basically as long as they want by working together.

If that happened the librarian need only let the parent know that the book has already been examined and approved by admin, and she should contact them for further questions.

You are really reaching with that one, MT.

There is a lady in one state who is writing complaints about hundreds of books, all by herself. She admits she hasn’t read any of them.

It is very common for people to either vocally oppose, or staunchly defend, books and other material that they never read or saw. That part makes no sense to me, either. You never do that, do you?

How about parents take responsibility instead of expecting the state to step in and ban books? If you want to forbid your high schooler or whatever from reading sexually explicit books, that’s your call. But you shouldn’t expect the school or the state to parent your children.

Is it "parenting my children" if they ask my permission before taking my child on a field trip, or before testing my child for special education, or before allowing my child to play on a sports team? No. Asking my permission is letting me be the parent instead of doing the parenting for me by doing those things behind my back.

The state of Texas has the right idea: let parents say up front whether they want "sexually relevant" material given to their child. You know the sellers are not even going to call Gender Queer "sexually explicit," so everyone who cares will know the deal. Transparency is a good thing.

It’s a ridiculous premise. It’s just like the push to censor rock or rap music lyrics. Don’t want your child to hear them, that’s your call. But you cannot stop everybody from hearing the music that they want to hear.

There are a lot of rap, rock, and country lyrics that would not be appropriate to be played over the speakers at a school. If teachers need to listen to that for some reason during the school day, I recommend ear buds.

Libertarians, or at least real ones, would think this is a vast overreach of the state intruding on parent’s rights to raise their own children. That you claim to be a libertarian is pretty crazy.

Libertarians want parents - not government run schools - making parenting decisions.

 

[Optimus Prime]

The classic novels “A Room With a View” and “Madame Bovary” and the epic poem “Paradise Lost” — published in England more than 350 years ago — have been at least temporarily rejected by Orange County Public Schools for sexual content that educators fear runs afoul of a new Florida law.

Novels that in past years were frequently taught in OCPS high school classes, such as “The Color Purple,” “Catch-22,” “Brave New World,” and “The Kite Runner” have been put on the rejected lists, too, as have novels by Toni Morrison and Ayn Rand and popular, turned-into-movies books like “Into the Wild,” and “The Fault in Our Stars.”

The lists of books rejected and approved for OCPS classrooms are not finalized yet as district media specialists continue their summer work of reviewing all books in classroom libraries, said several people familiar with the process.

Some books rejected earlier this summer, among them “The Scarlet Letter” and Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” have since been approved, according to the lists shared with the Orlando Sentinel by a district teacher and by an advocacy group that obtained a rejection list through a public records request. Other books have been approved but only for certain grades.

Four plays by William Shakespeare, including “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” are currently listed as approved for grades 10 through 12 only, as is Truman Capote’s “In Cold Blood” and Tennessee Williams’ “A Streetcar Named Desire,” the lists show.

For many of the books, the reason for at least a temporary rejection is sex. “Depicts or describes sexual conduct (not allowed per HB 1069-2023,” reads the explanation, referencing a new state law passed by the Republican-dominated Florida Legislature and signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis.……

Still, some OCPS teachers said they were shocked to see what books are being flagged as potentially objectionable.

“The last thing I would have expected to be rejected is Milton,” said one English teacher, noting that John Milton’s “Paradise Lost,” published in 1667, is considered a “cornerstone of Western literature.”

The teacher is compiling and updating a list of rejected OCPS books and starting this past weekend others shared his list on Facebook, Reddit and TikTok. He asked that his name and the name of his high school not be identified for fear of facing discipline.

The list he has pulled together shows more than 150 books labeled as rejected.

The state’s new laws and rules wrongly imply “I have horrible intentions for my students,” the ninth-grade English teacher said, when like others he shares and teaches books he hopes will engage the teenagers in his classes.

“We are in this because we really care about the stuff that we teach and really care about the content we get to introduce our students to,” he said.

If the rejected list doesn’t change, he said, he will have to remove novels like “The Handmaid’s Tale” and “Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team and a Dream” from his classroom bookshelves as they are rejected for all grades, as well as “Crime and Punishment” and “In Cold Blood,” which are now rejected for 9th grade, which he teaches.…….

Orange schools target classics, popular novels to keep sex out of class

“A Room With a View,” “Madame Bovary” and “Paradise Lost” have been at least temporarily rejected by Orange schools for sexual content as the district seeks to comply with a new state law.…

www.orlandosentinel.com

 

[Optimus Prime]

This could have gone in a few threads
=================
At first glance, the plight of Katherine Rinderle, a fifth-grade teacher in Georgia, might seem confusing. Rinderle faces likely termination by the Cobb County School District for reading aloud a children’s book that touches on gender identity.

Yet she is charged in part with violating policy related to a state law banning “divisive concepts” about race, not gender.

This disconnect captures something essential about state laws and directives restricting classroom discussion across the country: They seem to be imprecisely drafted to encourage censorship.

That invites parents and administrators to seek to apply bans to teachers haphazardly, forcing teachers to err on the side of muzzling themselves rather than risk unintentionally crossing fuzzy lines into illegality.


“Teachers are fearful,” Rinderle told us in an interview. “These vague laws are chilling and result in teachers self-censoring."

In short, when it comes to all these anti-woke laws and the MAGA-fied frenzy they’ve unleashed, the vagueness is the point.


As CNN reported, the district sent Rinderle a letter in May signaling its intent to fire her for a lesson using “My Shadow Is Purple.”

The book is written from the perspective of a child who likes both traditionally “boy” things like trains and “girl” things like glitter. Its conclusion is essentially that sometimes blue and pink don’t really capture kids’ full interests and personalities — and that everyone is unique and should just be themselves.


The district’s letter, which we have obtained, criticized Rinderle for teaching the “controversial subject” of “gender identity” without giving parents a chance to opt out. She was charged with violating standards of professional ethics, safeguards for parents’ rights and a policy governing treatment of “controversial issues.”

But Rinderle and her lawyer, Craig Goodmark, argue that the policy on “controversial issues” is extremely hazy. They point out that it prohibits “espousing” political “beliefs” in keeping with a 2022 state law that bans efforts to persuade students to agree with certain “divisive concepts" that don’t reasonably apply here.


After all, in that law, those “divisive concepts” are all about race. Among them are the ideas that the United States is “fundamentally racist" and that people should feel “guilt” or bear “responsibility” for past actions on account of their race. It’s not clear how this policy applies to Rinderle’s alleged transgression.


What’s more, we have learned that this action was initiated by a parent’s troubling email to the district, provided to us by Rinderle and her lawyer, in which the parent notes that teachers were told to avoid “divisive” concepts.

The parent then writes, “I would consider anything in the genre of ‘LGBT’ and ‘Queer’ divisive.”……….

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/07/05/georgia-teacher-termination-gender-identity-maga-desantis-trump/

 

[Snarky Sack]

This could have gone in a few threads
=================
At first glance, the plight of Katherine Rinderle, a fifth-grade teacher in Georgia, might seem confusing. Rinderle faces likely termination by the Cobb County School District for reading aloud a children’s book that touches on gender identity.

Yet she is charged in part with violating policy related to a state law banning “divisive concepts” about race, not gender.

This disconnect captures something essential about state laws and directives restricting classroom discussion across the country: They seem to be imprecisely drafted to encourage censorship.

That invites parents and administrators to seek to apply bans to teachers haphazardly, forcing teachers to err on the side of muzzling themselves rather than risk unintentionally crossing fuzzy lines into illegality.


“Teachers are fearful,” Rinderle told us in an interview. “These vague laws are chilling and result in teachers self-censoring."

In short, when it comes to all these anti-woke laws and the MAGA-fied frenzy they’ve unleashed, the vagueness is the point.


As CNN reported, the district sent Rinderle a letter in May signaling its intent to fire her for a lesson using “My Shadow Is Purple.”

The book is written from the perspective of a child who likes both traditionally “boy” things like trains and “girl” things like glitter. Its conclusion is essentially that sometimes blue and pink don’t really capture kids’ full interests and personalities — and that everyone is unique and should just be themselves.


The district’s letter, which we have obtained, criticized Rinderle for teaching the “controversial subject” of “gender identity” without giving parents a chance to opt out. She was charged with violating standards of professional ethics, safeguards for parents’ rights and a policy governing treatment of “controversial issues.”

But Rinderle and her lawyer, Craig Goodmark, argue that the policy on “controversial issues” is extremely hazy. They point out that it prohibits “espousing” political “beliefs” in keeping with a 2022 state law that bans efforts to persuade students to agree with certain “divisive concepts" that don’t reasonably apply here.


After all, in that law, those “divisive concepts” are all about race. Among them are the ideas that the United States is “fundamentally racist" and that people should feel “guilt” or bear “responsibility” for past actions on account of their race. It’s not clear how this policy applies to Rinderle’s alleged transgression.


What’s more, we have learned that this action was initiated by a parent’s troubling email to the district, provided to us by Rinderle and her lawyer, in which the parent notes that teachers were told to avoid “divisive” concepts.

The parent then writes, “I would consider anything in the genre of ‘LGBT’ and ‘Queer’ divisive.”……….

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/07/05/georgia-teacher-termination-gender-identity-maga-desantis-trump/

This will make teachers think, 'This is crazy! It was one read aloud. Why, it's as if the administrators at my school do not want me sexualizing kids . . . at all."

I don't like to criticize a book without having read it. But these kinds of books are coming out too fast for me to keep up with them all. Here is how Amazon describes it:

A heartwarming and inspiring book about being true to yourself and moving beyond the gender binary, by best-selling children's book creator Scott Stuart.
Reading age: ‎4 - 12 years, from customers
Publisher: ‎Larri

Amazon product ASIN 1922503819
Is Amazon lying?

 

[cuddlemonkey]

This will make teachers think, 'This is crazy! It was one read aloud. Why, it's as if the administrators at my school do not want me sexualizing kids . . . at all."

I don't like to criticize a book without having read it. But these kinds of books are coming out too fast for me to keep up with them all. Here is how Amazon describes it:

A heartwarming and inspiring book about being true to yourself and moving beyond the gender binary, by best-selling children's book creator Scott Stuart.
Reading age: ‎4 - 12 years, from customers
Publisher: ‎Larri

Amazon product ASIN 1922503819
Is Amazon lying?

Gender has nothing to do with sexuality.

 

[Snarky Sack]

Gender has nothing to do with sexuality.

I hope you would agree that gender has to do with gender. If the district has a policy of not teaching kids about gender, she violated it. That was the point of my posting the Amazon description.

 

[cuddlemonkey]

I hope you would agree that gender has to do with gender. If the district has a policy of not teaching kids about gender, she violated it. That was the point of my posting the Amazon description.

You said "sexualizing kids". Gender and sexuality have nothing to do with each other. I would hope you agree that you were wrong.

 

[Snarky Sack]

You said "sexualizing kids". Gender and sexuality have nothing to do with each other. I would hope you agree that you were wrong.

Gender and sexuality are firmly intertwined. Progressive attempt to convince us otherwise are nothing more than gaslighting.

 

[cuddlemonkey]

Gender and sexuality are firmly intertwined. Progressive attempt to convince us otherwise are nothing more than gaslighting.

That is patently untrue. Men and women, both cis and trans, as well as NB people, can be attracted to people from a variety of groups, including (but not limited to) other men and women (both cis and/or trans), only men, only women, or literally sexually attracted to nobody.

 

[Optimus Prime]

Moms for Liberty is a Florida-based pressure group which campaigns for book bans in US public schools, an issue at the heart of the national debate as Republican-run states seek to control or eliminate teaching of sex education, LGBTQ+ rights and racism in American history.

But rightwing calls for school book bans are by no means a new phenomenon – and a look at the Moms for Liberty website indicates why.

Moms for Liberty seeks to organise “Madison Meetups”, events it describes as “like a book club for the constitution!”, featuring discussion of “liberty, freedom and the foundation of our government”. Under “resources that we have found helpful”, the only resource offered is The Making of America, a book by W Cleon Skousen.

In the early 1960s, Skousen was a hero to and a defender of the John Birch Society, a far-right group that campaigned against what it claimed was the communist threat to America.

Matthew Dallek, a professor of political management at George Washington University, is the author of Birchers: How the John Birch Society Radicalized the American Right. He points out that though the Birchers were not the only ones promoting book bans in the 60s, “they were likely the most visible group promoting book bans or promoting the policing of content in schools, libraries, movie theaters, even on newsstands”.

The Birchers, Dallek adds, focused on “the so-called erosion of the moral fiber of the United States, but also the struggle to rid the country of what they regarded as really the socialist left wing”.

The society still exists but its influence is greater than its presence, most obviously through a resurgence of Bircher-esque thought and action in the Republican party of Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis.

In the society’s heyday, Dallek says, book bans and school board elections, another current battlefield, “gave Birchers a way to take action in their community.

“They looked at where their kids went to school and their local library and the movie theater they would pass by. Part of their agenda was to insert what they considered Americanist publications, as opposed to communist propaganda.

“What’s frightening now is that I don’t recall a time where those efforts were so often successful. Moms for Liberty and the other successors to the John Birch Society, they’re having a lot more success at actually implementing their vision.”

Last month, the writers’ organisation Pen America reported a 28% rise in public school book bans in just six months. As the 2024 election approaches, attacks on the place of race in history classes and teaching on LGBTQ+ issues seem certain to feature in Republican debates and town halls.

Dallek considers the Birchers’ influence on the Republican party over more than 60 years. But he can’t recall the society inspiring “any sweeping legislation like Florida has now passed, through three major bills. And one in particular, it’s very Orwellian. They have these education minders who have to approve all texts in school libraries. That was certainly a dream of the Birch Society.”……..

Moms for Liberty, meet John Birch: the roots of US rightwing book bans

Matthew Dallek, author of new book Birchers, sees plentiful precedent for censorship efforts in Republican states

www.theguardian.com

 

[Snarky Sack]

That is patently untrue. Men and women, both cis and trans, as well as NB people, can be attracted to people from a variety of groups, including (but not limited to) other men and women (both cis and/or trans), only men, only women, or literally sexually attracted to nobody.

"NB people?" Notice you talk about sexual attraction in terms of what gender or genders different people can be attracted to. You must because sex is inextricably linked to gender.

What is the difference between a gay man and a straight man?

If a man is primarily attracted to transwomen who still have their male parts, is he gay or straight, or something else?

 

[Snarky Sack]

At first glance, the plight of Katherine Rinderle, a fifth-grade teacher in Georgia, might seem confusing. Rinderle faces likely termination by the Cobb County School District for reading aloud a children’s book that touches on gender identity.

Yet she is charged in part with violating policy related to a state law banning “divisive concepts” about race, not gender.

This disconnect captures something essential about state laws and directives restricting classroom discussion across the country: They seem to be imprecisely drafted to encourage censorship.

Perfect example of media gaslighting.

There is no "disconnect" there, nor anything confusing. If a district implements a policy that is "related to" a state law about race, but the district includes gender, then the district policy is about race and gender. The district is not required to act in lockstep with the state, only to follow the state's minimum requirements.

If a person violates their employer's policies, action will be taken to bring them in line with those policies. If they persist and claim some right to violate employer policies, they will be terminated.

Decry the wrongheadedness you see in the policy, but it is illogical to criticize the district for enforcing its policies.

 

[Huntn]

Because those who believe this to be offensive are attempting to dictate to those who don’t who can read these books by attempting to have them removed from the shelves.

If you can see how people can have very different opinions about whether or not these books are offensive, don’t you think each parent should have the choice about whether or not their child should be able to read these books?

The only way to give every parent choice is to allow the book to be in the library, and let the parent decide if their child can take the book home or not.

Eaxactly! But this is not how these people swing. It’s their own little kingdom of power over others, if we let them have it. Sometimes driven by My Religion. But the sad fact is that My Religion is often something twisted into what suits me.

It is all about My Liberty, My Morals, My Religion that gets to stomp out anything I don’t like, trumping you and yours. It’s not enough to say “I won’t let me children read this”, it has to be ”YOU CAN’T READ IT EITHER!!” It does not seem to matter that 100 people, or a thousand, have zero objections. Most alarming is when one person in a school district can object just because I don’t like it and the book is removed. Yes, it is supposed to be removed for review, but this is the conservative view? One objection out of thousands of people is enough to ban books even if it is temporary?

I will admit that banning books is nothing new in the USA, and for certain certain books involving hate speech, racism, bigotry, political disinformation or manipulation, there could be examples where things could be rightfully banned or censored. So it all boils down to who is in charge, and what the priorities are. That said there're some historical writings that today are considered racist, but should not be banned Imo. Instead if they are a reflection of the times, and attitudes, a disclaimer should be added to the beginning of the book.

 

[Huntn]

School books about Martin Luther King Jr. are too “divisive,” claims a conservative group at the center of a Tennessee book ban battle. A story about the astronomer Galileo Galilei is “anti-church.” A picture book about seahorses is too sexy.

As the school year resumes, simmering fights over school books have returned to a boil. In some schools, like in Pennsylvania’s Central York School District this week, students have beaten back bans on books about racism.

But elsewhere, like in Tennessee’s Williamson County School District, the battle is ongoing, bolstered by new state laws that ban the teaching of certain race-related topics.

At the heart of that fight is a conservative group, led by a private-school parent, that has a sprawling list of complaints against common classroom books. Many of the books are about race, but other targets include dragons, sad little owls, and hurricanes……

With school back in session, the Williamson County feud has been renewed, Reuters reportedthis week. And the scope of the proposed book ban is even broader and loonier than MFL’s June letter suggests.

Accompanying that letter is an 11-page spreadsheet with complaints about books on the district’s curriculum, ranging from popular books on civil rights heroes to books about poisonous animals (“text speaks of horned lizard squirting blood out of its eyes”), Johnny Appleseed (“story is sad and dark”), and Greek and Roman mythology (“illustration of the goddess Venus naked coming out of the ocean...story of Tantalus and how he cooks up, serves, and eats his son.”)

A book about hurricanes is no good (“1st grade is too young to hear about possible devastating effects of hurricanes”) and a book about owls is designated as a downer. (“It’s a sad book, but turns out ok. Not a book I would want to read for fun,” an adult wrote of the owl book in the spreadsheet.)….

In addition to broadsides against books about King and Bridges, the list takes a dim view of multiple books about Native Americans. One, The Rough-Face Girl, is deemed inappropriate because it includes an illustration of the protagonist bathing “with her hair covering her chest.” The book First Nations of North America: Plains Indians is also a no-no, because it “paints white people in a negative light.”

Multiple books that contain Spanish or French Creole words receive warnings from the group for potentially “confusing” children. An article about crackdowns on civil rights demonstrators, meanwhile, is deemed inappropriate for “negative view of Firemen and police.” A fictional book about the Civil War (given to fifth graders) is deemed inappropriate, in part due to depictions of “out of marriage families between white men and black women” and descriptions of “white people as ‘bad’ or ‘evil.’”

At one juncture, the group implores the school district to include more charitable descriptions of the Catholic Church when teaching a book about astronomer Galileo Galilei, who was persecuted by said church for suggesting that Earth revolves around the sun.

“Where is the HERO of the church?” the group’s spreadsheet asks, “to contrast with their mistakes? There are so many opportunities to teach children the truth of our history as a nation. The Church has a huge and lasting influence on American culture. Both good and bad should be represented. The Christian church is responsible for the genesis of Hospitals, Orphanages, Social Work, Charity, to name a few.”…….

Far-Right Group Wants to Ban Kids From Reading Books on Male Seahorses, Galileo, and MLK

Moms for Liberty is raising hell in a Tennessee school district over books that teach about race in American history—and also books that teach about wild animals and science.

www.thedailybeast.com

All part of the let’s not talk about racism, because you might hurt some racist’s feelings movement.

 

[Huntn]

You're the one arguing with a strawman if you are still talking about a single parent dictating to a school. I explained it twice. That's not happening and that's far from what I advocated. Your oversimplification may work when you're preaching to the choir, but not for the visiting skeptic.

It is not happening. One parent that objects to a book that almost nobody else would object to is NOT getting that book banned for the whole school.

What is happening is that districts are recognizing their mistakes in, for example, shelving a book like Lawn Boy or Gender Queer in the middle or elementary school.

In related coming to of senses, schools are realizing that there really is no educational value in drag queens putting on sexualized shows for kids.

I dont' see any lives being ruined. That's pretty typical of the overly dramatic claims of the left, to be honest.

I think we talked about the Jenna Barbee case. That first-year teacher had already resigned with a claim of not being allowed to be herself, whatever that dramatic statement may have meant. She wasn't fired. The movie that she showed did not "feature a gay character," it had a gay teen romance that was central to the plot. She took advantage of her access to school children and to the educational facilities that she was entrusted with to educate them, and pushed an agenda that she knew that Florida voters did not want pushed. It was an in-your-face move and she got push back, as she should have known that she would.

There have been multiple reports of one person (or is it 10?) objects is enough to remove the book for review. This as compared to thousands who don’t object. This is not to imply that it’s happening everywhere, and technically the book is supposed to be removed until it is reviewed, but if you have fervent “conservatives” preaching to “conservative” school boards, all bets are off, as to if this book returns to the shelves. In the scenario I’ve described, it’s a small majority, the tail wagging the dog. I’ll also argue that if we allow this to happen collectively we deserve it, including all the bad shirt that falls on us As a result of near sided, oppressive thinking. You could even say it was ordained for multiple reasons, but namely selfish, intolerant, human beings, who are either too lazy or think that finding consensus is too difficult, and don’t like not being able to dictate to the majority.