So the point of this thread I assume is to somehow cast white America in a poor light for being afraid of these negro books or some such nonsense?
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Originally Posted by dc_dux
WHy are so many people afraid of providing a supervised, structured program in schools to allow young adults to discuss such books as Catcher in the Rye or Huck Finn?
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I don't think this is the right word.
I think a truer statement would be ....
Why do so many people think some books are unsuitable for children.
Because thats all this is really about, and for that you can debate all you want.
There were several books I've read which were entertaining and thought provoking as an adult which would not have been good for me to read as a child. One I read, and I forget the title, I'm sure someone here will know it, started with a court case where a woman is accusing a man of rape and fathering her child. She lost the case because genetically it wasn't his child, and he confesses to the reader that he used a syringe with someone else's sperm. The book itself is very homoerotic with a ton of drug use.
Now this is most likely not an appropriate book to be reading in highschool. Honestly there are equally important things to learn in school and books to read that don't talk about how to hide heroin residue in your clothes for getting your fix while in a jails holding tank or going to Mexico for sex with underaged boys.
So the question is where do you draw the line. Every parent is going to have their own line. I'm sure some wouldn't mind if their children were reading Hustler, and others think books were a bad idea to start with. Both for good and bad there are ways for parents to change their public school curriculum and as such the squeaky wheel can get some changes made.
When you add 'public' to the discussion the public is allowed to get involved and as someone who works with said public all the time, I can say there are a lot of idiots out there, and some of those idiots are parents or on school curriculum boards.
Of course my kids will not be going to public schools, despite the money I'm forced to pay for them because I want my child to get the best education possible, not the government issued, union supplied, lowest common denominator version.