High School Book Banning: Decency or Censorship
District 214 officials have several books on their required reading list that are so obscene that descriptions cannot be printed in the newspaper. (Hat tip: Illinois Family Institute) I also will not print the excerpts. You can find them at IFI or search the book titles on Google.
The books in question are the following:
- “Slaughterhouse-Five
” by Kurt Vonnegut
- “Beloved
” by Toni Morrison
- “The Things They Carried
” by Tim O’Brien
- “Awakening
” by Kate Chopin
- “The Perks of Being a Wallflower
” by Stephen Chbosky
- “Freakonomics : A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything
” by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner
- “The Botany of Desire: A Plant’s-Eye View of the World
” by Michael Pollan
- How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents
- Fallen Angels
This story was first reported by the Daily Herald, here and here. I have excerpts below:
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Pinney herself fosters that kind of labeling when she acknowledges that she has not read any of the books and says, “I don’t know if I would want to.” Comments6 Responses to “High School Book Banning: Decency or Censorship”TrackbacksCheck out what others are saying about this post...
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I hate this variety of pseudo-moral censorship. Period. Freakonomics poses a theory, and then supports the theory, nothing more! Dubner and Levitt explicitly state that they have no stance on abortion, and then support their conclusions with facts, and Pinney finds error in that? She should not care if the conclusion upsets her, for it is not her place to impose her morals, or her religion’s morals, on anybody. Literature can and must deal with issues that are not comfortable subjects, and banning books simply perpetuates those ills of society that can and must be dealt with. The novels tend to delve into areas that have relevance not only for their time period, but for our world today – for anybody with their eyes open can see that our world today is not a pretty place. Nobody seems to be able to tolerate other views, which is a skill most students must learn from sources outside their parents, as nobody taught the parents how to set aside their particular worldview either. For Judeo-Christian ethics to affect a society (not that I particularly think they should, but that is an entirely different argument), the students must understand why these ethics are important and relevant, a skill they will never learn if they are not exposed to the reasons our society would wish them to embrace its values. Knowledge is power, and you must trust the students enough to empower them to make their own moral decisions.
Amen, Anthony. Your comment is even more powerful knowing you’re a student. I’m glad to know the young people I’ll be teaching have enought sense to appreciate freedom of speech. There is certainly a fine line, however, between banning a book, and assigning a book as required reading> the reader should be the only person to determine whether or not a book is inappropriate. I wrote a post on this very topic on my lil ol’ blog.
I had “Awakening” as a book for high school english and another one or two for college english (VERY popular in the women writers segment, as an American female novelist…ignoring, of course, that women had on occasion been major novelists for more than a century before Chopin, dating back to Austen and the Regency if not earlier). I happen to think it’s a rather lousy book, and that there are much better ones by women authors both earlier and later (Austen or the Brontes for earlier; any number later including things like Plath’s Bell Jar or Atwood’s Handmaid’s Tale, which might also make the banned list, come to think of it). But that’s my only argument against Awakening- it’s badly written and rather unengaging, but by no means inappropriate.
Otherwise, I think that the whole thing is rediculous. Kids think about sex. All of the major young adult writers write about sex. Or periods. Or masturbation. And most of these parents probably buy such books for their kids without thinking.
Ignoring that, though, the school is still not responsible for teaching kids morality. Note to parents: if you’re worried about the lessons your kids are learning, consider Chopin’s Awakening: yes, she has an affair and thinks bad thoughts and does bad things, but ultimately she suffers from what seems to be depression and commits suicide at the end. Yes, she’s a bad role model, but it’s obvious that she’s a bad role model. If you’re worried about what your kids are reading and the lessons they’re learning, this is a PERFECT book for them to read: it includes not only “inappropriate” ideas, but also negative consequences for them. Parents: stop sheltering your kids and start teaching.
-A just graduated humanities student from College
6 to 1 in favor of keeping the books. It’s a sad day.
Agreed, Lisa. To think there was actually one board member in favor of such a travisty.