Virginia high school banned “To Kill a Mockingbird” “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”

originally posted by: TrueBrit
Look at the Second World War. If people never knew it had happened, how long do you think it would be before it, or something just like it, but for the names of the players and the ethnicity of the victims, happened again? You think a long time?

I think we should censor that too, along with all other history of war.

People could get offended that people killed other people and the last thing we want is for these young, impressionable minds to think that violence occurs on our planet. They should be spared this awful reality and instead be taught that a wonderful pink unicorn named Larry will ride into their lives and transport them to a future of Utopian delights where mean people are just a figment of their overly-protective parent's imaginations.

originally posted by: reldra
a reply to: Annee

One cannot 'modernize' classics. That is censorship. "To Kill a Mockingbird" is taught to 9th graders, normally, and the context of different words is part of the lesson plan.

I am surprised that anyone would think think this is a good idea of any kind.

This is first time I agree with you completely. I read it during 8th grade while in hospital with wounded knee. Next book was Lord of flies. With no context or "lesson plan" ... or if mom had some, I do not know.

Huckleberry Finn ... I do not remember exactly, but Tom Sawyer was first and it was second or third grade. It was one of first books I really read by my own.

For sure this started my love story with Mark Twain.

BTW I'm from Czech republic. Those books are classic because they have "global" validity. Everybody can understand, because it is not bounded to specific historic or social context. And still it is firmly seated in its respective era. It is window to zeitgeist, it is lesson in history, sociology, psychology and philosophy.

Fence it because there is temporal language code used? That is stupidity.

originally posted by: kosmicjack
a reply to: Annee

What about Jane Austin? You know, how women were married off with very little say, their inheritance entailed to male heirs, etc? Does that offend you? What about Song of Ice and Fire? Too much sex and violence? What about Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas? Too much drugs?

When you start building bonfires, you just never know what will get thrown in.

What ever made you think I'm offended by any of that. I'm not. Although, I prefer Sci-Fi.

I've made a lot of mistakes in my life, that I feel, hampered my progression and development.

Life is complicated. I choose to focus on the now. And the current world we live in.

If he chooses to read fiction books of the past - - that's fine. But, I don't want them forced on him.

He likes to read the current news and science stuff.

originally posted by: AugustusMasonicus

originally posted by: TrueBrit
Look at the Second World War. If people never knew it had happened, how long do you think it would be before it, or something just like it, but for the names of the players and the ethnicity of the victims, happened again? You think a long time?

I think we should censor that too, along with all other history of war.

Fiction vs non-Fiction.

originally posted by: Annee
Fiction vs non-Fiction.

If you actually understood Twain's writing, which you obviously have minimal to no grasp on, you would recognize that, as a satirist, he used the prism of fiction to expose the hypocritical and unseemly realities of his time in an attempt to educate the reader on these injustices.

a reply to: TrueBrit

Exactly. BTW try to "modernize" Shakespeare's sonnets

a reply to: JanAmosComenius

It would be like editing the end of Romeo and Juliet to stop kids getting addicted to Emo music!

Ridiculous!

Great example!

originally posted by: AugustusMasonicus

originally posted by: Annee
Fiction vs non-Fiction.

If you actually understood Twain's writing, which you obviously have minimal to no grasp on, you would recognize that, as a satirist, he used the prism of fiction to expose the hypercritical and unseemly realities of his time in an attempt to educate the reader on these injustices.

NO, I don't care.

I prefer Sci-Fi.

I choose to live in the now, progressing forward, looking ahead.

I have a 17 year old granddaughter. Does she have any idea what women before her went through? NO. And she doesn't care. She would never put up with what my generation had to (because laws were not in place yet). I feel I've learned more from her then I have from my own past.

I choose now and the future.

You can choose the past if that's your thing.

BTW I was raised among bookshelves. And I was curious. What was forbidden was the sweetest fruit. May be this is subversive move

originally posted by: Annee
You can choose the past if that's your thing.

My brain actually works well enough that I can study the past and present without becoming overwhelmed since they are not mutually exclusive areas of study.

It even enables me to take lessons from both, combine them and address the future.

originally posted by: AugustusMasonicus

originally posted by: TrueBrit
Look at the Second World War. If people never knew it had happened, how long do you think it would be before it, or something just like it, but for the names of the players and the ethnicity of the victims, happened again? You think a long time?

I think we should censor that too, along with all other history of war.

People could get offended that people killed other people and the last thing we want is for these young, impressionable minds to think that violence occurs on our planet. They should be spared this awful reality and instead be taught that a wonderful pink unicorn named Larry will ride into their lives and transport them to a future of Utopian delights where mean people are just a figment of their overly-protective parent's imaginations.

A big thank you! That really made me laugh.
👍

a reply to: Annee

You are surfing the tide? In your age and with your experience? What are you doing on conspiracy forum?

originally posted by: TrueBrit
a reply to: JanAmosComenius

It would be like editing the end of Romeo and Juliet to stop kids getting addicted to Emo music!

Ridiculous!

Great example!

Hasn't Romeo and Juliet been modernized many times?

Like: "West Side Story"

Not the first time this has happened. It occasionally occurs when over-sensitive people are elected to the school board, or someone with a cause etc...

Pardon me if this has already been posted but...

Nothing makes kids want to read a book MORE than if it's been placed on the banned book list.

Everyone wants to know why it's so forbidden and it's not like they're taking to books off the shelves in bookstores or out of the public libraries.

Kids who want to know why will find these classics, read them, tell their friends about it, loan copies, have discussions on the thematics, etc....all on their own and without the overtones of a frightened and draconian school board having to try and manage the passionate discussion that these two works can illuminate.

Come on, how many of us learned our most important lessons OUTSIDE of the schoolhouse?

Same applies here.

originally posted by: JanAmosComenius
a reply to: Annee

You are surfing the tide? In your age and with your experience? What are you doing on conspiracy forum?

I have to have a "brain life".

Raising a now 9 year old very high functioning Autistic at age 70 is a challenge (mom is a Cancer widow, works long hours).

Being a Futurist Atheist has made it difficult to find a "real life" group for mental stimulation (I'm not a coffee clatch chit-chatter). Plus coordinating the time that fits his mom's schedule.

You can do only so much swimming at the Y

a reply to: Annee

You will note that in both stories however, the horror of tribalism is never shied away from, but dealt with firmly and uncompromisingly by the respective plays.

a reply to: DBCowboy

More p.c. b.s. way to go idiocy still reigns, these are old stories written in an old style deal with it, I cannot stand seeing stories like this these whiny parents kill me. One more thing 'n-word' is offensive but cracker isn't in our new P.C. culture give me a break. Stop wasting people's time with this crap and complain about something that actually matters.

originally posted by: TrueBrit
a reply to: Annee

You will note that in both stories however, the horror of tribalism is never shied away from, but dealt with firmly and uncompromisingly by the respective plays.

Oh, I know. But, it is a modernized version of Romeo and Juliet. (and there are others)

Believe me, I take where you are and where you want to be in life very seriously. Choose it - - don't just roll with the tide.

Oh, and I don't want to ban books - - I just don't want this type book forced on school kids. Required reading lists should have a choice of books.

a reply to: Annee

Well that is the point Annee... There are many people in the developed world, who, but for access to older texts, would never have known about the history of your country, and would therefore, never be able to place the things they see in the news in context. They are too young to understand these things inherent, because they were not alive to see them for themselves.

And yet, the only way to ensure one is informed enough not to do something foolish, like elect dictators and despots, demagogues and fascists, is to know a measure of what those things bring about. The only way to do that is to have learning behind you, not just beautiful ideas about how you want the future to work, but absolute determination never to see the past come around again. The cycle must end, the swing of the pendulum must cease, the workings of the clock be broken so that it never moves again, so that freedom is never threatened by tyranny.

That cannot happen in an uninformed population. It cannot happen while the past lay forgotten underfoot, while the blood that was the price for the freedom you and yours enjoy is a cost unaccounted for, a bill which though paid, has been forgotten, because otherwise the tendency is for someone who HAS read the past, and has no morality or conscience, to use the lessons of the past to control populations, to earn money and power from the confusion they sow.

There are only two ways about it. Forget the past and repeat it, or learn from it and guard ETERNALLY against it.