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

originally posted by: jjsr420

Your GRANDchild will grow up not knowing how people are, if you shelter them. It will be a huge shock to the kid when they become a young adult, and enter a world full of hatred. People like that get eaten alive once they hit the real world. I've seen it hundreds of times.

Because he doesn't read a book from 80 years ago with southern attitudes toward blacks?

There are millions of books in the world.

Pretty sure he'll be OK.

originally posted by: Annee


Then I guess it was the right time for you.

Assuming you don't have a learning disability, most people are capable of understanding context by high school. High school aged kids are on the verge of entering the real world, its a perfect time to make them think.

If you present an allegory against racism, and within the allegory present an example of racism to help people understand, we shouldn't be so freaked out by the example of bad, that we miss the moral good.

It reminds me of the old stoning skit from Monty Python, there is no context, "you said the word, therefore bad!"

a reply to: Annee

The ANGER did own me at what they do,it always has since school.

originally posted by: cavtrooper7
a reply to: Annee

The ANGER did own me at what they do,it always has since school.

You've worked to get yourself in a good place though.

You can be proud.

originally posted by: mahatche

originally posted by: Annee


Then I guess it was the right time for you.

Assuming you don't have a learning disability, most people are capable of understanding context by high school. High school aged kids are on the verge of entering the real world, its a perfect time to make them think.

You can choose to believe that.

a reply to: Annee

I can make sure my wife is safe but I hate this existance.
TOO much deception.

originally posted by: Annee

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.

I've lived a long time.

I've raised 3 generations of kids.

They do not need to go back in time. They do not need to experience the bigotry of the south in a time 80 years before they were born.

There are different challenges of this generation which I choose to focus on.

If you think it's important to your kid, that's your right.

I don't.

And what if they wish to learn about it?

Hiding bigotry of the past from them will not prepare them for it should they encounter it now. Or do you concede that there is no "bigotry of the south" now and that it's not among those different challenges of this generation?

Please don't tell me that you're teaching your grandkid that gender challenges are much more important than racial challenges...

a reply to: DBCowboy

So... Does this mean the school has also banned every rap lyric ever written?

This is how you set people up to repeat the past, if one does not know history, ones knowledge of the future becomes less and less.

Yep, book burning liberals.
Not only are living people who disagree with their fascist ideology under attack, but everyone who ever lived or expressed any dissenting thought.
I would say the mindset of current progressive movement has gone beyond even their pre World War II inspirations, Hitler and Mussolini. If they had been allowed to consolidate power further I am sure their actions would have too.

a reply to: xuenchen

Jesus. They're starting the book burnings !! What's next ?

Muhammad. They're starting the book burnings. What's next?

originally posted by: mahatche

originally posted by: Annee


Then I guess it was the right time for you.

Assuming you don't have a learning disability, most people are capable of understanding context by high school. High school aged kids are on the verge of entering the real world, its a perfect time to make them think.

If you present an allegory against racism, and within the allegory present an example of racism to help people understand, we shouldn't be so freaked out by the example of bad, that we miss the moral good.

It reminds me of the old stoning skit from Monty Python, there is no context, "you said the word, therefore bad!"

That is an excellent skit and it perfectly sums up progressives and their thought process!

Unless all of you are living under rocks you should at least know that high schoolers in mixed groups use this word when greeting each other regardless of whether it is a white greeting a black or black greeting a white or Spanish person or oriental. It does not have the same meaning to kids today unless they are from a family where racism is the norm and they are using their parents offense not their own.

So if we can ban books because words, does that mean we should ban talking about things like slavery (various from Egyptian to modern times) or World War 2 in history classes?

Is not talking about war, murder and genocide worse than some words in some books?
Geez Louise, have any of you overly sensitive PC snowflakes picked up a copy of the Old Testament? Bet you take your kids to Sunday school where they here the child friendly story of a guy called Noah and his adventures.


Any books or films out there that refer to Caucasians as whitey, honky or cracker out there? Or refers to heterosexuals as cis-gendered breeders?
That's racist/bigoted, they need to all be burned...... Oh wait racism and equality is a one way street I forgot.

Seriously here do we draw the line?

I am Australian and I read Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn as a kid and understood it then better than many adults, sadly, seem to understand it today and I like many others turned out just fine.
If anything reading such things and understanding the context of them correctly contributed to shaping me into being a decent human being imho. It didn't make me racist and burn crosses. (Then again I actually take the time to read and understand things before I criticise them)
As others have said, you have to consider the time period and the books reflect the lifestyle of said times.
Let us modernise these books? What you want Huck Finn going to Jim: :Yo dawg, whitey gonna cap you, I got yo back my nigga"

Seems that is ironically acceptable talk in the modern U.S of A looking at U.S media and entertainment.
Seriously how would you modernise it? How would you rewrite it to convey the message of the racial divide back then? Give us an example.

Insert something about learning from our mistakes instead of repeating them.
And people wonder why many are getting sick of the PC, SJW's and lack of common sense and intelligent thinking in this world. Honestly if you need your kids to be hidden from reality, wrap them up in cotton wool and home school them and make their bedrooms playdoh and crayon filled safe spaces. Then wonder why they're stupid, out of touch with reality with a billion social issues and cry when someone remotely criticises them.

Meh, you do-gooders to quote The Offspring: Don't want to save the world like you say, in it for yourself and no-one else.

Changing and saving the world for you people is liking a cancer awareness post on Facebook or crying when you do not get your way and little else.
Oh but when the shoe is on the other foot....... we get marvellous displays of hypocrisy.

Oh can I now get my ATS trophy because I participated in this thread and we're all winners these days!!!!

a reply to: AtomicKangaroo
Of course!

a reply to: Bedlam

I first read Huck Finn when I was ten, forty plus years ago...after being introduced to him, sort of, in Tom Sawyer. After four decades plus, I still remember that lesson.

Why people want to avoid learning this lesson, that literature has as much to teach us as any history book, is quite beyond my ken.

To learn somethings about slavery you don't just read a history book--you read Uncle Toms Cabin, you read Huckleberry Finn, and a host of other lesser known works.

To learn about a people you read their literature, to learn about people and why they are the way they are today, you must have working knowledge of their history, literature helps with that, in subtle, and not so subtle ways.

Why people refuse to acknowledge that is, and has always been, puzzling.

a reply to: AtomicKangaroo

I just do not understand it. Both books are strongly and openly against racism. And should be censored because "language"?

On personal level both books formed my world view and I think in good direction.

And there is something what I call disnyefication: Myths are "modernized" to ... sanitized advertising.

Last line for Annee:
I'm leftist. I'm Marxist. I'm anarchist. What you are standing for have nothing to do with progression of humankind. US notion of cultural Marxism (aka neomarxism) is pure joke. Droids repeating some phrases without knowing of its meaning ... Heil Hillary.

You should be ashamed. In your age ... My mom is bit older, she is typical bourgeoisie girl, but she would fiercely disagree with you. Those are the best books ever written. It is classic because it have global understanding.

Do you want your sibling to be ashamed by European pupil just because he/she read something what was banned by you? Knowledge of those books is sign of literacy - I suppose every US intellectual should know those books. And both books are truly world cultural heritage.

originally posted by: JanAmosComenius

I'm leftist. I'm Marxist. I'm anarchist. What you are standing for have nothing to do with progression of humankind. US notion of cultural Marxism (aka neomarxism) is pure joke. Droids repeating some phrases without knowing of its meaning ... Heil Hillary.

Right on the money.

I am personally sick of these censorships and bans being associated with left wing ideology. They simply are not. But that should surprise no one, because by the standards that matter the Democrat party of the US is a right wing organisation.

Well, maybe it is time to stop teaching To Kill a Mockingbird in school. After all, Harper Lee did recently finish the sequel, Go Set a Watchman. Yes, I think we should teach the sequel instead now.

a reply to: TrueBrit

No, it's seldom an issue of left vs right. Or even wrong vs right. It's about over reaction.

You're told, over and over and over again that this word is bad, or that word is bad, so when you discover that or this word, in a work of fiction that are classics of literature--works that, in reality, expose just why those words are considered bad, your first reaction is "my kids don't need to read that", which is, of course, the parents decision...it's when they try to make that decision for other peoples kids that the stuff begins to hit the fan.

I would wager good money that this lady has neither read, nor understood the context, of either of these works.

Over reaction.