Wednesday, May 24, 2006

God forbid we actually let the kids talk about stuff that matters in a controlled environment.


Over on Bookshelves of Doom Leila has been tracking some of the recent censorship attempts. In particular Illinois. Board Member Leslie Pinney has petitioned for nine titles on the required reading list of District 214 to be removed. The titles?

The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
The Awakening by Kate Chopin
The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
Beloved by Toni Morrison
Freakonomics by Steven Leavitt
The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World by Michael Pollan
Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers
How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents by Julia Alvarez.


Now, I've only read two of the books (bad librarian. Can you guess which ones?), but Pinney hasn't read any. Now there's a online petition to save the books. Well, the first seven at least. I don't know why the last two aren't on the list. I have many a latent diatribe, but I'll leave it at this: I'm #437. You?

(thanks Leila and AS IF!)

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Isn't that what the public forum is all about? Censor things so that kids have nothing to think about or debate. After all, as the outrage over new high school standards in Michigan have proven, kids are just a bunch of idiots. We should definately not push the whole learning thing. That about covers it right?