I really don’t think that Idaho’s arch-Conservatives will be happy until everything they deem unworthy can be purged from their make believe happy lands.
Books have schools in a bind
Evaluation of required reading limits classroom options in CdAMargie Wise’s son did not enjoy reading until his senior year at Coeur d’Alene High School, when he took a literature class that engrossed him in conversation about books like "Brave New World" and "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance."
"He would come home and say, ‘I love my English class; we have the best discussions,’ " Wise said. "He would say, ‘It is the best way to end my day.’ From a kid who’s not academic and who is not a reader, that warms a mom’s heart."
Another Coeur d’Alene mother, however, said her ninth-grade daughter was uncomfortable reading two books she was assigned in English class. The books contain profanity and sexually explicit situations inappropriate for a minor, said the girl’s mother, Mary Jo Finney.
"I don’t think that’s necessary to teach minors," Finney said. "Their feeling is everything is acceptable, and it’s not."
[...]
"Please, give us back our books!" high school English teacher Paul W. Swartz lamented in a Sept. 5 letter to the editor. "As a junior and senior English teacher I have only five novels to choose from besides my textbook! We have removed 78 books from our high schools and 39 from our middle schools. How does this removal of books promote the district’s goal of literacy?"
These are the kind of people who would ban "Lord of the Flies" and "To Kill a Mockingbird" if they could.
I gotta say, the books noted in the article are both two excellent books — "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" is one of those books that can change your life if you let it. In fact, "Zen" was never on any required book list when I was in school, one of my English teachers who I spent a great deal of time with recommended that I read it over a summer break.
"Paradise Lost", "Songs of the Doomed", "Meetings with Remarkable Men", "The Natural Mind" plus many, many others are all books that had a profound impact on my life as an adolescent because they made me think differently.
If you’re so interested here is a list of the "100 Most Frequently Challenged Books from 1990-2000".
Great thinkers read widely!