OT School district pulls 'To Kill A Mockingbird' from reading list; 'makes people uncomfortable'

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SlyPokerDog

SlyPokerDog

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By The Associated Press

"To Kill a Mockingbird" is being removed from a junior-high reading list in a Mississippi school district.

The Sun Herald reports that Biloxi administrators pulled the novel from the 8th-grade curriculum this week. School board vice president Kenny Holloway says the district received complaints that some of the book's language "makes people uncomfortable."

Published in 1960, the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Harper Lee deals with racial inequality in a small Alabama town.

A message on the school's website says "To Kill A Mockingbird" teaches students that compassion and empathy don't depend upon race or education. Holloway says other books can teach the same lessons.

http://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/2017/10/mississippi_school_district_pu.html
 
Lets pull everything that makes anyone uncomfortable. Now introducing the new school system where kids have a little cubby that they sit in all day doing nothing and hearing nothing. Teachers cannot punish kids nor can they actually talk to them all because some parent might get offended by something the teacher does.
 
Rhal said:
Lets pull everything that makes anyone uncomfortable. Now introducing the new school system where kids have a little cubby that they sit in all day doing nothing and hearing nothing. Teachers cannot punish kids nor can they actually talk to them all because some parent might get offended by something the teacher does.
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#ittakesavillage
#nochildleftbehind
 
SlyPokerDog said:
#WeAreTalkingAboutMississippi
#NoBanjoShallBeSilenced
#MakeOurCurriculumWhiteAgain
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Um, you know it's because of the N-word, right? Somehow, I don't think your genericized redneck banjo-playing hillbillies care about using the n-word in a 50 year-old book.
the Link you posted said:
Sun Herald received a email from a concerned reader who said the decision was made “mid-lesson plan, the students will not be allowed to finish the reading of ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’ .... due to the use of the ‘N’ word.”
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It started in Virginia, that bastion of rebel banjos...because of a complaint by a "mother of a biracial teenager". Who got people to believe that at this point in our history, it's "hard to read racist language. "

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2...d-virginia-schools-racist-language-harper-lee
To Kill a Mockingbird and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn have been suspended from the curriculum in some Virginia schools, after a parent complained about the use of racial slurs.
Harper Lee and Mark Twain’s literary classics were removed from classrooms in Accomack County, in Virginia after a formal complaint was made by the mother of a biracial teenager. At the centre of the complaint was the use of the N-word, which appears frequently in both titles.
The woman who made the complaint said her son struggled to read the racist language, telling the Accomack County public schools board: “There’s so much racial slurs and defensive wording in there that you can’t get past that.” The challenge also appears to be motivated by the current political landscape in the US, as the mother told the board: “Right now, we are a nation divided as it is.”
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I mean, in this thread you seemed to think that this was a good book...yet you're cool with people claiming that it's racist and needs to be censored?

Social Justice Warriors trying out out-PC each other, instead of using the book as -- gasp! -- a teaching moment...and now there start to be repercussions.

(Edit: not saying you are a SJW, that this mom and these people on the school board responding to a complaint or two by changing curriculum 'mid-stream' are, to the detriment of our students and future.)
 
BrianFromWA said:
I mean, in this thread you seemed to think that this was a good book...yet you're cool with people claiming that it's racist and needs to be censored?

Social Justice Warriors trying out out-PC each other, instead of using the book as -- gasp! -- a teaching moment...and now there start to be repercussions.

(Edit: not saying you are a SJW, that this mom and these people on the school board responding to a complaint or two by changing curriculum 'mid-stream' are, to the detriment of our students and future.)
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I'm sorry, I thought we were having fun with hashtags that added nothing to the OP.

To Kill A Mockingbird isn't a good book, it's one of the great books in American literature. If that makes me a snowflake or racist or faggot or whatever, I don't really care.
 
I wasn't really having fun...more pointing out that actions have consequences. In this case, allowing the feelings of students "having trouble reading" to get curricula (based on "great works in American literature") tossed out of schools imparts too much power on a vocal minority (#nochildleftbehind , one of whose core criticisms is "Those who control the schools control the future."). Or the danger in having school boards taking a role in how Jr High Schoolers deal with "the current political landscape" instead of how they learn American Lit. (#ittakesavillage "captures perfectly Clinton’s vision of a multicultural America working toward a constructive goal - WaPo; emphasizes the shared responsibility that society has for successfully raising children" - Wiki)


If that makes me a snowflake or racist or faggot or whatever, I don't really care.
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I feel like you just joined the Dark Denny Side and don't know it. ;) It puts you on the side of those who don't really care that a bi-racial junior high-schooler's mom thinks it's "hard for him to read" those words. It says it's not ok to ban one of the great books in American literature b/c a couple of moms felt bad and SJW school boards think it's ok to appease them, or that a school board bent on whitewashing history through guilt over the n-word is not the model to follow on how we should heal our racial divides.
 
SlyPokerDog said:
I'm sorry, I thought we were having fun with hashtags that added nothing to the OP.

To Kill A Mockingbird isn't a good book, it's one of the great books in American literature. If that makes me a snowflake or racist or faggot or whatever, I don't really care.
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Gonna ban this post there too. Made me uncomfortable.
 
A proper education should make kids uncomfortable with how groups have treated each other in the past, as well as how they treat each other currently. Learning from past mistakes is the only way to improve the future.
 
I knew students who said math made them uncomfortable.

I wasn't one of them.
 
Shit post of a book.
 
Score 1 for Brian.

My initial reaction is that it is one of the great books (and movies, too). It's AMERICAN, through and through. It spoke to the most serious of issues of race in the time of segregation.

You've got people from the most racist of places back then saying they want the book removed because of the N word? It's a sign of how far we've come.
 
When I was 13 my father gave me The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich to read.

It is very explicit.

Some things are lost in the fog of memory over the years, but I remember the basics. And one quote I can still recall verbatim, from a man who survived the death camps.

My mother was gassed, my sister was hanged, and my father was beaten to death before my eyes - 30 days before the end of the war.
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I guess you could say that book made me uncomfortable.
 
dviss1 said:
Makes who uncomfortable, white people?

Ask me how comfortable I was watching Roots while being the only black person in class. This is some bullshit.
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As me how comfortable I was when we were told to sing "Oh Come All ye Faithful" and "Babe in the Manger".
 
How do we learn from the past if we hide or conceal it?

Besides, if the argument is about comfort..... kids nowadays need some discomfort in their lives. They can avoid discomfort and awkwardness at every turn thanks to technology and social media. Ya know, back when I was in high school, I had to, ya know, actually ask a girl out in person. Or at least ask for her number and then call her and talk in person. Not send a text.
 
dviss1 said:
Makes who uncomfortable, white people?

Ask me how comfortable I was watching Roots while being the only black person in class. This is some bullshit.
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I don't know what is behind this but I do know that most movies about uncomfortable parts of our history have an awesome white guy who was ahead of his time and fought for civil rights for black guys. Or a sweet white loving teacher to teach the kids in the ghetto.

Makes white people feel better.

I really need to watch Roots again. Been decades.
 
bodyman5000 and 1 said:
I don't know what is behind this but I do know that most movies about uncomfortable parts of our history have an awesome white guy who was ahead of his time and fought for civil rights for black guys. Or a sweet white loving teacher to teach the kids in the ghetto.

Makes white people feel better.

I really need to watch Roots again. Been decades.
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Ahhh the white savior...
 
I didn't think Kevin Costner was too over the top in Hidden Figures. He just seemed like he didn't give a shit who does something as long as they do it right.
 
dviss1 said:
It can irritate you as much. Make it irritate you until they stop.
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I wouldn'tt generally watch movies in that genre. Now that we have the projector we watch almost everything.

They'll make 500 movies about Harvey Weinstein if they make money off of them.

I remember all those years ago why I didn't like Brokeback Mountain. Not because there were gay cowboys, no it was because everyone told me beforehand.

I mention that because I don't care about movie's preaching or not. Just want them to be good.
 
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