‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ Removed From Mississippi School Curriculum; "Uncomfortable"

a reply to: tigertatzen

Tomato tomato.

This is scary stuff. Fahrenheit 451 by Bradbury scary stuff. ...and the Wizard of Oz

My love of reading started with The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. In 2nd grade I started reading that book and ended up reading the five or six of the series they had on the shelf. I'd look up words I did not understand and that series of books is what led me to reach a high school level reading ability by 5th grade, which helped me all through school.

What in the hell is wrong with people! "Uncomfortable"!!!! This current crop of kids will be so fragile, so easily offended I can't imagine what a mess their heads will be in as adults. More proof we are devolving, not evolving as a society.

a reply to: DBCowboy

This is how fragile freedom is.

With a simple majority vote, censorship can become commonplace.

What happened to talking to the teacher and maybe having your easily uncomfortable kid read See Spot Run so as no to cause those nightmares.

Really, really sad stuff. We're heading down a road with this garbage that we may not be able to back-track.

I was about 8 or 9 years old and I was already reading books from the adult sections in the library. I'd read anything. HIstory, science, biographies, novels, and even science magazines. I even read Mein Kampf as a kid. I've read every single one of those books they're looking to ban or sanitize. Fortunately for me, reading them didn't make me into some sort of gibbering idiot looking for offense and racism where none was intended, nor did I become a hard-core alt-right white supremacist.

Idiocy at its finest. Let's just pretend nothing bad ever happened anywhere in the US. No offensive books were ever written. All sunshine and lollypops.

People like this remind me of the stupidity over Harry Potter. My oldest came home crying one day because the mother of one of their friends told her she would burn in hell for reading those books and she needed to stop. I was furious and my kids never went back to that house again. Ignorance and close-mindedness.

originally posted by: DBCowboy
a reply to: seasonal

So they aren't banning it outright, but slowly.

Incrementally.

Yeah.

Just like "it was just one flag".

Nope. The students are still free to read it in the library. Heck the teachers can give students extra credit for book report on TKAM.

a reply to: Deaf Alien

Segregated and omitted from the districts curriculum may be a more accurate term.

But yes it is still available at the library-for now.

a reply to: seasonal

But yes it is still available at the library-for now.

People have always talked like that for years and years. They have tried to "ban" many books, including Harry Potter (people from the far right of all people, believe it or not). And yet they are freely available in libraries. No censorship. Nothing. Schools everywhere still use those books.

The book isn't banned, it's just been removed from the "required" list. I doubt any student is heartbroken that they aren't required to read this. This is not censorship, any student who wants to read it is still more than welcome to.

Stop overreacting to everything, jeez.

originally posted by: Deaf Alien
a reply to: seasonal

But yes it is still available at the library-for now.

People have always talked like that for years and years. They have tried to "ban" many books, including Harry Potter (people from the far right of all people, believe it or not). And yet they are freely available in libraries. No censorship. Nothing. Schools everywhere still use those books.

OOPS
VA School Pulls ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’, ‘Huck Finn’ From Shelves
baltimore.cbslocal.com...

a reply to: seasonal

Bit by bit, one school, one district at a time.

Sad how people cling to censorship.

a reply to: seasonal

1 school nearly a year ago. This is hardly an epidemic.

originally posted by: seasonal

originally posted by: Deaf Alien
a reply to: seasonal

But yes it is still available at the library-for now.

People have always talked like that for years and years. They have tried to "ban" many books, including Harry Potter (people from the far right of all people, believe it or not). And yet they are freely available in libraries. No censorship. Nothing. Schools everywhere still use those books.

OOPS
VA School Pulls ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’, ‘Huck Finn’ From Shelves
baltimore.cbslocal.com...

wavy.com...
www.washingtontimes.com...

a reply to: Deaf Alien

D'oh!

sorry, you're making a mountain out of a molehill here, the book is still available -- it's just not required reading. if they feel they can't teach the book with the appropriate context and nuance to make the problematic parts accessible for that grade level, then it's an appropriate decision. i certainly remember some classmates who ignored the lessons of TKAM and Huckleberry Finn and were just delighted to have an 'official' reason to use the N-word.

a reply to: Deaf Alien

So you agree they were censored?

originally posted by: windword

originally posted by: TerryMcGuire
a reply to: seasonal

I wonder if the '' uncomfortableness'' was due to the depiction of racial inequality present at that time or the use of racial slang used in the book to expose it.

Yep. I wonder if Huckleberry Finn is next?

It came to mind here as well. www.youtube.com...

a reply to: seasonal

Hardly, they're still on the shelves after a vote to keep them there.

originally posted by: seasonal
a reply to: Deaf Alien

So you agree they were censored?

I never agreed with the removal of any book from libraries.
You do agree that they were never banned in the first place? Those two books are on the shelves permanently.

Despite its themes, To Kill a Mockingbird has been subject to campaigns for removal from public classrooms, often challenged for its use of racial epithets.

Wikipedia

While I don't particularly care for the "racial epithets" in question, I believe they are central to the racial inequality theme of the book.

Yes, it's uncomfortable. And it should be uncomfortable.

“Those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it.” ― Edmund Burke

-dex

a reply to: 3NL1GHT3N3D1

....After being removed or banned.