WA: Six books forbidden, 10 restricted by schools across state

[rainbow4321]

A few of the restricted: "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,"
"Of Mice and Men," "Snow Falling on Cedars," "The Face on the Milk Carton,"


http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/212002_ebooks15.html

Sex, profanity and religion were the main reasons books were challenged or banned in schools across the state, according to a study by AccessNorthwest at Washington State University.

Banned books were physically removed from the library or classroom. Restricted books remained but could not be accessed by all students or were not freely available on the shelves.

Religion was also cited in some challenges, and usually the content was viewed as anti-Christian. That included content on the occult or witchcraft, such as the Harry Potter series.

But in Tukwila, Muslim students challenged "The Inferno" by Dante Alighieri because of the Christian doctrine and because of a reference to the prophet Muhammad being in hell. After a review, the district decided to keep the book.

[RBHam]

1. It's all been done before...

[acmavm]

2. This is an object lesson in ignorance AND discrimination:

"The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn," "Of Mice and Men," "Snow Falling on Cedars," "The Face on the Milk Carton," are banned.
What a bunch of assholes.

But at the same time:
But in Tukwila, Muslim students challenged "The Inferno" by Dante Alighieri because of the Christian doctrine and because of a reference to the prophet Muhammad being in hell. After a review, the district decided to keep the book.

I hate ignorance, and I can't tolerate ignorant people. I'm finding myself becoming more intolerant of more and more people every day. You almost have to run an add in the newspaper to find someone capable of carrying on an intelligent conversation. That's why I love this place. The ignorance level here is lower than pretty much anywhere else.

[no_hypocrisy]

3. How about banning the Bible (both of 'em) b/c of the sex & violence?

Unfit for impressionable young minds.

[Feathered Fish]

4. Great, now a bunch of kids will never learn about critical thinking

Give me a fucking break - did you notice that there was a challenge to a biology textbook :eyes:
And the decision about Dante's 'Inferno' reeks of anti-muslim bias. To think I read 'A Clockwork Orange' in a grade 10 English class.

[Richard Steele]

5. I never fail to sigh...

...when I hear that someone has yet again banned "Huckleberry Finn".

Of course, a 'classic' tome of Xtian propaganda which claims that Muhammed is burning in hell is just FINE with these asshats.

*sigh*

[noonwitch]

6. What is the objection to "Huckelberry Finn", anyways?

There's no sex or major violence. Is it the use of the n word?

I read "Of Mice And Men" and "The Adventures of Huckelberry Finn" in high school lit classes. The other two, I'm not familiar with. "Of Mice And Men" does have violence and sex, but it's not written in graphic terms. The message is about a man with the mind of a child, and how he doesn't understand things like sex and violence.

Dante is important reading, but it really doesn't need to be read at a high school level unless it is an advanced placement class. It should still be available in the school library.

My high school was in a pretty conservative community. We never read "The Catcher In The Rye" or "A Clockwork Orange" in school, but both were available in the school library. I did read "Brave New World" in a class-there's plenty of sexual references and weirdness in that one, too.

I say screw the fanatics and teach kids more Shakespeare. People rarely object to it (except catholic schools, I hear, won't teach "Romeo and Juliet"), his work expresses ideas and beliefs that influence our culture to this day, and it's good for the kids' language development. I read "Romeo And Juliet" in 9th grade, "The Taming of The Shrew" in 10th, "Twelfth Night" in 11th and "Henry IV, Part Two" in the 12th. They could have easily added "Julius Ceasar", "Hamlet", "MacBeth" and a couple more of the comedies to the curriculum.

[Igel]

11. I think it was viewed as portraying African-Americans in

a racist, stereotypical fashion.

Each side has it's boogeymen.

[Old and In the Way]

7. Why stop there?

I'll bet, with a little hard work, they could ban 98% of all books. The 2% left would not be worth the time to read. Then our children's minds would be safe and secure to watch TV.

[readmylips]

8. Burn the bible first...

in ancient times, girls were married as early at 12 years old to help enrich the family. Twelve year old of today are not getting married but they for sure love that oral and anal sex.

[Zenlitened]

9. Pay careful attention to this meme:

...the content was viewed as anti-Christian. That included content on the occult or witchcraft, such as the Harry Potter series.

The content is not merely NON-christian. No, another belief system (even as fiction!) is somehow immediately morphed into "ANTI-christian."

That's one of the hallmarks of fundamentalism. Co-existence is not possible. Anything different is the enemy, and must be labeled as such.

:crazy:

[sinkingfeeling]

10. It's totally disgusting. I read everything as a child, including

"Andersonville", which had such graphic sexual content that I had to get out a dictionary to understand what was going on! I read it at the age of 12. Think it's the current ACLU magazine that lists the 100 top banned books in the USA. I'm taking it to the local library and checking out every one of them!!

Edited to correct word.