Just got disturbing email regarding English class for my rising freshman

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My daughter read a book last year where the plot centered on a high schooler getting sexually assaulted.

Ugh. Was it Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson?

yes

Can you share how your child handled that book? What are your thoughts as a parent?

She liked it. I don’t really care about the content, but I wish they would read actual literature and classics.

Yes same.

Why? They're not English majors. The goal is to get them to read and to think critically. In 9th and 10th grade they're 14 and 15; a books that can get them interested and relate to them is a good choice.

The class is English, not the classics. There are a lot of ways to approach it.


-Literature Professor. .

Yeah but they’re not really thinking cirtically about these modern, woke books, I’m sorry. The current curriculum is weak.

Of course they are. Do you even have kids in HS?

Yes. That’s why I know this to be true. I can see the assignments and hear from my kids what is going on. English is now a joke.

Which HS?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was a double STEM/English Lit major in college. For my Lit major I read literature from the 1300s in Middle English (Piers Plowman) to books that were new at the time (Atonement and Never Let Me Go).

I also read plenty of books in college that had disturbing content, like The Collector and Regeneration.

Just reading the classics wouldn't give you a particularly well rounded education, you'd be missing out on a lot.

In college.
In COLLEGE you read these books.
From someone who finds this book to be wildly inappropriate for my 14-year-old, I will agree with you that she *should* read aalllll the books in college! As an adult. Over 18.
Even the ones that make her “uncomfortable.”
Maybe even *especially* those.
But grooming younger teens IS a thing. And we need to be mindful, aware, discretionary, and vigilant about how and on what context sexually explicit material is introduced to our students BY ADULTS, and how and in what context they are encouraged to DISCUSS sexually explicit and even erotic passages with other minor peers with adults so that the blurring of adult/CHILD boundaries are not normalized in a way that is harmful to CHILDREN.
We aren’t talking about a BAN.
We are taking about selecting books that contain many different sexually explicit passages that are not appropriate for 14-year-old CHILDREN.

Huge difference.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know this a FFX thread but my kid is in Falls Church City and as a 9th grader read:
- The Hate U Give
- Make Lemonade
- Romeo and Juliet
- The Odyssey
- Of Mice and Men
- To Kill a Mockingbird
- Ender’s Game (independent read chosen out of 10, I think choices)
- Never Let Me Go (ditto)

I think that is a pretty balanced list!

Off topic—but as someone who opted their kid out of reading the Poet X book ( just too graphic), I wish my 9th grader would have been assigned to read more than just four books all year long.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was a double STEM/English Lit major in college. For my Lit major I read literature from the 1300s in Middle English (Piers Plowman) to books that were new at the time (Atonement and Never Let Me Go).

I also read plenty of books in college that had disturbing content, like The Collector and Regeneration.

Just reading the classics wouldn't give you a particularly well rounded education, you'd be missing out on a lot.

In college.
In COLLEGE you read these books.
From someone who finds this book to be wildly inappropriate for my 14-year-old, I will agree with you that she *should* read aalllll the books in college! As an adult. Over 18.
Even the ones that make her “uncomfortable.”
Maybe even *especially* those.
But grooming younger teens IS a thing. And we need to be mindful, aware, discretionary, and vigilant about how and on what context sexually explicit material is introduced to our students BY ADULTS, and how and in what context they are encouraged to DISCUSS sexually explicit and even erotic passages with other minor peers with adults so that the blurring of adult/CHILD boundaries are not normalized in a way that is harmful to CHILDREN.
We aren’t talking about a BAN.
We are taking about selecting books that contain many different sexually explicit passages that are not appropriate for 14-year-old CHILDREN.

Huge difference.

+1 yep. We don’t need 14 year olds being introduced to this inappropriate crap on the name of “different points of view”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know this a FFX thread but my kid is in Falls Church City and as a 9th grader read:
- The Hate U Give
- Make Lemonade
- Romeo and Juliet
- The Odyssey
- Of Mice and Men
- To Kill a Mockingbird
- Ender’s Game (independent read chosen out of 10, I think choices)
- Never Let Me Go (ditto)

I think that is a pretty balanced list!

Off topic—but as someone who opted their kid out of reading the Poet X book ( just too graphic), I wish my 9th grader would have been assigned to read more than just four books all year long.

Can we also opt out of the sexual assault book?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know this a FFX thread but my kid is in Falls Church City and as a 9th grader read:
- The Hate U Give
- Make Lemonade
- Romeo and Juliet
- The Odyssey
- Of Mice and Men
- To Kill a Mockingbird
- Ender’s Game (independent read chosen out of 10, I think choices)
- Never Let Me Go (ditto)

I think that is a pretty balanced list!

Off topic—but as someone who opted their kid out of reading the Poet X book ( just too graphic), I wish my 9th grader would have been assigned to read more than just four books all year long.

serious question - how does your child feel about you opting them out? I can't imagine treating my teen like a little kid like that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was a double STEM/English Lit major in college. For my Lit major I read literature from the 1300s in Middle English (Piers Plowman) to books that were new at the time (Atonement and Never Let Me Go).

I also read plenty of books in college that had disturbing content, like The Collector and Regeneration.

Just reading the classics wouldn't give you a particularly well rounded education, you'd be missing out on a lot.

In college.
In COLLEGE you read these books.
From someone who finds this book to be wildly inappropriate for my 14-year-old, I will agree with you that she *should* read aalllll the books in college! As an adult. Over 18.
Even the ones that make her “uncomfortable.”
Maybe even *especially* those.
But grooming younger teens IS a thing. And we need to be mindful, aware, discretionary, and vigilant about how and on what context sexually explicit material is introduced to our students BY ADULTS, and how and in what context they are encouraged to DISCUSS sexually explicit and even erotic passages with other minor peers with adults so that the blurring of adult/CHILD boundaries are not normalized in a way that is harmful to CHILDREN.
We aren’t talking about a BAN.
We are taking about selecting books that contain many different sexually explicit passages that are not appropriate for 14-year-old CHILDREN.

Huge difference.

“Grooming”?

JFC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was a double STEM/English Lit major in college. For my Lit major I read literature from the 1300s in Middle English (Piers Plowman) to books that were new at the time (Atonement and Never Let Me Go).

I also read plenty of books in college that had disturbing content, like The Collector and Regeneration.

Just reading the classics wouldn't give you a particularly well rounded education, you'd be missing out on a lot.

In college.
In COLLEGE you read these books.
From someone who finds this book to be wildly inappropriate for my 14-year-old, I will agree with you that she *should* read aalllll the books in college! As an adult. Over 18.
Even the ones that make her “uncomfortable.”
Maybe even *especially* those.
But grooming younger teens IS a thing. And we need to be mindful, aware, discretionary, and vigilant about how and on what context sexually explicit material is introduced to our students BY ADULTS, and how and in what context they are encouraged to DISCUSS sexually explicit and even erotic passages with other minor peers with adults so that the blurring of adult/CHILD boundaries are not normalized in a way that is harmful to CHILDREN.
We aren’t talking about a BAN.
We are taking about selecting books that contain many different sexually explicit passages that are not appropriate for 14-year-old CHILDREN.

Huge difference.

“Grooming”?

JFC.

Yes, grooming. I’m sure you’ve heard of it. Go talk to the Langley football coach.

[Anonymous]

Can we have one set of books for white bread milquetoast UMC suburban snowflakes, and a different set of books for people who live outside the gates?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was a double STEM/English Lit major in college. For my Lit major I read literature from the 1300s in Middle English (Piers Plowman) to books that were new at the time (Atonement and Never Let Me Go).

I also read plenty of books in college that had disturbing content, like The Collector and Regeneration.

Just reading the classics wouldn't give you a particularly well rounded education, you'd be missing out on a lot.

In college.
In COLLEGE you read these books.
From someone who finds this book to be wildly inappropriate for my 14-year-old, I will agree with you that she *should* read aalllll the books in college! As an adult. Over 18.
Even the ones that make her “uncomfortable.”
Maybe even *especially* those.
But grooming younger teens IS a thing. And we need to be mindful, aware, discretionary, and vigilant about how and on what context sexually explicit material is introduced to our students BY ADULTS, and how and in what context they are encouraged to DISCUSS sexually explicit and even erotic passages with other minor peers with adults so that the blurring of adult/CHILD boundaries are not normalized in a way that is harmful to CHILDREN.
We aren’t talking about a BAN.
We are taking about selecting books that contain many different sexually explicit passages that are not appropriate for 14-year-old CHILDREN.

Huge difference.

“Grooming”?

JFC.

Yes, grooming. I’m sure you’ve heard of it. Go talk to the Langley football coach.

I have heard of grooming. I just can't figure out how we think that The Poet X, in which the protagonist speaks out against groping and catcalling and physical violence against LGBT, and decides not to have sex and asserts that right is the book a groomer could pick when they have options like R & J in which an older male climbs in the window of a 13 year old who he just met that day, and has sex with her, or Never Let Me Go which is an entire book about grooming teenagers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My daughter read a book last year where the plot centered on a high schooler getting sexually assaulted.

Ugh. Was it Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson?

yes

Can you share how your child handled that book? What are your thoughts as a parent?

She liked it. I don’t really care about the content, but I wish they would read actual literature and classics.

Yes same.

Why? They're not English majors. The goal is to get them to read and to think critically. In 9th and 10th grade they're 14 and 15; a books that can get them interested and relate to them is a good choice.

The class is English, not the classics. There are a lot of ways to approach it.


-Literature Professor. .

Yeah but they’re not really thinking cirtically about these modern, woke books, I’m sorry. The current curriculum is weak.

If schools aren’t teaching kids to read critically, that’s a separate issue that needs to be fixed. I can tell you as a former teacher who has taught Scarlett Letter, that plenty of people have studied classic literature in high school without being taught how to think about it. The number of people who say they read the book in high school and it’s about how bad adultery is, is mind boggling.

"Of Pence I have had enough!"

Seriously though, a lot of the classics are bad for high school because *these books weren't written for a youth audience*, and not written for an audience *100 years in the future*. The kids aren't ready to understand them. Hard to read doesn't make them good, even for gifted kids. The classics are less meaningful every year.
We need modern literature that casts a light on modern issues.

These books weren't written to be history. They were current events.

Even The Crucible, ostensibly a period piece, was actually about current events.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was a double STEM/English Lit major in college. For my Lit major I read literature from the 1300s in Middle English (Piers Plowman) to books that were new at the time (Atonement and Never Let Me Go).

I also read plenty of books in college that had disturbing content, like The Collector and Regeneration.

Just reading the classics wouldn't give you a particularly well rounded education, you'd be missing out on a lot.

In college.
In COLLEGE you read these books.
From someone who finds this book to be wildly inappropriate for my 14-year-old, I will agree with you that she *should* read aalllll the books in college! As an adult. Over 18.
Even the ones that make her “uncomfortable.”
Maybe even *especially* those.
But grooming younger teens IS a thing. And we need to be mindful, aware, discretionary, and vigilant about how and on what context sexually explicit material is introduced to our students BY ADULTS, and how and in what context they are encouraged to DISCUSS sexually explicit and even erotic passages with other minor peers with adults so that the blurring of adult/CHILD boundaries are not normalized in a way that is harmful to CHILDREN.
We aren’t talking about a BAN.
We are taking about selecting books that contain many different sexually explicit passages that are not appropriate for 14-year-old CHILDREN.

Huge difference.

“Grooming”?

JFC.

Yes, grooming. I’m sure you’ve heard of it. Go talk to the Langley football coach.

I have heard of grooming. I just can't figure out how we think that The Poet X, in which the protagonist speaks out against groping and catcalling and physical violence against LGBT, and decides not to have sex and asserts that right is the book a groomer could pick when they have options like R & J in which an older male climbs in the window of a 13 year old who he just met that day, and has sex with her, or Never Let Me Go which is an entire book about grooming teenagers.

Romeo's age is never stated, but there's no reason to assume he's more than 2 years older than Juliet. That's not grooming.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was a double STEM/English Lit major in college. For my Lit major I read literature from the 1300s in Middle English (Piers Plowman) to books that were new at the time (Atonement and Never Let Me Go).

I also read plenty of books in college that had disturbing content, like The Collector and Regeneration.

Just reading the classics wouldn't give you a particularly well rounded education, you'd be missing out on a lot.

In college.
In COLLEGE you read these books.
From someone who finds this book to be wildly inappropriate for my 14-year-old, I will agree with you that she *should* read aalllll the books in college! As an adult. Over 18.
Even the ones that make her “uncomfortable.”
Maybe even *especially* those.
But grooming younger teens IS a thing. And we need to be mindful, aware, discretionary, and vigilant about how and on what context sexually explicit material is introduced to our students BY ADULTS, and how and in what context they are encouraged to DISCUSS sexually explicit and even erotic passages with other minor peers with adults so that the blurring of adult/CHILD boundaries are not normalized in a way that is harmful to CHILDREN.
We aren’t talking about a BAN.
We are taking about selecting books that contain many different sexually explicit passages that are not appropriate for 14-year-old CHILDREN.

Huge difference.

You're unhinged. Go touch grass.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's the new normal now. So stupid.

We don't censor media in our house.

Somehow I doubt you have copies of Penthouse just lying around “for the articles” but hey—I could be wrong. Maybe sharing erotica with your teens around the kitchen table is a thing for your family, but it isn’t really something we embrace nor is it something I want a teacher introducing my teen child to in an academic classroom.
I just think there are about a hundred other non-erotica non-explicit non-profane books that can be selected to teach the same concepts.
And this particular book can have its place on the library shelf alongside Judy Blume’s Forever and EL James’ Fifty Shades of Gray, where it can be checked out by students who are curious or passed around in whispers and giggles among peers who get a thrill out of scandalizing one another. Aa optional reading, it’s just one of “those” books that will invite gasps and wide eyes. As classroom material, it’s unnecessary. And the parts that are objectionable really do read like an x-rated dirty magazine article that any reasonable adult would find questionable for the classroom at best and wholly inappropriate at worst.

You're grasping at straws here and completely divorced from reality.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can we have one set of books for white bread milquetoast UMC suburban snowflakes, and a different set of books for people who live outside the gates?

Do you mean, “white bred”? Wish we could have separate English classes for morons.