Just got disturbing email regarding English class for my rising freshman

[Anonymous]

I don't have any issue with that book. My kid read it in middle school.

I also know how high school English teachers run book clubs, for they are trained. Knowing how book clubs are run, I have no problem with almost any book being used in a high school course.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We were reading books like Clan of the Cave Bear, The King Must Die, Mists of Avalon, 100 Years of Solitude, and Unbearable Lightness of Being at my Catholic school in the 90s. And yes, many of those were as Freshmen. Calm down.

Not as class reading.

You were not discussing those books in class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m not a fan of book banning and would let my kid read whatever they wanted and/or was assigned. I read a different Elizabeth Acevedo book and can see where this author uses sexualized language that is worth warning parents about. Curious if it’s in curriculum or an extra the teacher chose?

In FCPS, each school has a wide selection of committee-approved titles from which teachers can choose for their class. The titles chosen generally revolve around a central theme, and teachers usually offer a handful of choices.

The curriculum does not dictate that any one title is used.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Here is my question to any parent worried about what their kid might read in school: does your kid have a phone or a device with the internet on it? If so, your child has EASY access to the most horrific things on it, the worst porn, etc. it is EASY for kids to circumvent parental controls. So, unless you are willing to eliminate phones ,Internet and cable in your house, you are a hypocrite

It’s only a decent analogy if you require them to read porn and then discuss what they read with their peers and write about it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Did none of you go to High School? I'm genuinely confused by these responses.

Confused by this question.
What explicit masturbation scenes did your teachers require you to read in high school?

I went to a small, academically advanced private school. We read a whole host of books, including many with explicit content (I can think of rape, bestiality, incest, and female sexual awakenings, among other content). We didn't read them for the sex - we read them for the complexity of themes and experiences to discuss, as well as the literary style - but the sex was there. Maybe less academic schools weren't focused on complex texts? I'm just shocked other people supposedly weren't reading great works, sex and all, in HS.

Or maybe I'm shocked that masturbation seems taboo to you for teens? I mean - your teen is *definitely* masturbating. And thinking about sex and watching about sex and talking about sex, if they're not already having sex.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unfortunately yes. Teachers are required to alert parents! However, parents can ask for specific titles, read them and opt their child out of any they feel are not appropriate. Teachers are required to provide an alternative assignment and to avoid any action or statement that would be critical of the child or parent.

But if my child is the only one doing the alternative assignment, they won’t be part of any class discussions. How would that work? Won’t it be harder?

It will make more work for the teacher, and your kid won't learn nearly enough, but you'll have saved your kid from the trauma of reading Romeo and Juliet. Plus, it's always fun to embarrass your kid!

It’s not a classic, unfortunately. I would totally be on board with a classic. It’s a woke novel with “masturbation, heavy naked petting,” etc.

woke doesn't mean what you think it means, dumba$$. Have you seriously never engaged in masturbation or heavy petting? Maybe you should.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We were reading books like Clan of the Cave Bear, The King Must Die, Mists of Avalon, 100 Years of Solitude, and Unbearable Lightness of Being at my Catholic school in the 90s. And yes, many of those were as Freshmen. Calm down.

Not as class reading.

You were not discussing those books in class.

Yes, we absolutely were. Every single one of those was required reading.

[Anonymous]

I might ask for an alternate book just to avoid reading a novel in verse, which my kid hates as much as I do.

I'm very left wing, but I'm actually a little disappointed that the schools are trending so hard away from reading the classics. I feel like kids will have lots of opportunities to read the controversial new lit-crit darling books. But when will they read The Grapes of Wrath, or The Crucible, Slaughterhouse Five, or Long Day's Journey Into Night, or anything by Hemingway or Wharton? (Seems like some of the classics, like Ray Bradbury, George Orwell and Toni Morrison continue to be popular among schools.) I subscribe to the "Make New Friends, But Keep the Old" theory of literature -- I feel like we are tossing out all the old friends. It would be easier to mix in the new ones if kids read 6 novels a year, but it seems like a lot of classes really only have 2-3, plus maybe some poems or short stories.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We were reading books like Clan of the Cave Bear, The King Must Die, Mists of Avalon, 100 Years of Solitude, and Unbearable Lightness of Being at my Catholic school in the 90s. And yes, many of those were as Freshmen. Calm down.

Not as class reading.

You were not discussing those books in class.

Yes, we absolutely were. Every single one of those was required reading.

And we had a 100 percent graduation and college attendance rate and sent students to Harvard, Yale, Stanford,. Princeton, etc every year

[Anonymous]

I remember my friend and I sneaking into the library’s Young Adult fiction to read Judy Blume’s “Forever” when I was in the sixth grade. This was after I had asked the children’s librarian why it wasn’t there and she said it was for older girls and not me. Made me go read it faster.

By freshman year, we had read many more books in that section.

Did not make me go out and have sex early. In fact, I was a late bloomer on that front.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We were reading books like Clan of the Cave Bear, The King Must Die, Mists of Avalon, 100 Years of Solitude, and Unbearable Lightness of Being at my Catholic school in the 90s. And yes, many of those were as Freshmen. Calm down.

Not as class reading.

You were not discussing those books in class.

Yes, we absolutely were. Every single one of those was required reading.

I am very curious to know what Catholic school (or any school) was assigning Clan of the Cave Bear as required reading. I mean, that book is pretty trashy. I had a teacher that assigned purely trashy romance novels, but I think she was doing that tbecause she was 100% bored of being a teacher and that was her way of "quiet quitting" back before quiet quitting was a thing. (She was kind of a pioneer that way...).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I might ask for an alternate book just to avoid reading a novel in verse, which my kid hates as much as I do.

I'm very left wing, but I'm actually a little disappointed that the schools are trending so hard away from reading the classics. I feel like kids will have lots of opportunities to read the controversial new lit-crit darling books. But when will they read The Grapes of Wrath, or The Crucible, Slaughterhouse Five, or Long Day's Journey Into Night, or anything by Hemingway or Wharton? (Seems like some of the classics, like Ray Bradbury, George Orwell and Toni Morrison continue to be popular among schools.) I subscribe to the "Make New Friends, But Keep the Old" theory of literature -- I feel like we are tossing out all the old friends. It would be easier to mix in the new ones if kids read 6 novels a year, but it seems like a lot of classes really only have 2-3, plus maybe some poems or short stories.

Have them read these classics on their own.
This summer, my ninth grade child read Scarlett Letter, As the Bell Tolls, and The Crucible. Last summer, she read Lord of the Flies, A Separate Peace, Old Man and the Sea, and Of Mice and Men. She likes to shop the bookshelves in our family room, and she found most of these on our shelves. We only had to download one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We were reading books like Clan of the Cave Bear, The King Must Die, Mists of Avalon, 100 Years of Solitude, and Unbearable Lightness of Being at my Catholic school in the 90s. And yes, many of those were as Freshmen. Calm down.

Not as class reading.

You were not discussing those books in class.

Yes, we absolutely were. Every single one of those was required reading.

I am very curious to know what Catholic school (or any school) was assigning Clan of the Cave Bear as required reading. I mean, that book is pretty trashy. I had a teacher that assigned purely trashy romance novels, but I think she was doing that tbecause she was 100% bored of being a teacher and that was her way of "quiet quitting" back before quiet quitting was a thing. (She was kind of a pioneer that way...).

It was for the pre-history portion of World History, freshman year (it was actually the first book we read freshman year, alongside The King Must Die in literature). And the first in the series is carefully researched historical fiction - they become more "romance" novel after the first one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m not a fan of book banning and would let my kid read whatever they wanted and/or was assigned. I read a different Elizabeth Acevedo book and can see where this author uses sexualized language that is worth warning parents about. Curious if it’s in curriculum or an extra the teacher chose?

I was part of a fcps book review committee last year. I did not review that particular book, but it was on the FCPS curriculum list for required 9th grade reading.

I am unsure if it was a "The class will now read and discuss chapter 5 of Poet X and explain how the sexual and anti Christian themes relate to our personal lives" or if it was used in a "Choose one of these 10 book options on identity, and write a paper explaining how the themes of your chosen book relates to identity."

There is a very big difference between the former and the latter. Given the subject matter and the age, one is completely unacceptable, and one is slightly more acceptable.

I am pretty open about reading any books, but I do think there is something really icky about the adults in FCPS trying to create situations that normalize our minor kids discussing books with graphic sex scenes with random adults. Our school pyramid has had multiple high school and junior teachers fired in the 12 years I have had teens enrolled in FCPS middle and high school for inappropriate behavior with teenagers and older elementary kids, including discussing sexual topics with the kids on social media, up to soliciting sex online from actual teens. Other pyramids have this happen too, most lately the Langley football coach, with enough regularity across the entire district, that makes it pretty clear that creating a curriculum that desensitizes our teens about appropriate boundaries and encourages them to discuss sexually explicit materials with teachers is probably not the direction FCPS should be moving in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We were reading books like Clan of the Cave Bear, The King Must Die, Mists of Avalon, 100 Years of Solitude, and Unbearable Lightness of Being at my Catholic school in the 90s. And yes, many of those were as Freshmen. Calm down.

Not as class reading.

You were not discussing those books in class.

Yes, we absolutely were. Every single one of those was required reading.

Sure they were.