Virginia School Board Proposes Burning Books

[Anonymous]

There was a time when conservatives and blue collar folks wanted better for their kids. These goobers apparently won’t stop until their kids are as ignorant, uninformed, and unread as they are. What a shame.

[Anonymous]

The story’s gone bigger, and wow are these boys feeling proud of themselves!

https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2021/11/12/school-book-challenges-conservative/

“ Others feel triumphant. Daniel Latham, a father who spoke at the Monday meeting in Spotsylvania, said he and a group of like-minded parents were inspired to review the school system’s library after reading news stories about parents challenging texts elsewhere in the country.

Latham went to the meeting to denounce mask-wearing mandates and teacher equity trainings as well as urge the removal of explicit materials. I believe that should be the parent’s choice, to expose their children to graphic sexual content,” the 40-year-old said. “If it’s in the [school] library, I lose that choice.”

Translation: I have no actual knowledge of what my kid is leaning in their school, nor any desire to find out, but I came today because I saw these things on Fox. I like freedom to spread my disease and I don’t like that kids are wearing masks because it makes me uncomfortable. Plus, I can’t read good, so I don’t want anyone to read good, in case they think they’re better than me, and I’m a white male so we can’t have that.”

So embarrassing. If he really does have a kid in that school I’m embarrassed for them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Some of you can’t tell the difference between books that kids should not read and they a public school shouldn’t buy and freedom of speech allowing people to print books for others to buy on Amazon they you may not like, eg the Anarchist Cookbook. Who care they suggested burning the books - red herring - the real issue is why was this garbage in a public school to begin with? Should we be giving Rabelais to the K-5 set next? Perhaps a little a Marquis de Sade? On the plus side at least the writing will surely be better.



I don't know who you are but please stop suggesting that you get to decide what constitutes "garbage" among the books my kids can choose from in their school library. You are not raising my kids and should have no influence on them. If you don't want your kids reading certain books then send the list of books you forbid them to check out to your school so the librarian knows to tell your kids, "sorry, your dad won't allow you to read this."

+1 million

[Anonymous]

A lot of parents are still pissed because their kids took the side of the protestors last summer. Parents always blame the schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Some of you can’t tell the difference between books that kids should not read and they a public school shouldn’t buy and freedom of speech allowing people to print books for others to buy on Amazon they you may not like, eg the Anarchist Cookbook. Who care they suggested burning the books - red herring - the real issue is why was this garbage in a public school to begin with? Should we be giving Rabelais to the K-5 set next? Perhaps a little a Marquis de Sade? On the plus side at least the writing will surely be better.



I don't know who you are but please stop suggesting that you get to decide what constitutes "garbage" among the books my kids can choose from in their school library. You are not raising my kids and should have no influence on them. If you don't want your kids reading certain books then send the list of books you forbid them to check out to your school so the librarian knows to tell your kids, "sorry, your dad won't allow you to read this."

+1 million

So who does get to decide? The School Board in Fairfax likely had no clue about those books until the woman presented it at the meeting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Some of you can’t tell the difference between books that kids should not read and they a public school shouldn’t buy and freedom of speech allowing people to print books for others to buy on Amazon they you may not like, eg the Anarchist Cookbook. Who care they suggested burning the books - red herring - the real issue is why was this garbage in a public school to begin with? Should we be giving Rabelais to the K-5 set next? Perhaps a little a Marquis de Sade? On the plus side at least the writing will surely be better.



I don't know who you are but please stop suggesting that you get to decide what constitutes "garbage" among the books my kids can choose from in their school library. You are not raising my kids and should have no influence on them. If you don't want your kids reading certain books then send the list of books you forbid them to check out to your school so the librarian knows to tell your kids, "sorry, your dad won't allow you to read this."

+1 million

So who does get to decide? The School Board in Fairfax likely had no clue about those books until the woman presented it at the meeting.

School librarians? The people who get a Masters in such a thing? Child literacy experts?

[Anonymous]

School librarians? The people who get a Masters in such a thing? Child literacy experts?

Do you know how librarians choose books? They choose them from the reviews. Doubtful that the reviews include the graphic details. Do you now what else? Book companies have cozy relationships with librarians, too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The story’s gone bigger, and wow are these boys feeling proud of themselves!

https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2021/11/12/school-book-challenges-conservative/

“ Others feel triumphant. Daniel Latham, a father who spoke at the Monday meeting in Spotsylvania, said he and a group of like-minded parents were inspired to review the school system’s library after reading news stories about parents challenging texts elsewhere in the country.

Latham went to the meeting to denounce mask-wearing mandates and teacher equity trainings as well as urge the removal of explicit materials. I believe that should be the parent’s choice, to expose their children to graphic sexual content,” the 40-year-old said. “If it’s in the [school] library, I lose that choice.”

Translation: I have no actual knowledge of what my kid is leaning in their school, nor any desire to find out, but I came today because I saw these things on Fox. I like freedom to spread my disease and I don’t like that kids are wearing masks because it makes me uncomfortable. Plus, I can’t read good, so I don’t want anyone to read good, in case they think they’re better than me, and I’m a white male so we can’t have that.”

So embarrassing. If he really does have a kid in that school I’m embarrassed for them.

I also find this line from the article troubling. It quotes a woman (presumably a parent at a local school) who spoke before the Spotsylvania school board:

Searching the district’s online library catalogue, she added, she found 172 hits for books including the word “gay,” 84 hits for books with the word “lesbian” and just 19 hits for books with the word “Jesus” — “but half of them are about Muslims,” she said.

Why was she searching for the words "gay" and "lesbian"? She may be personally biased toward LGBTQ people, but it's not her business if other people's kids get to access books about those identities. (Having friends and relatives who are gay or who have gay kids, I am grateful that there are books about other sexual identities in public schools.) And what was the point of searching for the word "Jesus"? Public schools are secular--what is her concern about the number of books that deal with "Jesus"? Finally, why did she note that half the books with the word "Jesus" also referred to "Muslims," as if that was a problem? GTFOH with your religious biases and bs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

School librarians? The people who get a Masters in such a thing? Child literacy experts?

Do you know how librarians choose books? They choose them from the reviews. Doubtful that the reviews include the graphic details. Do you now what else? Book companies have cozy relationships with librarians, too.

Christ on a bike are you seriously gonna start claiming that book companies are getting kickbacks from those hefty school library budgets?

Here’s the deal: you are ignorant and proud of it. You have no idea that there actually are subject matter experts in this (there are! https://www.slj.com/? https://www.hbook.com/ https://www.kirkusreviews.com/ The book you’re all obsessing over has high reviews and is actually a toned down version. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/33_Snowfish). You never bought or read books to your kids (unless they were on the iPad!). You think everything is dirty and about money so you assume that that’s the way the rest of the world works, too. It doesn’t. Some people genuinely want children to have access to good literature.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The story’s gone bigger, and wow are these boys feeling proud of themselves!

https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2021/11/12/school-book-challenges-conservative/

“ Others feel triumphant. Daniel Latham, a father who spoke at the Monday meeting in Spotsylvania, said he and a group of like-minded parents were inspired to review the school system’s library after reading news stories about parents challenging texts elsewhere in the country.

Latham went to the meeting to denounce mask-wearing mandates and teacher equity trainings as well as urge the removal of explicit materials. I believe that should be the parent’s choice, to expose their children to graphic sexual content,” the 40-year-old said. “If it’s in the [school] library, I lose that choice.”

Translation: I have no actual knowledge of what my kid is leaning in their school, nor any desire to find out, but I came today because I saw these things on Fox. I like freedom to spread my disease and I don’t like that kids are wearing masks because it makes me uncomfortable. Plus, I can’t read good, so I don’t want anyone to read good, in case they think they’re better than me, and I’m a white male so we can’t have that.”

So embarrassing. If he really does have a kid in that school I’m embarrassed for them.

I also find this line from the article troubling. It quotes a woman (presumably a parent at a local school) who spoke before the Spotsylvania school board:

Searching the district’s online library catalogue, she added, she found 172 hits for books including the word “gay,” 84 hits for books with the word “lesbian” and just 19 hits for books with the word “Jesus” — “but half of them are about Muslims,” she said.

Why was she searching for the words "gay" and "lesbian"? She may be personally biased toward LGBTQ people, but it's not her business if other people's kids get to access books about those identities. (Having friends and relatives who are gay or who have gay kids, I am grateful that there are books about other sexual identities in public schools.) And what was the point of searching for the word "Jesus"? Public schools are secular--what is her concern about the number of books that deal with "Jesus"? Finally, why did she note that half the books with the word "Jesus" also referred to "Muslims," as if that was a problem? GTFOH with your religious biases and bs.

Seriously. If she has access to the school library, then they all do. They can go through that catalog item by item and list every single book they don’t want their kids reading because it’s too much for their delicate sensitivities and hand it over to the librarian. What we are seeing here is sheer laziness from people who couldn’t be bothered with their kids schools or their education until the right wing media needed them riled up and will go back to not caring as soon as they are required to actually do something that might take them away from Facebook or their tv.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Some of you can’t tell the difference between books that kids should not read and they a public school shouldn’t buy and freedom of speech allowing people to print books for others to buy on Amazon they you may not like, eg the Anarchist Cookbook. Who care they suggested burning the books - red herring - the real issue is why was this garbage in a public school to begin with? Should we be giving Rabelais to the K-5 set next? Perhaps a little a Marquis de Sade? On the plus side at least the writing will surely be better.



I don't know who you are but please stop suggesting that you get to decide what constitutes "garbage" among the books my kids can choose from in their school library. You are not raising my kids and should have no influence on them. If you don't want your kids reading certain books then send the list of books you forbid them to check out to your school so the librarian knows to tell your kids, "sorry, your dad won't allow you to read this."

+1 million

So who does get to decide? The School Board in Fairfax likely had no clue about those books until the woman presented it at the meeting.

School librarians? The people who get a Masters in such a thing? Child literacy experts?

Majority of K-12 public school librarians don't have masters degrees. In Virginia it is not a requirement for employment and in Maryland it's optional.
If you're curious about specific requirements: https://www.everylibraryinstitute.org/requirements_to_become_a_school_librarian_by_state

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

School librarians? The people who get a Masters in such a thing? Child literacy experts?

Do you know how librarians choose books? They choose them from the reviews. Doubtful that the reviews include the graphic details. Do you now what else? Book companies have cozy relationships with librarians, too.

Christ on a bike are you seriously gonna start claiming that book companies are getting kickbacks from those hefty school library budgets?

Here’s the deal: you are ignorant and proud of it. You have no idea that there actually are subject matter experts in this (there are! https://www.slj.com/? https://www.hbook.com/ https://www.kirkusreviews.com/ The book you’re all obsessing over has high reviews and is actually a toned down version. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/33_Snowfish). You never bought or read books to your kids (unless they were on the iPad!). You think everything is dirty and about money so you assume that that’s the way the rest of the world works, too. It doesn’t. Some people genuinely want children to have access to good literature.

The book in question 33 Snowfish has been problematic since it was published. It uses the "n-word" 55 times and sh!t over 150 times gratuitously. Mind you the author is White and privileged.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some of you can’t tell the difference between books that kids should not read and they a public school shouldn’t buy and freedom of speech allowing people to print books for others to buy on Amazon they you may not like, eg the Anarchist Cookbook. Who care they suggested burning the books - red herring - the real issue is why was this garbage in a public school to begin with? Should we be giving Rabelais to the K-5 set next? Perhaps a little a Marquis de Sade? On the plus side at least the writing will surely be better.

I don't know who you are but please stop suggesting that you get to decide what constitutes "garbage" among the books my kids can choose from in their school library. You are not raising my kids and should have no influence on them. If you don't want your kids reading certain books then send the list of books you forbid them to check out to your school so the librarian knows to tell your kids, "sorry, your dad won't allow you to read this."

There are always choices being made on which books are in a school library or any library for that matter. Buy the garbage for your kids at home. We don’t need more 50 shades of grey, we need more Shakespeare.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There was a time when conservatives and blue collar folks wanted better for their kids. These goobers apparently won’t stop until their kids are as ignorant, uninformed, and unread as they are. What a shame.

None is talking about actual good literature or books about science. Calm down woke one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There was a time when conservatives and blue collar folks wanted better for their kids. These goobers apparently won’t stop until their kids are as ignorant, uninformed, and unread as they are. What a shame.

None is talking about actual good literature or books about science. Calm down woke one.

The woke calling others woke. What a snowflake.