Reply to Just got disturbing email regarding English class for my rising freshman

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][b]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. [/b] 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.  [/quote]

My friends and I passed a paperback copy of this around in 6th grade! I remember sitting on the grass behind the school during recess, every one of us confused about what "came" meant, lol. We had no clue. [/quote]

I read it in the library so I didn't have to check it out. I still remember what the male protagonist did with the aftershave.  Ewww! 
It was a pretty awkward and vulgar book in a lot of ways.  I never warmed to any Judy Blume kid books.  They all seemed to be about awkward people - that didn't make me feel informed or better prepared.[/quote]

Here is why this is a different argument from book banning:
[b]No one is asking the REMOVE The Poet X (or Forever) from the library.[/b]
They are saying “why ASSIGN a book that requires notification of explicit content as THE book that is being used by the entire class in a teacher-led unit as part of the curriculum?” 
No one is trying to prevent YOUR kid (or mine if they are curious) from reading it and giggling in a corner and passing it around so that their friends can read the titillating graphic scenes and gawk as PP described.
What is being objected to is grownups pushing the book onto kids as part of the instructional classroom curriculum.
It’s not unreasonable to suggest there are a lot of books out there (without explicit sexual content and profanity on nearly every page and offensive slander of a major religion) that can accomplish the academic objectives of the poetry unit for a freshman English class.
And yes, it’s won many awards.
So assign it to seniors, who are mature enough to handle it. Teach it in an intro to English that every college freshman takes-fine.
But high school freshman are 14-15. I question the eagerness to choose this book. The kids are uncomfortable and if there are teachers who are enthusiastically sharing this content, that tells me to be cautious. Maybe as cautious as parents should be/have been around the Langley coach.
 [/quote]

Virginia is conservatives are a few years behind conservatives elsewhere. The first step is parental opt out. The next step is allowing parents to challenge books at the school board level. After that come the statewide bans [/quote]

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