Anonymous
08/21/2024 11:56
Subject: Just got disturbing email regarding English class for my rising freshman
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.
What do you think "actual literature" is? Are you stuck 40 years ago trying to defend a dead white guys only canon? The field has moved waaaaaay past that, both in terms of academic studies and teaching
I can tell you this, if your student takes a general critical thinking/composition/intro to lit course in college it will almost certainly be full of more (relatively) contemporary works. The "classics" - while showing up in those general courses sometimes - will largely be found in period specific courses for majors.
Yes, and it shows.
Anonymous
08/21/2024 11:42
Subject: Just got disturbing email regarding English class for my rising freshman
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.
Anonymous
08/21/2024 11:39
Subject: Just got disturbing email regarding English class for my rising freshman
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.
What do you think "actual literature" is? Are you stuck 40 years ago trying to defend a dead white guys only canon? The field has moved waaaaaay past that, both in terms of academic studies and teaching
I can tell you this, if your student takes a general critical thinking/composition/intro to lit course in college it will almost certainly be full of more (relatively) contemporary works. The "classics" - while showing up in those general courses sometimes - will largely be found in period specific courses for majors.
It’s unlikely the book banners are familiar with college courses.
Anonymous
08/21/2024 11:37
Subject: Just got disturbing email regarding English class for my rising freshman
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.
What do you think "actual literature" is? Are you stuck 40 years ago trying to defend a dead white guys only canon? The field has moved waaaaaay past that, both in terms of academic studies and teaching
I can tell you this, if your student takes a general critical thinking/composition/intro to lit course in college it will almost certainly be full of more (relatively) contemporary works. The "classics" - while showing up in those general courses sometimes - will largely be found in period specific courses for majors.
Anonymous
08/21/2024 11:26
Subject: Just got disturbing email regarding English class for my rising freshman
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. .
Anonymous
08/20/2024 21:45
Subject: Just got disturbing email regarding English class for my rising freshman
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
I had to google that, it sounds like a great book, one every teenager should read.
Why do you think everyone needs to read it?
Because teens need to know about the dangers they face like sexual assault whether in the context of stranger danger or date rape or incest, etc. Not knowing what could happen costs many young people so much.
Anonymous
08/20/2024 19:03
Subject: Just got disturbing email regarding English class for my rising freshman
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!
Yes it is! Lucky.
Anonymous
08/20/2024 19:02
Subject: Just got disturbing email regarding English class for my rising freshman
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.
Anonymous
08/20/2024 18:54
Subject: Just got disturbing email regarding English class for my rising freshman
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!
- 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!
Anonymous
08/20/2024 18:37
Subject: Just got disturbing email regarding English class for my rising freshman
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.
Anonymous
08/20/2024 18:34
Subject: Just got disturbing email regarding English class for my rising freshman
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
I had to google that, it sounds like a great book, one every teenager should read.
Why do you think everyone needs to read it?
Anonymous
08/20/2024 18:31
Subject: Just got disturbing email regarding English class for my rising freshman
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?
Anonymous
08/20/2024 18:23
Subject: Just got disturbing email regarding English class for my rising freshman
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
I had to google that, it sounds like a great book, one every teenager should read.
Anonymous
08/20/2024 18:18
Subject: Just got disturbing email regarding English class for my rising freshman
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
Anonymous
08/20/2024 15:23
Subject: Just got disturbing email regarding English class for my rising freshman
Anonymous wrote:Yeah this is the equivalent of prop 65 warnings for hazardous substances that appear on everything in California. Thanks Youngkin!
What does youngkin have to do with this?
It is FCPS's regulation 3290 that requires school to notify parents about this.