Ignorant mom seeks to ban "Catcher in the Rye" from Maine school reading list

Apparently, the "Red States" don't have a monopoly on ignorant, hypocritical moralizers. This twit hadn't even READ THE DAMNED BOOK before deeming it "unsuitable" for EVERYONE ELSE'S kids to read! She hadn't evern HEARD OF the book before her kid came home with it... I guess she never took a highschool English class herself?


http://www.boston.com/news/educatio...12/10/mother_seeks_ban_on_reading_assignment/

 

Ugh, yeah, people are always trying to ban perfectly good books from schools, which leaves English teachers stuck teaching the same books kids were taught 60 years ago.

 

How sad and pathetic is it that the woman is reading it AFTER she tried to get it banned from the reading list?! I would be embarassed to admit that I gained whatever conviction I felt about the book by "reasearching it on the internet" and not READING IT!

 

what a dummy

 

I read Catcher In The Rye in the 8th grade in AP English. Also.. this was a private Catholic school. It's a good book, and there really is much more horrible things that a 14 year old could be reading and doing.

 

some peoples parents. tis sad

 

I wish they had banned the stranger before I had to read that...that book was boring!

 

Similar thing happened around here with the Harry Potter books; one school actually pulled them from the library because a mom was making wild accusations about witchcraft and so forth (that in itself showed her ignorance, but don't get me started, lol). It was something like 6 months later, when members of the school board actually bothered to read it (the mom eventually admitted that she had not), and decided there was nothing threatening about it.

It's sad how some people are so ready to fly off the handle about every little thing, and not even bother to inform themselves.

 

Totally agree
Nothing like that happens in England, which is good to know. Must be a dumb American thing.
I've read Catcher in the rye twice and have a copy, don't really see what their problem is.

 

It's the real world. What does this twit want her child to read? Baby sitter club books?


I read CIR in High School (on my own, before it was on a reading list) and both my older girls have read it in Honor's English (I beleive it is on the regular English reading list, too) Sunshine who is a freshman in college, read it again this summer, just because she likes it. My 13 son wants to read it, and probably will over Christmas break. It's great book! Thank heaven our school district hasn''t had a problem with it. We have a pretty proactive Lefty English department, and there would be trouble is someone tried to ban book in our HS.

I don't understand people's obsession with banning this particular book. It's pretty tame compared to most TV shows today, and it gives an insight into the mind of a teenage boy that a lot of kids can relate to.

Book banners SUCK

 

I gotta atleast hand it to her for being a concerned parent. Her reasoning may be off base but her concern is real.

 

If she is THAT concerned, maybe she needs a reality check, like actually coing to the kid's school one day, and hanging around the hallways and bathrooms.

I can GUARANTEE that she will hear and see things FAR worse than anything in that book. Most highschool kids can outswear a sailor these days...

If she is that determined to protect her precious child from any "corrupting influences", then she needs to get the kid into a private religious school somewhere, where the only concern will be minor problems like getting sodomized by a priest!

 

1. Schools do not allow non-students to just hang around. Security reasons. But you already knew that.

2. Carting a child away to a different locale is evading a problem, not facing it head on. This woman sounds more determined than that.

 

Schools will allow PARENTS OF STUDENTS to observe the school day if they want to. You just need to notify the school in advance.

Yeah, determined enough to cram her fundie morals down EVERYBODY ELSE'S throats. She (unfortunately) has the right to fuck her OWN KID up by sheltering them from everything that might upset her sensibilities, but she is way over the line by attempting to do it for every other student in the district! Facing the problem head on would have been pulling HER KID out of that class, not trying to ban a classic piece of American literature for EVERYBODY.

This person is an intolerant twit, plain and simple...

 

I think, like most book banner types, she is just a PITA who looks for reasons to mess with some of the only good things left in our schools (like Salinger on our kid's reading lists!) I know some people were bitching about Nathanial Hawthorne being on the reading lists, because he deals with Adultery (and The Scarlett Letter portrayed Hester in a sympathetic light) and Devil Worship. His works are very old, and classics, but still some people complain about them.

I don't what they want on the reading lists? Chicken Soup for the Soul books? Not the Bible, cuz there's too much adultery and sodomy and violence and sex (ever read the Songs of Solomon?) in it.

 

Our High School doesn't even require you to call in advance, you just have to show up and sign in. I've done it. Few HSs consider the few parents who actually take an interest in their children's education "hanging around,"

 

This person is an intolerant twit, plain and simple...



Just remember..... for every finger pointed there are 3 pointed back at you.
Your reasoning isn't reasonable.

 

Bullshit. The unwillingness to call these idiots what they are--THOUGHT POLICE--is part of the reason that people with more progressive ideas are constantly getting the short end of the stick. Kinda like John Kerry never being willing to use the simple, direct word LIAR when discussing Bush's record.

In the interest of "not offending anyone", we are much too willing to capitulate to this kind of fundamentalist theocratic crap. We need to fight back HARD against this kind of shit WHEREVER it happens.

And yes, by THEIR OWN STANDARDS, the Bible should be removed from public libraries, because of all the sex, violence, rape, sodomy, etc. But you don't see them calling for THAT, now do you?

 

So you believe that mother ISN'T a concerned parent?

 

She is an overprotective parent, IMHO. Concerned, but with no sense of reality. But she has that right, I guess.

When she attempts to force her morals on people OTHER THAN HER CHILD, she stops being a "concerned parent", and becomes a threat to the rights of EVERYONE ELSE.