Tennesseer
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Post by Tennesseer on Jan 27, 2022 17:27:28 GMT -5
Conservative snowflakes are offended once again. My understanding of the nudity in the book is a drawing of the author's mother comitting suicide by slitting her wrists while naked in a bathtub. Very erotic picture. School Board in Tennessee Bans Teaching of Holocaust Novel ‘Maus’The board voted unanimously to remove the Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel from classrooms because it contained swear words, according to minutes from the meeting. A school board in Tennessee voted unanimously this month to ban “Maus,” a Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel about the Holocaust, from being taught in its classrooms because it contains material that board members said was inappropriate for students. According to minutes of its meeting, the 10-person board, in McMinn County, Tenn., voted on Jan. 10 to remove the book from the eighth-grade curriculum. Members of the board said the book, which portrays Jews as mice and Nazis as cats in recounting the author’s parents’ experience during the Holocaust, contained inappropriate curse words and a depiction of a naked character. “There is some rough, objectionable language in this book,” said Lee Parkison, the director of schools for McMinn County, in eastern Tennessee, according to minutes of the meeting. Art Spiegelman, the author of “Maus,” told CNBC that he was “baffled” by the decision. “It’s leaving me with my jaw open, like, ‘What?’” he said in the interview on Wednesday, the day before Holocaust Remembrance Day. Mr. Spiegelman published the first volume of the book in 1986, and the second in 1991, and the graphic novel received a special Pulitzer in 1992. Mr. Spiegelman’s parents survived Auschwitz; his mother died by suicide when Mr. Spiegelman was 20. The board’s vote was reported by a local news outlet, the Tennessee Holler, on Wednesday. The decision comes as the Anti-Defamation League and others have warned of a recent rise in antisemitic incidents, and amid a broader movement to ban books that address certain ideas about race, as well as those that address sex and L.G.B.T.Q. issues. In Virginia, the Spotsylvania County School Board voted unanimously last year to have books with “sexually explicit” material removed from school library shelves. In York County, Pa., teachers and students protested against and overturned a ban on a selection of books told from the perspective of gay, Black and Latino children. And Republican lawmakers in Texas have pushed to reframe history lessons and play down references to slavery and anti-Mexican discrimination. During the McMinn County board’s discussion of “Maus,” multiple board members discussed redacting profanity or said they did not object to teaching the history of the Holocaust. One of the board members, Mike Cochran, said he objected to the language and depiction of nudity. “We don’t need this stuff to teach kids history,” he said, according to the minutes. “We can teach them history and we can teach them graphic history. We can tell them exactly what happened, but we don’t need all the nakedness and all the other stuff.” Complete article here: School Board in Tennessee Bans Teaching of Holocaust Novel ‘Maus’
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billisonboard
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Post by billisonboard on Jan 27, 2022 19:35:36 GMT -5
I have not seen the book. But in reading about it, I am not sure it is appropriate as teaching material at the eighth grade level.
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dondub
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Post by dondub on Jan 27, 2022 19:55:02 GMT -5
I have not seen the book. But in reading about it, I am not sure it is appropriate as teaching material at the eighth grade level. I know nothing about it but am interested in what you base your opinion on. Bills...did you read about the school district here in Washington that just cancelled To Kill A Mockingbird? And I don’t know about anybody else but when I was a nice Catholic boy in 8th grade I didn’t know any and had never heard any swear words! 🤪😳😜😎
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Post by busymom on Jan 27, 2022 20:15:51 GMT -5
We started having introduction to sex ed when I was in 6th grade. Trust me, most students are familiar with the human body. Especially boys whose dad had Playboy Magazines laying around the house.
That school board would have a heart attack if they knew what types of required readings there are at the high school level here. I wasn't thrilled, truth be told, but I didn't think book banning was a good idea either. Kids can access this stuff so easily now anyway...
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billisonboard
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Post by billisonboard on Jan 27, 2022 20:17:35 GMT -5
I have not seen the book. But in reading about it, I am not sure it is appropriate as teaching material at the eighth grade level. I know nothing about it but am interested in what you base your opinion on. Bills...did you read about the school district here in Washington that just cancelled To Kill A Mockingbird? And I don’t know about anybody else but when I was a nice Catholic boy in 8th grade I didn’t know any and had never heard any swear words! 🤪😳😜😎 I am basing it on my current experience with that age group. The book seems to have a sophistication that would be lost on many that young. Here is a wonderful story of a 17-year-old who discovered the book. I see that has a more appropriate age for teaching it for both content and style. Didn't hear about a district killing Mockingbird.
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dondub
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Post by dondub on Jan 27, 2022 20:25:52 GMT -5
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NomoreDramaQ1015
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Post by NomoreDramaQ1015 on Jan 27, 2022 20:33:54 GMT -5
I believe it's Texas that just banned the teaching of anything history wise that makes students "uncomfortable".
This isn't about the book. This is about Tennessee testing the waters to see if it too can make sure only the Republican version of history will be taught.
Cause guess what there may not be a nude drawing in every holocaust book or novel but there is a ton of graphic material that can be deemed not appropriate till you eventually turn around to hear someone saying White Supremacists are very fine people. After all you were never exposed to that offending view that told you otherwise.
I oppose banning books. Period. A teacher can choose another book I don't care that is their choice.
Banning is about controlling the narrative. The nude in this book makes a handy scapegoat because who is going to want to stand out as the "pro nudity" parents in conservative Tennessee?
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Tennesseer
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Post by Tennesseer on Jan 27, 2022 21:19:28 GMT -5
I have not seen the book. But in reading about it, I am not sure it is appropriate as teaching material at the eighth grade level. I was born in '51. At the age of ten a Catholic school classmate of mine whose ancestors came to the U.S. years earlier from Germany got a great kick out of telling us how the Nazis made soap out of the bodies of Jews along with telling us with great glee about the lampshades made from the skins of Jews. We were ten years old. It's never too soon to learn about the Holocaust. Sometimes it is uncomfortable. And well it should be.
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happyhoix
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Post by happyhoix on Jan 27, 2022 21:35:53 GMT -5
I read the book. I don’t recall any nudity or bad language. I do recall the son of death camp survivors trying to come to grips with their history. A very moving, if distressing book.
I’ve seen more nudity and bad language in a PG 13 movie. That’s not why they’re trying to stop having eighth graders read it.
I read it as an adult. I’m trying to remember what I was like as an eighth grader - I was borrowing my older sisters books at that point, including Portnoys complaint and a bunch of Vonnegut, plus catch 22, so I don’t think this book would have been an issue for me. I don’t know what’s standard for current eighth graders though.
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NomoreDramaQ1015
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Post by NomoreDramaQ1015 on Jan 27, 2022 22:28:08 GMT -5
I haven't read this one but I had to read Night in 8th grade. Portions of it still haunt me.
Should we ban it since 25 years later I'm still uncomfortable at the mere memory of it?
I should be haunted. That's the point. If I can't forget I won't repeat.
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billisonboard
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Post by billisonboard on Jan 28, 2022 0:04:58 GMT -5
I have not seen the book. But in reading about it, I am not sure it is appropriate as teaching material at the eighth grade level. I was born in '51. At the age of ten a Catholic school classmate of mine whose ancestors came to the U.S. years earlier from Germany got a great kick out of telling us how the Nazis made soap out of the bodies of Jews along with telling us with great glee about the lampshades made from the skins of Jews. We were ten years old. It's never too soon to learn about the Holocaust. Sometimes it is uncomfortable. And well it should be. Eighth graders should know about the Holocaust in all its horror. I don't see this particular book as an appropriate part of the curriculum for that age group. It seems it would be great at the junior/senior level of high school.
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NomoreDramaQ1015
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Post by NomoreDramaQ1015 on Jan 28, 2022 8:35:56 GMT -5
I was born in '51. At the age of ten a Catholic school classmate of mine whose ancestors came to the U.S. years earlier from Germany got a great kick out of telling us how the Nazis made soap out of the bodies of Jews along with telling us with great glee about the lampshades made from the skins of Jews. We were ten years old. It's never too soon to learn about the Holocaust. Sometimes it is uncomfortable. And well it should be. Eighth graders should know about the Holocaust in all its horror. I don't see this particular book as an appropriate part of the curriculum for that age group. It seems it would be great at the junior/senior level of high school. But that's not what they are doing. They are banning it from being taught AT ALL. Teachers screening material to determine if it can be taught in a context that makes it age appropriate is what teachers should be doing. Banning books isn't about protecting kids or making sure they get appropriate material. Here you go the truth why they don't want this in school is buried in the guy's quote www.cnn.com/2022/01/27/opinions/maus-ban-holocaust-teaching-spiegelman-perry/index.htmlBut even though one board member, according to meeting minutes originally reported by TN Holler, was quick to assert he wasn't "against teaching the Holocaust," they apparently couldn't allow it to be taught in a way that included profanity and nudity -- in other words, in a way that conveys its dehumanizing reality. The same board member said, "[Maus] shows people hanging, it shows them killing kids , why does the educational system promote this kind of stuff, it is not wise or healthy."
Exactly the same motive as Florida. They want to white wash history and refuse to acknowledge anything that doesn't fit with their preferred view of the world. They think the school system is brain washing our children and not "showing them both sides" as another dipshit in a different state put it. They want THEIR version of history to be taught all while hiding behind "the children" the same as they do for other pet causes that aren't about the children but controlling who holds the power. The book is not "promoting" anything it's showing kids the absolute horror of what happened in a context that reaches a lot of children. Even if you aren't a good reader you can understand from the pictures what is going on in a graphic novel. So as I asked since he clearly believes that "promoting" that kind of stuff isn't healthy should we ban Night from being taught in schools? I read it at 12/13 years old. The only other book to that point I had read was Anne Frank's diary (which also haunts me for different reasons). TO THIS DAY I can mentally see the scene where he describes two Nazi soldiers throwing a crust of moldy bread into a train car full of starving Jews and laughing as people were trampled and taking bets on who would win. That's pretty violent and it obviously traumatized me if I am nearly in tears at 38 just thinking about it. Which is the reaction I should be having to it.
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billisonboard
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Post by billisonboard on Jan 28, 2022 9:00:17 GMT -5
Eighth graders should know about the Holocaust in all its horror. I don't see this particular book as an appropriate part of the curriculum for that age group. It seems it would be great at the junior/senior level of high school. But that's not what they are doing. They are banning it from being taught AT ALL. I am 100% fine with teachers screening materials and deciding if they are age appropriate and in what context they should be used that is a part of teaching. Banning books isn't about protecting kids or making sure they get appropriate material. Here you go the truth why they don't want this in school is buried in the guy's quote www.cnn.com/2022/01/27/opinions/maus-ban-holocaust-teaching-spiegelman-perry/index.htmlBut even though one board member, according to meeting minutes originally reported by TN Holler, was quick to assert he wasn't "against teaching the Holocaust," they apparently couldn't allow it to be taught in a way that included profanity and nudity -- in other words, in a way that conveys its dehumanizing reality. The same board member said, "[Maus] shows people hanging, it shows them killing kids, why does the educational system promote this kind of stuff, it is not wise or healthy."
Exactly the same motive as Florida. They want to white wash history and refuse to acknowledge anything that doesn't fit with their preferred view of the world. The book is not "promoting" anything it's showing kids the absolute horror of what happened in a context that reaches a lot of children. Even if you aren't a good reader you can understand from the pictures what is going on in a graphic novel. So as I asked since he clearly believes that "promoting" that kind of stuff isn't healthy should we ban Night from being taught in schools? TO THIS DAY I can mentally see the scene where he describes two Nazi soldiers throwing a crust of moldy bread into a train car full of starving Jews and laughing as people were trampled and taking bets on who would win. That's pretty violent and it obviously traumatized me if I am nearly in tears at 38 just thinking about it. Which is the reaction I should be having to it. No.
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billisonboard
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Post by billisonboard on Jan 28, 2022 9:16:18 GMT -5
Thanks for providing the link.
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billisonboard
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Post by billisonboard on Jan 28, 2022 10:04:20 GMT -5
Keeping in mind that there is limited time to deliver educational content to students, is To Kill a Mockingbird the best source material to teach about historical racism in America available in 2022?
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NomoreDramaQ1015
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Post by NomoreDramaQ1015 on Jan 28, 2022 11:03:06 GMT -5
Keeping in mind that there is limited time to deliver educational content to students, is To Kill a Mockingbird the best source material to teach about historical racism in America available in 2022? I think it's one of the most accessible books and is a pretty easy read so I have no problems with continuing to have it be required reading BUT there should be other books introduced either along with it or as you work your way through the school system. For it's time it was quite revolutionary and I believe that still makes it an important book. There are flaws with the book. Like Atticus Finch being a "white savior" figure is one of the things that should be discussed. There's more but that's one I remember off the top of my head. So I think a more in depth discussion of the book is long overdue. I do believe there is valid criticism to be made about certain books but not the BS that Republicans are spewing forth as to why these books are "unacceptable". To Kill a Mockingbird seems to be able to fly under the radar still probably because of the above. So if it can get through while while they try to ban anything else that sounds possibly African American themed I'll take To Kill a Mockingbird over nothing. A good literary teacher should be able to discuss the relevant themes of the book while also handling the flaws of the book in light of what we know in 2022 vs when the book was published.
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hurley1980
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Post by hurley1980 on Jan 28, 2022 13:08:31 GMT -5
I read To Kill a Mockingbird sophomore year of high school, in California.
My teacher showed us Schindlers List when I was in 7th or 8th grade, in Washington. The whole class cried!
Both of these tales had a huge impact on me. That's what they are supposed to do. Teach children that racism and antisemitism are WRONG!
I haven't read Maus, but banning these books is banning an important lesson for todays youth. I'm hoping that banning them will make every kid go to the library or online to get a copy of the book(s) and read it. Telling kids they can't read things makes them want to do it more!
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Tiny
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Post by Tiny on Jan 28, 2022 14:59:28 GMT -5
On the subject of "book banning"....
Maybe I'm having a "semantics" moment - but is changing the reading material (or some part) of the required reading/viewing for a subject or unit really "banning" the material?
I'm guessing that the materials for the history lessons on WWII are somehow also intertwined with other subjects (reading/english, math, social studies, current events). I base that on how my gradeschool teacher friends talked about how they had to coordinate their lesson plans across the spectrum of "subjects" they were teaching their students (ie relate what something from one subject to another subject) and sometimes they were required to coordinate across grade levels. So that the knowledge built up across grades.
The word "banned" carries a lot of weight and baggage.
I don't think it should be banned - and maybe it shouldn't be removed from the curriculum. I'm just not sure WHAT exactly the School Board in TN is attempting to do. (worse case scenario -downplay the Holocaust). This isn't about the book - it's about the School Boards overall intentions - what is their big picture?
(Cause I'm pretty sure that community's 11 thru 13 year olds - happily watch TV and movies with high body counts and gore and with sexualized characters. And where those fictional characters do terrible things to other people/places etc and are more or less let off the hook.)
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Tiny
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Post by Tiny on Jan 28, 2022 15:12:29 GMT -5
TLDR: perhaps the school district in TN's students need to take some action. They do have some autonomy and should use it. That too could be valuable lessons.
Due to my crappy Catholic Grade School education and also due to how I was "tracked" going in to High School English courses my freshman year - I missed out on reading all the "required reading" (When I started my sophomore year - I figured out how to get into better "required" english classes - but by then the damage was done.)
I did not read To Kill a Mockingbird until I was an adult (when I figured out I didn't read all the stuff the other kids read in Freshman English classes - and that I couldn't read all that stuff quickly - I hit the CliffNotes and "overviews" available at the library (might have been the Jr. College library - my older siblings were taking night classes there... and I sometimes tagged along to use the bigger library). I made an effort as an 30 something to go back and read all the books I was suppose to have read in GS and HS.... It was eye opening. And I wish I had a better GS and early HS experience. I'm guessing since my Catholic Grade School education was suppose to be "a GOOD! Education" and based on how many students were in the "remedial" English classes in my HS pre 1980... I'm guessing that trend continued into the 90's I'm guessing there are a whole lot of 40 thru 60 year olds who didn't get the best GS and HS education.
I spent my freshman year in a lot of "basic" required courses... when I got put into them my Sophomore year - I rebelled and got out of them ASAP. If I hadn't met new friends and HS and wasn't able to compare my books/homework to what they were doing... I shudder to think how my life would have been different if I had just taken what was given or recommended I do by the Adults directing my course. ...
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happyhoix
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Post by happyhoix on Jan 29, 2022 10:31:18 GMT -5
I saw on Face Book this AM that a bookstore in Knoxville is giving away copies of Maus to any school kid who wants one.
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chiver78
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Post by chiver78 on Jan 29, 2022 10:54:14 GMT -5
I've never read Maus either, but I think I'm putting in an online order today.
I'm feeling the need to share this with the class - my sister is a HS English teacher at a private school. she basically has free reign to teach whatever she wants, as long as she can defend her choices. a Health teacher used parts of the movie "Kids" to teach about HIV/AIDS, for instance. that wouldn't fly in public school. anyway, back to the point - my sister put in an order for enough copies of Maus to teach all of her "Banned Books" classes this current term. I hope more English teachers do.
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Tennesseer
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Post by Tennesseer on Jan 29, 2022 12:26:03 GMT -5
I turned fourteen years old in eight grade as did most of my classmates. That (to me) is old enough to read Maus for school. Most of us were not naive about our world back in the '60s. Art Spiegelman sees the new ban of his book ‘Maus’ as a ‘red alert’Art Spiegelman didn’t set out to write an educational aid for young-adult readers. A half-century ago, he simply wanted to better know his own origin story, discover more about his parents’ histories — and hear from his father, a Polish Jew and a survivor, how some of their relatives were killed in the Holocaust. In an interview Thursday, he remembers his mind-set in his 20s: “I never meant to teach anybody anything.” Now, though, given the latest roiling debates over which books can be banned from schools and libraries, the author of the seminal graphic memoir “Maus” appreciates his work’s long cultural tail: “I’m grateful the book has a second life as an anti-fascist tool.” Spiegelman is speaking shortly after learning that a Tennessee school board voted unanimously this month to ban “Maus,” which in 1992 became the first graphic novel to win the Pulitzer Prize. The two-volume comic biography chronicles his family’s Holocaust history through a frame-tale of ‘70s conversations between Spiegelman and his estranged father, all told with anthropomorphic imagery: The Jewish characters are rendered as mice, for instance, and the Nazis are cats. The 10-member board in McMinn County chose to remove “Maus” from its eighth-grade language arts curriculum, citing its profanity and nudity. Now the New York-based author is sifting through the minutes of the board’s Jan. 10 meeting, trying to make some sense of its decision to target the graphic memoir, which previously has been challenged in California and banned in Russia. His conclusion: The issue is bigger than his comic book. In the current sociopolitical climate, he views the Tennessee vote as no anomaly. “It’s part of a continuum, and just a harbinger of things to come,” Spiegelman says, adding that “the control of people’s thoughts is essential to all of this.” As such school votes strategically aim to limit “what people can learn, what they can understand and think about,” he says, there is “at least one part of our political spectrum that seems to be very enthusiastic about” banning books. “This is a red alert. It’s not just: ‘How dare they deny the Holocaust?’ ” he says with a mock gasp. “They’ll deny anything.” Complete article here: Art Spiegelman sees the new ban of his book ‘Maus’ as a ‘red alert’
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Post by Knee Deep in Water Chloe on Jan 29, 2022 12:45:26 GMT -5
On the subject of "book banning".... Maybe I'm having a "semantics" moment - but is changing the reading material (or some part) of the required reading/viewing for a subject or unit really "banning" the material? I'm guessing that the materials for the history lessons on WWII are somehow also intertwined with other subjects (reading/english, math, social studies, current events). I base that on how my gradeschool teacher friends talked about how they had to coordinate their lesson plans across the spectrum of "subjects" they were teaching their students (ie relate what something from one subject to another subject) and sometimes they were required to coordinate across grade levels. So that the knowledge built up across grades. The word "banned" carries a lot of weight and baggage. I don't think it should be banned - and maybe it shouldn't be removed from the curriculum. I'm just not sure WHAT exactly the School Board in TN is attempting to do. (worse case scenario -downplay the Holocaust). This isn't about the book - it's about the School Boards overall intentions - what is their big picture? (Cause I'm pretty sure that community's 11 thru 13 year olds - happily watch TV and movies with high body counts and gore and with sexualized characters. And where those fictional characters do terrible things to other people/places etc and are more or less let off the hook.) I’ve never been to Tennessee, But IME, a school board banning a book means it is not allowed in the district at all. It cannot be in the library. No teacher may use it as a mode of instruction—the book itself, an excerpt, or a cinematic interpretation. It cannot be part of a discussion in class even none of that list has been brought in.
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thyme4change
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Post by thyme4change on Jan 29, 2022 12:54:45 GMT -5
“We don’t need this stuff to teach kids history,” he said, according to the minutes. “We can teach them history and we can teach them graphic history. We can tell them exactly what happened, but we don’t need all the nakedness and all the other stuff.” Complete article here: School Board in Tennessee Bans Teaching of Holocaust Novel ‘Maus’Because no one in history was ever naked, and they all said "Golly gee gosh darn" when they were being tortured and murdered.
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Tennesseer
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Post by Tennesseer on Jan 29, 2022 13:53:00 GMT -5
“We don’t need this stuff to teach kids history,” he said, according to the minutes. “We can teach them history and we can teach them graphic history. We can tell them exactly what happened, but we don’t need all the nakedness and all the other stuff.” Complete article here: School Board in Tennessee Bans Teaching of Holocaust Novel ‘Maus’Because no one in history was ever naked, and they all said "Golly gee gosh darn" when they were being tortured and murdered. Years ago a reader of our local paper wrote a letter to the editor about the time he and his son were at the library and his son happened to walk past a library table where some library patron had left an art book open on the table. The art book was open to a painting of a nude person. The father was mad his son had to see something obscene. I also wrote a letter to the editor agreeing with him. I recapped the time I walked past a library table and someone too had left open an art book. What I saw was Marcel Duchamp's Nude Descending A Staircase. I wrote I felt obscene books which depicted pictures like Duchamp's painting should be stored behind the librarians work area and that patrons should show age ID before they are allowed to look at/check out the book. Marcel Duchamp's Nude Descending A Staircase. On-line, my letter triggered a lot of replies including some who took my letter seriously. Others easily recognized satire.
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djAdvocate
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Post by djAdvocate on Jan 29, 2022 18:21:32 GMT -5
that's a truly beautiful work.
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happyhoix
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Post by happyhoix on Jan 30, 2022 10:45:27 GMT -5
The whole flap about critical race theory and about this book is, I think, a push by the far right to not have to think about ‘unpleasant’ things.
Don’t think about how the Southern economy was initially based on slave labor. Pretend the slaves were just farm workers who lived in comfortable cottages - skip over the rape, the beatings, the slave sales, the dehumanization required to keep the black population in check. Skip the trail of tears, Andrew Jackson exterminating the natives so he and his buddies could snap up developed farm properties for basement prices, the Japanese interment camps during WWII, the fact that women were disenfranchised and considered chattel of their fathers or husbands for much of our past. Maus is a reminder of how Christians attempted to wipe out Jews. Somehow, teaching our kids these things happened will make the white kids ‘feel bad’ about themselves, and Americans ‘feel about’ about being American.
This is a very dangerous trend, similar, IMHO, to how the Nazis attempted to glorify their pagan Caucasian history in order to justify why they should rule in the 1000 year Reich.
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thyme4change
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Post by thyme4change on Jan 30, 2022 13:58:31 GMT -5
The whole flap about critical race theory and about this book is, I think, a push by the far right to not have to think about ‘unpleasant’ things. Don’t think about how the Southern economy was initially based on slave labor. Pretend the slaves were just farm workers who lived in comfortable cottages - skip over the rape, the beatings, the slave sales, the dehumanization required to keep the black population in check. Skip the trail of tears, Andrew Jackson exterminating the natives so he and his buddies could snap up developed farm properties for basement prices, the Japanese interment camps during WWII, the fact that women were disenfranchised and considered chattel of their fathers or husbands for much of our past. Maus is a reminder of how Christians attempted to wipe out Jews. Somehow, teaching our kids these things happened will make the white kids ‘feel bad’ about themselves, and Americans ‘feel about’ about being American. This is a very dangerous trend, similar, IMHO, to how the Nazis attempted to glorify their pagan Caucasian history in order to justify why they should rule in the 1000 year Reich. They are blaming discomfort of children learning, when it really is more the discomfort of what could happen when that knowledge is accepted and society changes.
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djAdvocate
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Post by djAdvocate on Jan 31, 2022 0:44:32 GMT -5
Keeping in mind that there is limited time to deliver educational content to students, is To Kill a Mockingbird the best source material to teach about historical racism in America available in 2022? probably not. Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison would be far superior. but what US Schools outside of the black ones teach that book?
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djAdvocate
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only posting when the mood strikes me.
Joined: Jun 21, 2011 12:33:54 GMT -5
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Post by djAdvocate on Jan 31, 2022 0:47:30 GMT -5
The whole flap about critical race theory and about this book is, I think, a push by the far right to not have to think about ‘unpleasant’ things. Don’t think about how the Southern economy was initially based on slave labor. Pretend the slaves were just farm workers who lived in comfortable cottages - skip over the rape, the beatings, the slave sales, the dehumanization required to keep the black population in check. Skip the trail of tears, Andrew Jackson exterminating the natives so he and his buddies could snap up developed farm properties for basement prices, the Japanese interment camps during WWII, the fact that women were disenfranchised and considered chattel of their fathers or husbands for much of our past. Maus is a reminder of how Christians attempted to wipe out Jews. Somehow, teaching our kids these things happened will make the white kids ‘feel bad’ about themselves, and Americans ‘feel about’ about being American. This is a very dangerous trend, similar, IMHO, to how the Nazis attempted to glorify their pagan Caucasian history in order to justify why they should rule in the 1000 year Reich. Americans SHOULD feel bad about PARTS of their past. that is what history is about. it is ALSO about the good things. and yes, we can teach those side by side. because we are not perfect. and we never will be. and that is ok, if we recognize it, and CONSTANTLY try to improve through memory and refinement.
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