BOOK BANNING AND STUPID TEACHERS
Here’s another chapter in the seemingly endless tale of students (or their parents) being offended by something in the g-schools and wanting to ban it in response. The novel uses the word “nigger” (Yes, I wrote it out. I’m not going to write “n-word” anymore. I don’t use the word. I’ve taught my kids never to say it and that only stupid folks do. But, we’re all adults here, no? Digression over) several times as part of a dialogue that took place in 1865. A couple of kids took offense and their parents are now on the warpath (I know, more political incorrectness). The parents are fighting the wrong foe, though.
Alexander said his daughter complained and she was told she could go sit out in the hall if she did not want to listen to Dawson read. For several days, Maria left class to sit in the hall, before being given the option of reading Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter in the library.
When grades for the first quarter were released at the end of October, Maria — who earned A’s and B’s in all of her other courses, her father said — had failed English for missing assignments related to A Land Remembered. Two weeks ago, Maria was told she could make up missed assignments from earlier in the fall that would erase the failing grade from her report card.
The book should stay; the teacher should go.
2 Responses to “BOOK BANNING AND STUPID TEACHERS”
 Comment by Laura November 30th, 2003 at 9:48 pm |
If that’s true, it isn’t very nice. The teacher should have blasted those students then and there. No wonder she complained. She also had missed assignments from earlier in the fall? So much for the conscientious, A and B student. She’s lucky they allowed her to make them up. |
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Comment by Laura November 30th, 2003 at 9:50 pm |
Heck, it didn’t get my block quotes. (1) Dale Alexander, the father of 16-year-old Maria, said his daughter was “humiliated” in September when her teacher, Maria Dawson, read a passage containing the word “nigger” aloud and several white students in the class turned around and snickered. (2) Two weeks ago, Maria was told she could make up missed assignments from earlier in the fall that would erase the failing grade from her report card. |