Quote:
Originally Posted by 'Hamas' Jenkins
I have some personal experience with a similar situation. I've had a student who refused to read Choke because he was, in his words, a Christian and it offended him. What I found interesting was that this same student had no issues reading a novel wherein a child describes the graphic murder of three children.
I've also had a student who refused to read "Going to Meet the Man" by James Baldwin. The ignorance of the student bothered me greatly because she didn't consider why there might be value in reading something that makes you uncomfortable because it just may challenge your values and help you better understand yourself and others.
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I agree wholeheartedly on the above....there are books that were assigned to my daughter that I found personally offensive, but still chose to let her read them because I don't want her to live in a bubble. She is headed off to college next year and the last thing I want her to be is naïve when it comes to reading material.
We only opted out on one book her whole HS career, and the wife & I talked about that one for several days before making that decision. And it was more on a personal level about whether she was emotionally/mentally prepared to understand the message in the book.
My biggest concerns when it comes to the classroom is less the material being read, and more the presenter. Teachers with agendas, while a very small percentage, are still troublesome to me.