http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AoCt3NHGwM8BxD2H1669H3_ty6IX;_ylv=3?qid=20090305151758AA7dWwd
QuoteLet me explain.
I go to a private school that is rather strict. Recently, the principal and school teacher council released a (very long) list of books we're not allowed to read. I was absolutely appalled, because a large number of the books were classics and others that are my favorites. One of my personal favorites, The Catcher in the Rye, was on the list, so I decided to bring it to school to see if I would really get in trouble. Well... I did but not too much. Then (surprise!) a boy in my English class asked if he could borrow the book, because he heard it was very good AND it was banned! This happened a lot and my locker got to overflowing with the banned books, so I decided to put the unoccupied locker next to me to a good use. I now have 62 books in that locker, about half of what was on the list. I took care only to bring the books with literary quality. Some of these books are:
>The Perks of Being a Wallflower
>His Dark Materials trilogy
>Sabriel
>The Canterbury Tales
>Candide
>The Divine Comedy
>Paradise Lost
>The Godfather
>Mort
>Interview with the Vampire
>The Hunger Games
>The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy
>A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
>Animal Farm
>The Witches
>Shade's Children
>The Evolution of Man
> the Holy Qu'ran
... and lots more.
Anyway, I now operate a little mini-library that no one has access to but myself. Practically a real library, because I keep an inventory log and give people due dates and everything. I would be in so much trouble if I got caught, but I think it's the right thing to do because before I started, almost no kid at school but myself took an active interest in reading! Now not only are all the kids reading the banned books, but go out of their way to read anything they can get their hands on. So I'm doing a good thing, right? Oh, and since you're probably wondering "Why can't you just go to a local library and check out the books?" most of the kids are too chicken or their parents won't let them but the books. I think that people should have open minds. Most of the books were banned because they contained information that opposed Catholisism. I limit my 'library' to only the sophmores, juniors and seniors just in case so you can't say I'm exposing young people to materiel they're not mature enough for. But is what I'm doing wrong because parents and teachers don't know about it and might not like it, or is it a good thing because I am starting appreciation of the classics and truly good novels (Not just fad novels like Twilight) in my generation?
That kid is AWESOME. Doomed to get busted, but awesome.
I am both impressed with the kid's reading habits, and horrormirthed at what the school banned.
And you know what? There's worse reasons to be busted than to be distributing BANNED BOOKS.
WAIT.
How the fuck did Terry Pratchett get banned? :lulz:
Mort visits many different realms and planes. Hell is included. Also, sorcery and necromancy.
Quote from: Doktor Howl on August 30, 2011, 04:37:27 PM
WAIT.
How the fuck did Terry Pratchett get banned? :lulz:
Because common sense was banned first. These things only make sense if you study them in the correct order.
I'm presuming sorcery is the reasoning behind "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court"?
That is so funny, my son is a freshman this year and some of those books are on his required list for this year.
More books I have:
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Slaughterhouse-5
Lord of the Flies
Bridge to Terabithia
Catch-22
East of Eden
The Brothers Grimm Unabridged Fairytales.
...the list goes on.
3 years ago
Twilight is banned also, but I don't want that polluting my library.
3 years ago
As for getting the press involved, reporters are not allowed on campus. Besides, my parents would be so mad if they found out I was doing this.
3 years ago
Why are schools still banning books? Forget the philosophical debate, just thinking about it practically.
I mean, when they all sat down at the table to put together this policy did every single adult have spontaneous amnesia and forget that the internet exists?
Quote from: The R-tist Sometimes Known as WHN on August 30, 2011, 04:46:23 PM
Why are schools still banning books? Forget the philosophical debate, just thinking about it practically.
I mean, when they all sat down at the table to put together this policy did every single adult have spontaneous amnesia and forget that the internet exists?
To show the kids who the boss is, of course. To teach them how to fit seamlessly into the 21st Century machine.
Am I right in reading that this is a 3 year old post? (nothing wrong with that, I was just wondering where the fuck this was so I could avoid this place like the plague)
This kid is teh awesomesauce supremo. Hope they skated through and didn't get caught...though it'd definitely be for a worthy cause.
maybe it's like a reverse psychology / streissand effect thing.
tell kids "DON'T YOU DARE READ CATCHER IN THE RYE"
/
:bankster:
kids are like "FUCK YOU WE'RE GONNA READ IT ANYWAY"
/
:angrymob:
A quote comes to mind.
"As soon as men decide that all means are permitted to fight an evil, then their good becomes indistinguishable from the evil that they set out to destroy."
- Christopher Dawson
Quote from: Doktor Howl on August 30, 2011, 04:37:27 PM
WAIT.
How the fuck did Terry Pratchett get banned? :lulz:
That is the very first thing that popped into my head, right before "What, CANTERBURY TALES is banned?!" :lulz:
There's a lot of sex in the Canterbury Tales. A lot of hot steamy if not somewhat graphic medieval sex.
...But still. I had to read it in 12th grade, in my shitty Florida public high school.
Quote from: Her Royal Suuness on August 30, 2011, 05:55:54 PM
There's a lot of sex in the Canterbury Tales. A lot of hot steamy if not somewhat graphic medieval sex.
...But still. I had to read it in 12th grade, in my shitty Florida public high school.
They cut out the miller's tale at my high school. With scissors.
:lulz:
That English teacher...Not the happiest person I've ever met.
Dok,
Went to high school near Wheaton, Illinois.
Quote from: Her Royal Suuness on August 30, 2011, 05:55:54 PM
There's a lot of sex in the Canterbury Tales. A lot of hot steamy if not somewhat graphic medieval sex.
...But still. I had to read it in 12th grade, in my shitty Florida public high school.
Me too, in shitty public Tucson schools.
Fun fact: The reason Arizona isn't lower on the overall scale of education quality is because our colleges are pretty top-rate. THANKS, UofA and AU and NAU!
I'm convinced that Florida schools aren't actually bad, it's just that the state is so teeming with stupid it doesn't matter. However, we didn't ban fucking books.
The ACLU put together a PDF about banned books here http://www.aclutx.org/reports/bannedbooks/bb2k8.pdf
Quote from: Doktor Howl on August 30, 2011, 04:36:33 PM
I am both impressed with the kid's reading habits, and horrormirthed at what the school banned.
And you know what? There's worse reasons to be busted than to be distributing BANNED BOOKS.
I especially like the part, as Cram already pointed out, if I understand the OP correctly, the kid are actually reading more books
because they're not allowed to read them :) Reverse psychology FTW!
It's probably just me, but something about this one makes me suspicious.
Quote from: Pancho on August 30, 2011, 08:04:40 PM
It's probably just me, but something about this one makes me suspicious.
Eh, I don't know. I intentionally did my Junior term paper on Mark Twain because "Tom Sawyer" and "Huckleberry Finn" were both banned in my school district. Got a free 10 day vacation to re-write it on a more appropriate subject. :lulz:
I know when the bookstore in Chapel Hill on campus ran a sale on "Banned Books in NC" they sold more books in that week than any other that year. Kids will read what you tell them they can't.
There is something inherently disturbing about any society that would ban anything by Mark Twain.
When is anything by Mark Twain inappropriate?
Quote from: Pancho on August 30, 2011, 08:10:59 PM
There is something inherently disturbing about any society that would ban anything by Mark Twain.
We can't tell the little darlings how things used to actually BE, right? Because that might give them ideas, and ideas only confuse people.
Quote from: Doktor Howl on August 30, 2011, 08:18:37 PM
Quote from: Pancho on August 30, 2011, 08:10:59 PM
There is something inherently disturbing about any society that would ban anything by Mark Twain.
We can't tell the little darlings how things used to actually BE, right? Because that might give them ideas, and ideas only confuse people.
Exactly, nothing allowed that may in any way contradict revisionist history.
Which was my argument when I went before the school board over my suspension.
It is either our history or it isn't. Are you going to sit there and re-write history to make it sound nice? If that is the case, you may as well ban the bible because it is full of terrible things in history.
Apparently Mark Twain's books promote racism...Or something. :?
Quote from: Khara on August 30, 2011, 08:34:52 PM
Which was my argument when I went before the school board over my suspension.
It is either our history or it isn't. Are you going to sit there and re-write history to make it sound nice? If that is the case, you may as well ban the bible because it is full of terrible things in history.
If you pretend that it never happened, and silence any reminders that it did (citing the badwrong language as your excuse), you can train other people into believing it never happened...Thus ensuring that the really damaging parts of racism stay, while the cosmetic, visible parts of it go away.
Sure, you ensure that racism will return like the tide, but isn't that a small price to pay to bury our collective feelings of guilt?
Quote from: Doktor Howl on August 30, 2011, 10:52:17 PM
Quote from: Khara on August 30, 2011, 08:34:52 PM
Which was my argument when I went before the school board over my suspension.
It is either our history or it isn't. Are you going to sit there and re-write history to make it sound nice? If that is the case, you may as well ban the bible because it is full of terrible things in history.
If you pretend that it never happened, and silence any reminders that it did (citing the badwrong language as your excuse), you can train other people into believing it never happened...Thus ensuring that the really damaging parts of racism stay, while the cosmetic, visible parts of it go away.
Sure, you ensure that racism will return like the tide, but isn't that a small price to pay to bury our collective feelings of guilt?
You know my feelings on that one Dok. It is insane the things they are trying to teach our kids, even today. While they admit to slavery and racism (since it was oh so long ago) the new target is the Holocaust. It was more propaganda than actual truth. I guess all those dead jews were just movie extras from Schindler's List.
Quote from: Khara on August 30, 2011, 10:57:31 PM
Quote from: Doktor Howl on August 30, 2011, 10:52:17 PM
Quote from: Khara on August 30, 2011, 08:34:52 PM
Which was my argument when I went before the school board over my suspension.
It is either our history or it isn't. Are you going to sit there and re-write history to make it sound nice? If that is the case, you may as well ban the bible because it is full of terrible things in history.
If you pretend that it never happened, and silence any reminders that it did (citing the badwrong language as your excuse), you can train other people into believing it never happened...Thus ensuring that the really damaging parts of racism stay, while the cosmetic, visible parts of it go away.
Sure, you ensure that racism will return like the tide, but isn't that a small price to pay to bury our collective feelings of guilt?
You know my feelings on that one Dok. It is insane the things they are trying to teach our kids, even today. While they admit to slavery and racism (since it was oh so long ago) the new target is the Holocaust. It was more propaganda than actual truth. I guess all those dead jews were just movie extras from Schindler's List.
Of course. It was the single most documented event in human history, but that doesn't matter if you don't teach what happened.
Of course, if you don't teach what happened, you can do it again sometime, which is of course the goal.
I believe I've mentioned before that my 5th grade teacher told us that she believed the Holocaust never happened. That was an interesting episode of, "So Angela, what did you learn in school today?" Over dinner. Yep.
Coincidentally, also my last year in Catholic school.
Quote from: Her Royal Suuness on August 30, 2011, 11:23:02 PM
I believe I've mentioned before that my 5th grade teacher told us that she believed the Holocaust never happened. That was an interesting episode of, "So Angela, what did you learn in school today?" Over dinner. Yep.
Coincidentally, also my last year in Catholic school.
Get 'em young, right?
Well, as you could imagine, my parents were enthralled.
10 years later, when they move to RI, I could hear them yelling down the coast over how the school district up here wanted to hold my brother back on the sheer fact he was educated in Florida AND ADHD, without looking at his records. My parents have a thing about education as a whole in the United States. I think they still want me to see about finishing my masters in Canada.
Quote from: Her Royal Suuness on August 30, 2011, 11:28:21 PM
Well, as you could imagine, my parents were enthralled.
10 years later, when they move to RI, I could hear them yelling down the coast over how the school district up here wanted to hold my brother back on the sheer fact he was educated in Florida AND ADHD, without looking at his records. My parents have a thing about education as a whole in the United States. I think they still want me to see about finishing my masters in Canada.
Blarg. When I moved from Newfoundland to Ontario, they wanted to hold me back because I had come from Newfoundland.
Dumb is everywhere. Canada is no different.
Seriously.
It's also kind of funny, seeing my brother and sister, who chose to not pursue higher education and enter straight into the workforce, doing better than me, who has a degree and is working toward 2 more. Education isn't worth it's salt anymore if you got the skills people want. And people always want to be cooked for and their hair cut. I chose, poorly...
Quote from: Her Royal Suuness on August 30, 2011, 11:32:47 PM
Seriously.
It's also kind of funny, seeing my brother and sister, who chose to not pursue higher education and enter straight into the workforce, doing better than me, who has a degree and is working toward 2 more. Education isn't worth it's salt anymore if you got the skills people want. And people always want to be cooked for and their hair cut. I chose, poorly...
Yeah, all my friends that went into college - well, many of them - are barely treading water.
I think it really annoys them that we gearheads fucked off all the way through school, and still managed to do well.
If the market wasn't so fucking bad right now, my mom, brother and I were seriously considering buying a restaurant together in Florida. I would have to give up any sort of "dream" I have, and take a loss for 2 years, and never have a day off again, but in the end I still feel like that would be a good idea.
Quote from: Her Royal Suuness on August 30, 2011, 11:39:18 PM
If the market wasn't so fucking bad right now, my mom, brother and I were seriously considering buying a restaurant together in Florida. I would have to give up any sort of "dream" I have, and take a loss for 2 years, and never have a day off again, but in the end I still feel like that would be a good idea.
"If you want to make a small fortune in the restaurant business, start with a large fortune."
- Paul Schnieder.
Why not open a sewing shop?
Eventually. I'm actually doing okay this year as far as work goes, in fact, I just got SMACKED for work today, which is good news, considering I'm falling behind for rent going into school next week.
I need a professional environment to work in soon, though. Piles of fabric in my bedroom doesn't work. Then again, neither does an apartment missing drop ceiling and windows so...If I can find a comparable size place to live/work out of, then awesome.
Quote from: Doktor Howl on August 30, 2011, 11:00:07 PM
Quote from: Khara on August 30, 2011, 10:57:31 PM
Quote from: Doktor Howl on August 30, 2011, 10:52:17 PM
Quote from: Khara on August 30, 2011, 08:34:52 PM
Which was my argument when I went before the school board over my suspension.
It is either our history or it isn't. Are you going to sit there and re-write history to make it sound nice? If that is the case, you may as well ban the bible because it is full of terrible things in history.
If you pretend that it never happened, and silence any reminders that it did (citing the badwrong language as your excuse), you can train other people into believing it never happened...Thus ensuring that the really damaging parts of racism stay, while the cosmetic, visible parts of it go away.
Sure, you ensure that racism will return like the tide, but isn't that a small price to pay to bury our collective feelings of guilt?
You know my feelings on that one Dok. It is insane the things they are trying to teach our kids, even today. While they admit to slavery and racism (since it was oh so long ago) the new target is the Holocaust. It was more propaganda than actual truth. I guess all those dead jews were just movie extras from Schindler's List.
Of course. It was the single most documented event in human history, but that doesn't matter if you don't teach what happened.
Of course, if you don't teach what happened, you can do it again sometime, which is of course the goal.
I thought the single most documented event in human history was Prince William and Kate Middleton's wedding?
Quote from: Doktor Howl on August 30, 2011, 11:00:07 PM
Quote from: Khara on August 30, 2011, 10:57:31 PM
Quote from: Doktor Howl on August 30, 2011, 10:52:17 PM
Quote from: Khara on August 30, 2011, 08:34:52 PM
Which was my argument when I went before the school board over my suspension.
It is either our history or it isn't. Are you going to sit there and re-write history to make it sound nice? If that is the case, you may as well ban the bible because it is full of terrible things in history.
If you pretend that it never happened, and silence any reminders that it did (citing the badwrong language as your excuse), you can train other people into believing it never happened...Thus ensuring that the really damaging parts of racism stay, while the cosmetic, visible parts of it go away.
Sure, you ensure that racism will return like the tide, but isn't that a small price to pay to bury our collective feelings of guilt?
You know my feelings on that one Dok. It is insane the things they are trying to teach our kids, even today. While they admit to slavery and racism (since it was oh so long ago) the new target is the Holocaust. It was more propaganda than actual truth. I guess all those dead jews were just movie extras from Schindler's List.
Of course. It was the single most documented event in human history, but that doesn't matter if you don't teach what happened.
Of course, if you don't teach what happened, you can do it again sometime, which is of course the goal.
THIS. :mittens:
Quote from: Doktor Howl on August 30, 2011, 10:52:17 PM
Quote from: Khara on August 30, 2011, 08:34:52 PM
Which was my argument when I went before the school board over my suspension.
It is either our history or it isn't. Are you going to sit there and re-write history to make it sound nice? If that is the case, you may as well ban the bible because it is full of terrible things in history.
If you pretend that it never happened, and silence any reminders that it did (citing the badwrong language as your excuse), you can train other people into believing it never happened...Thus ensuring that the really damaging parts of racism stay, while the cosmetic, visible parts of it go away.
Sure, you ensure that racism will return like the tide, but isn't that a small price to pay to bury our collective feelings of guilt?
This is so exactly it.
Quote from: Doktor Howl on August 30, 2011, 11:00:07 PM
Quote from: Khara on August 30, 2011, 10:57:31 PM
Quote from: Doktor Howl on August 30, 2011, 10:52:17 PM
Quote from: Khara on August 30, 2011, 08:34:52 PM
Which was my argument when I went before the school board over my suspension.
It is either our history or it isn't. Are you going to sit there and re-write history to make it sound nice? If that is the case, you may as well ban the bible because it is full of terrible things in history.
If you pretend that it never happened, and silence any reminders that it did (citing the badwrong language as your excuse), you can train other people into believing it never happened...Thus ensuring that the really damaging parts of racism stay, while the cosmetic, visible parts of it go away.
Sure, you ensure that racism will return like the tide, but isn't that a small price to pay to bury our collective feelings of guilt?
You know my feelings on that one Dok. It is insane the things they are trying to teach our kids, even today. While they admit to slavery and racism (since it was oh so long ago) the new target is the Holocaust. It was more propaganda than actual truth. I guess all those dead jews were just movie extras from Schindler's List.
Of course. It was the single most documented event in human history, but that doesn't matter if you don't teach what happened.
Of course, if you don't teach what happened, you can do it again sometime, which is of course the goal.
:x Horrible truth.
Quote from: Doktor Howl on August 30, 2011, 11:34:42 PM
Quote from: Her Royal Suuness on August 30, 2011, 11:32:47 PM
Seriously.
It's also kind of funny, seeing my brother and sister, who chose to not pursue higher education and enter straight into the workforce, doing better than me, who has a degree and is working toward 2 more. Education isn't worth it's salt anymore if you got the skills people want. And people always want to be cooked for and their hair cut. I chose, poorly...
Yeah, all my friends that went into college - well, many of them - are barely treading water.
I think it really annoys them that we gearheads fucked off all the way through school, and still managed to do well.
Hell my degrees aren't worth the paper they are printed on these days. Unless I decide to go back and take the teacher's course and teach but the problem there is I hate kids. No win situation. :argh!:
Hold on... People go to college/university for a better career? I thought you went to learn cool stuff, and then got a job in something entirely unrelated to what you majored in.
There's a reason we decided, as a society, that leaving the education of children to religion was not a good idea.
"Give me a child until he is seven and I will give you the man" - St. Francis Xavier, co-founder of the Jesuits.
Of course, our technocratic whimsies insist there is nothing that can ever be learnt from history and that memory is the enemy, so no doubt we have, as a society, forgotten this is exactly why a bunch of ne'er-do-wells, radical philosophers and satirists first started advocating the overthrow of religious institutions and regimes.
True story, I actually worked in my degree field! Then I realized I hated it, and got laid off anyway.
There's actually a market for textile and costume studies. I swear the MFA is always looking for someone.
I was a psych major. I work in payroll.
I DID work in the field for two positions before I realized it was the WRONG field for me. Burnout city.
My degrees are in business and math. I work in customer service. I used to use my degree daily till I moved to St. Louis and took the only job I could find. I love business, it fascinates me. Math was only because I had all the classes I need and said why not.
Any time I questioned a schedule for the next sememster I filled in blank time with math classes. What started as filler classes I knew I could pass turned into a degree.
Be that as it may, I'm too old to start pursuing my dream job now. I need to feed, clothe and shelter too many people.
As much as I detest math, I understand it's necessity and have taken my fair share of classes as well. However, actually devoting myself into majoring in it.. :x
I have to take a lot of intermediate/advanced chemistry in the next couple of semesters. I'm okay with this and all the formulae I get to play with, but raw math is rough for me.
I could run a world class library from my hard drive.
But that's called "illegal file-sharing" I believe.
:sad:
I'm one of the few people I know (besides all the engineers, doctors and lawyers) who is in the field I chose as my degree. Though I'm no longer teaching, it's an offshoot, and it's comfortable. I'm really lucky to do something lucrative that uses both my degrees every day, and I still enjoy the hell out of it.
Quote from: Cain on August 31, 2011, 03:07:07 PM
I could run a world class library from my hard drive.
But that's called "illegal file-sharing" I believe.
:sad:
:lulz:
Quote from: LMNO, PhD (life continues) on August 31, 2011, 01:26:07 PM
Hold on... People go to college/university for a better career? I thought you went to learn cool stuff, and then got a job in something entirely unrelated to what you majored in.
Nah, my plan is to get paid to sit around and write papers about books written in dead languages. [/dream]
Phox,
Knows her skills.
My collection has gotten to the point I'm not actually ordering any dead-tree format book under £50 and under 20 years old. I want the obscure and hard to find stuff.
I'm currently deciding whether to spend my next paycheck on Toynbee's A Study of History (the unabridged version, all volumes if possible) or tracking down and getting translated some of the works of Rudolf Kjellen.
I found out in 2005 that technically I didn't graduate high school.
I have a job that pays all my bills, doesn't require a lot of effort, and gives me a three day weekend. :)
I think I'm just going to go to school for the rest of my life and live off of university and government grants like I do now.
Quote from: Suu on August 31, 2011, 05:49:32 PM
I think I'm just going to go to school for the rest of my life and live off of university and government grants like I do now.
Sure. Nobody else needs that funding.
Quote from: Doktor Howl on August 31, 2011, 05:50:35 PM
Quote from: Suu on August 31, 2011, 05:49:32 PM
I think I'm just going to go to school for the rest of my life and live off of university and government grants like I do now.
Sure. Nobody else needs that funding.
Like funds are going where they need to be
anyway.
Actually, what I SHOULD do is just win Powerball, then I can buy 3 more trailers and 16 new pickup trucks. That is, after all, the true American Dream™.
I am taking a very pragmatic approach. It helps that I am very interested in science, but I am also keenly aware that these days, most college degrees are fairly worthless unless you go ahead for a PhD or go into engineering. But, fortunately, if you are interested in math or chemistry, there are still many options, and odds are still decent that I can get everything grad level and above subsidized if I go into chemistry, and at the PhD level, even if one can no longer pull grants and scholarships for biological anthropology, I will most likely still be able to do a lot of biological anthropology work subsidized as a biochem/biophysics major. Of course, that is still years in the future so who knows what the situation will be?
Basically, I'm just hoping to regain self-sufficiency within 8 years.
And I am going to study art :lulz: