After World Changers of Florida won a court battle to allow free Bibles be placed within Orange County, Florida schools, atheist organizations are demanding the equal right to "passively distribute" anti-Christian and even pornographic materials in the schools to students.
For background, read Teacher Fired for Bible Gift at New Jersey School and also read Georgia High School Bible Classes Held at Churches as well as Idaho School Takes Bible to Supreme Court
-- From "Florida atheist group wants equal time after Bible giveaway at school" posted at FoxNews.com 1/17/13
The atheist group Central Florida Freethought says a recent Collier County court ruling gives them the right to distribute books such as "Why Jesus?," "What is a Free Thinker?" and "Why Women Need Freedom from Religion" after the World Changers Religious Organization was allowed to place Bibles in the schools.
An attorney for "Freedom From Religion Foundation" sent a letter to Orange County Public Schools objecting to the district's policy allowing outside groups into schools at all. If the district doesn't change its policy, they will go ahead with the plan to distribute their atheist literature, MyFoxOrlando.com reports.
The general counsel for Orange County schools said their policy will stand, with very specific rules for what can be distributed.
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
From "Atheists, others want equal access to schools after Bible distribution" by Lauren Roth, Orlando Sentinel 1/17/13
Rabbi Steven Engel of Congregation of Reform Judaism in Orange County, said he was "deeply disturbed" that the New Testament was given out in schools. "This is absolutely wrong. It violates the separation of church and state very clearly." He said allowing the distribution on campus makes it appear government is endorsing a particular religious viewpoint.
"The court has ruled Bibles are OK," said Woody Rodriguez, the district counsel for Orange County schools. He contested Engel's interpretation of the law. "I rely on legal books as my guiding light," Rodriguez said. "I've got to follow what the court order said."
Imam Muhammad Musri, president of the Islamic Society of Central Florida, said there may be a double standard at work.
"If this action was taken by a Muslim group placing the Quran on tables, I'm sure there would be some uproar about it," Musri said. "We're better without it," he said of the handouts.
But Atif Fareed, chairman of American Muslim Community Centers based in Longwood, was more open to the idea. "More power to the Christians if they want to go out there and spread the Word," he said. "People need more religion in their lives, not less."
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
From "Atheist, agnostic books to be offered to Orange County students" posted at WKMG-TV6 (Orlando, FL) 1/17/13
According to a news release from the Central Florida Freethought Community, the group is in the planning stages with the Orange County school board to discuss how they can distribute to students.
Books, pamphlets, and brochures from the Freedom From Religion Foundation, American Atheists, and the Secular Student Alliance are on their way as of Wednesday to Central Florida and distribution will begin as soon as the promised written permission is received from the School Board and volunteers are cleared to come on campus, CFFC officials said.
Officials said some of the items being considered are “An X-Rated Book: Sex & Obscenity in the Bible,” “Ten Common Myths About Atheists," and more.
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
From "Atheists to Distribute Literature at Fla. Public Schools in Response to Bible Giveaway" by Katherine Weber, Christian Post Reporter 1/18/13
According to a memo previously provided to The Christian Post by Media Relations for Orange County Public Schools, those who distributed the bibles on Wednesday followed the guidelines of school policy, which included background checks on volunteers.
Additionally, volunteers could only participate in "passive distribution," meaning they can leave an unmanned display table on school grounds where students would congregate, and may only be present at the tables to replenish the Bible stock.
Diego "Woody" Rodriguez, general counsel for the Orange County School District, ensured the Christian News Network that the policy will stand and continue to impose strict regulations on what type of literature can be distributed on school campuses.
"Anything that contains pornographic material, any references to advertising, alcohol, tobacco, illegal drugs, or anything disruptive to school district and their educational facility [is prohibited]," Rodriguez told the media outlet.
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
From "Fla. Conservative Group Distributes Bibles at Public Schools" by Michael Gryboski, Christian Post Reporter 1/16/13
Greg Harper, vice president of Education for World Changers, wrote in a blog entry, "We have given out thousands of Bibles over the last few years and we are working to expand the program to many other school districts."
"Our members and volunteers from many local churches will place Bibles on tables during the lunch periods for students to pick up."
"Passive distribution means the Bibles may be placed on one unmanned table for distribution in a location where students normally congregate during non-instructional time," reads the memo [ from Orange County Public Schools]. "The representatives may only be allowed to replenish Bibles if they run out and must remove any undistributed literature at the end of the distribution day."
As Bibles are distributed to high schools in Orange County, volunteers hope to do likewise on Thursday for high schools in Collier County.
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
Showing posts with label books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label books. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 23, 2013
Monday, September 10, 2012
For-credit Bible Study Back in Tenn. Public Schools
Eleven Hamilton County, Tennessee churches have joined hands to provide for teaching of the Bible as an academic elective in 20 middle and high schools, all in accord with a U.S. District Court decision.
-- From "11 Churches Unite To Support Bible History Classes At Hixson Middle And High Schools" posted at The Chattanoogan 9/4/12
The “Hixson Gathering,” scheduled for Sept. 16, from 6-7:30 p.m., will feature a community meal, prayer service and fund-raiser at the Hixson Middle School gymnasium, 5681 Old Hixson Pike.
Organizers hope to raise enough money to fund the cost of two full-time Bible history teachers at Hixson Middle and High schools. Proceeds will be directed to the schools through Bible in the Schools, a local nonprofit organization.
“I would love to say ‘thank you’ to the Hixson community for helping us to offer such a wonderful program in our schools,” said Hixson Middle School Principal LeAngela Rogers. “The teen years are a time of unprecedented growth socially, physically, emotionally and morally. Bible history classes contribute not only to their academic achievement but also to character education, as students develop into their own person,” Rogers said.
“The Bible is the most influential book ever written. It has shaped and transformed lives across several millennia, and it must surely be a valuable part of any well-rounded education,” said Robert Johnson, senior pastor of Hixson Presbyterian Church, another sponsoring church.
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
From "Churches band together for model program that has court approval" by Drew Zahn, World Net Daily 9/8/12
[Hamilton County] has found a way to keep biblical instruction in its public schools – with the blessing of a court decision, the support of the community and in keeping with a tradition that began in 1922.
With the help of an organization called Bible in the Schools, area residents, like those at the Hixson Gathering, are able to reimburse the Hamilton County Department of Education for certified Bible teachers – hired at no cost to the taxpayers – while dodging the legal tactics of groups like the American Civil Liberties Union and Americans United for the Separation of Church and State.
The program, which Bible in the Schools told WND it hopes can serve as a model for communities all across the U.S., began in 1922, when local resident Dr. J. Park McCallie first proposed a unique plan in which private citizens in the community would pay for teachers – who would, in turn, be subject to the board of education in scholarship and discipline – to instruct students in the history and language of the Bible. Doctrinal questions, however, would be directed back to the students’ pastors or priests.
The program was accepted and practiced until a court decision in 1979 temporarily stopped it.
On appeal, however, a U.S. District Court decision laid down guidelines for how the program could be reinstated with the court’s blessing and without violating the constitutional concerns that prompted the earlier decision.
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
Also read City Permit Required for Bible Study in California as well as Phoenix Christian Jailed for Home Worship Gatherings
“President Andrew Jackson said the Bible ‘is the rock on which our Republic rests.’ No one is truly educated without a knowledge of Scripture.”For background, read Tennessee Board of Education Approves Bible Teaching in Schools and also read Idaho School Takes Bible to Supreme Court as well as Texas Schools Must Teach 'Bible as History & Literature'
-- Ron Phillips, pastor of Abba’s House
-- From "11 Churches Unite To Support Bible History Classes At Hixson Middle And High Schools" posted at The Chattanoogan 9/4/12
The “Hixson Gathering,” scheduled for Sept. 16, from 6-7:30 p.m., will feature a community meal, prayer service and fund-raiser at the Hixson Middle School gymnasium, 5681 Old Hixson Pike.
Organizers hope to raise enough money to fund the cost of two full-time Bible history teachers at Hixson Middle and High schools. Proceeds will be directed to the schools through Bible in the Schools, a local nonprofit organization.
“I would love to say ‘thank you’ to the Hixson community for helping us to offer such a wonderful program in our schools,” said Hixson Middle School Principal LeAngela Rogers. “The teen years are a time of unprecedented growth socially, physically, emotionally and morally. Bible history classes contribute not only to their academic achievement but also to character education, as students develop into their own person,” Rogers said.
“The Bible is the most influential book ever written. It has shaped and transformed lives across several millennia, and it must surely be a valuable part of any well-rounded education,” said Robert Johnson, senior pastor of Hixson Presbyterian Church, another sponsoring church.
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
From "Churches band together for model program that has court approval" by Drew Zahn, World Net Daily 9/8/12
[Hamilton County] has found a way to keep biblical instruction in its public schools – with the blessing of a court decision, the support of the community and in keeping with a tradition that began in 1922.
With the help of an organization called Bible in the Schools, area residents, like those at the Hixson Gathering, are able to reimburse the Hamilton County Department of Education for certified Bible teachers – hired at no cost to the taxpayers – while dodging the legal tactics of groups like the American Civil Liberties Union and Americans United for the Separation of Church and State.
The program, which Bible in the Schools told WND it hopes can serve as a model for communities all across the U.S., began in 1922, when local resident Dr. J. Park McCallie first proposed a unique plan in which private citizens in the community would pay for teachers – who would, in turn, be subject to the board of education in scholarship and discipline – to instruct students in the history and language of the Bible. Doctrinal questions, however, would be directed back to the students’ pastors or priests.
The program was accepted and practiced until a court decision in 1979 temporarily stopped it.
On appeal, however, a U.S. District Court decision laid down guidelines for how the program could be reinstated with the court’s blessing and without violating the constitutional concerns that prompted the earlier decision.
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
Also read City Permit Required for Bible Study in California as well as Phoenix Christian Jailed for Home Worship Gatherings
Saturday, August 20, 2011
Idaho School Takes Bible to Supreme Court
A now-defunct Idaho charter that sued the state because it wanted to use the Bible and other religious texts in the classroom has lost an appeal to the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.
For background, read Bible Ban by Idaho State Agency Challenged
UPDATE 9/15/11 - Fox News report:
-- From "Idaho charter school loses federal appeal over Bible teaching" by Betsy, The Spokesman Review 8/18/11
The Idaho Constitution out-and-out bans state funding for religious instruction in Article 9, Section 5, and in Article 9, Section 6, states, “No sectarian or religious tenets or doctrines shall ever be taught in the public schools,” and adds, “No books, papers, tracts or documents of a political, sectarian or denominational character shall be used or introduced in any schools established under the provisions of this article.”
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
From "Idaho charter school loses 9th circuit appeal" by Jessie L. Bonner, Associated Press 8/18/11
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the previous ruling against the now-defunct Nampa Classical Academy, in a decision earlier this week. The Idaho Public Charter School Commission closed the academy last year citing troubled finances.
The speech clause in the First Amendment does not "give Idaho charter school teachers, Idaho charter school students, or the parents of Idaho charter school students a right to have primary religious texts included as part of the school curriculum," the appeals court said.
The U.S. Supreme Court banned ceremonial school Bible readings in a 1963 ruling but said "the Bible is worthy of study for its literary and historic qualities" so long as material is "presented objectively as part of a secular program of education." Public schools across the country have traditionally avoided Bible courses — and the potential controversy that surrounds them — but hundreds do offer voluntary classes to students.
The academy argued that the practice goes unchecked elsewhere in Idaho.
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
From "ADF prepared to take Nampa Classical case to Supreme Court" by Idaho Press-Tribune Staff
David Cortman, senior legal counsel with ADF [The Alliance Defense Fund, the organization suing the state of Idaho on behalf of the Academy], said in an email to the Idaho Press-Tribune they are prepared to take the case to the Supreme Court.
“In our opinion, the court failed to perform any meaningful analysis of any issue in the case, including the seminal one: whether there is any educational purpose to ban all religious documents from objective teaching …” Cortman said.
He said the court also ignored the right of local school districts to choose their own texts and curriculum.
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
For background, read Bible Ban by Idaho State Agency Challenged
UPDATE 9/15/11 - Fox News report:
-- From "Idaho charter school loses federal appeal over Bible teaching" by Betsy, The Spokesman Review 8/18/11
The Idaho Constitution out-and-out bans state funding for religious instruction in Article 9, Section 5, and in Article 9, Section 6, states, “No sectarian or religious tenets or doctrines shall ever be taught in the public schools,” and adds, “No books, papers, tracts or documents of a political, sectarian or denominational character shall be used or introduced in any schools established under the provisions of this article.”
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
From "Idaho charter school loses 9th circuit appeal" by Jessie L. Bonner, Associated Press 8/18/11
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the previous ruling against the now-defunct Nampa Classical Academy, in a decision earlier this week. The Idaho Public Charter School Commission closed the academy last year citing troubled finances.
The speech clause in the First Amendment does not "give Idaho charter school teachers, Idaho charter school students, or the parents of Idaho charter school students a right to have primary religious texts included as part of the school curriculum," the appeals court said.
The U.S. Supreme Court banned ceremonial school Bible readings in a 1963 ruling but said "the Bible is worthy of study for its literary and historic qualities" so long as material is "presented objectively as part of a secular program of education." Public schools across the country have traditionally avoided Bible courses — and the potential controversy that surrounds them — but hundreds do offer voluntary classes to students.
The academy argued that the practice goes unchecked elsewhere in Idaho.
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
From "ADF prepared to take Nampa Classical case to Supreme Court" by Idaho Press-Tribune Staff
David Cortman, senior legal counsel with ADF [The Alliance Defense Fund, the organization suing the state of Idaho on behalf of the Academy], said in an email to the Idaho Press-Tribune they are prepared to take the case to the Supreme Court.
“In our opinion, the court failed to perform any meaningful analysis of any issue in the case, including the seminal one: whether there is any educational purpose to ban all religious documents from objective teaching …” Cortman said.
He said the court also ignored the right of local school districts to choose their own texts and curriculum.
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
Friday, December 10, 2010
Jesus Slammed in NH School Required Reading
The parents of a Bedford teen are calling for the ouster of school officials who assigned their son a book that refers to Jesus Christ as a "wine-guzzling vagrant and precocious socialist."
-- From "Required Reading in NH High School - Jesus is a Wine Guzzling Socialist?" by Gene Byrd, The National Ledger 12/8/10
Barbara Ehrenreich is required reading in one high school in New Hampshire and the pessimistic and angry feminist writes in one of her books on her many complaints about America and Christians that Jesus Christ was a "wine guzzling socialist."
That has one set of parents of a tenth grader angry enough that they have pulled their teen out of the school and are now home-schooling 16-year-old Jordan Henderson.
A school board in New Hampshire requires 10th graders to read the book, "Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America," described as "a first person account at a look at America through the eyes of a bitter minimum wage worker."
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
From "Parents outraged over finance class reading" by Greg Kwasnik, Union Leader Correspondent 12/7/10
"We had almost PhD people letting this fumble through their fingers, and they all said it was grand," said Dennis Taylor, a conservative Christian. "I think there should be a review of these individuals and perhaps some firing done."
Taylor and his wife Aimee . . . complained about the book to the school district, citing its occasional use of obscene dialogue and anti-capitalist message.
"The author is a known social Marxist, hates everything American, everything that America stands for or was built on," Aimee Taylor said. "I mean when you read the book you see that strongly in this woman's agenda. It's horrible."
In response to the Taylors' complaint, school district officials convened a materials review committee of teachers, administrators and community members to assess the book. Upon review, the committee ruled that the book's educational merit outweighed its shortcomings.
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
From "Required reading questioned at NH school" posted at WHDH TV-7 Boston 12/6/10
“We need to see what our children are being fed because we can’t trust the school,” said Amy Taylor.
The Taylors will speak before the school board next week.
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
-- From "Required Reading in NH High School - Jesus is a Wine Guzzling Socialist?" by Gene Byrd, The National Ledger 12/8/10
Barbara Ehrenreich is required reading in one high school in New Hampshire and the pessimistic and angry feminist writes in one of her books on her many complaints about America and Christians that Jesus Christ was a "wine guzzling socialist."
That has one set of parents of a tenth grader angry enough that they have pulled their teen out of the school and are now home-schooling 16-year-old Jordan Henderson.
A school board in New Hampshire requires 10th graders to read the book, "Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America," described as "a first person account at a look at America through the eyes of a bitter minimum wage worker."
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
From "Parents outraged over finance class reading" by Greg Kwasnik, Union Leader Correspondent 12/7/10
"We had almost PhD people letting this fumble through their fingers, and they all said it was grand," said Dennis Taylor, a conservative Christian. "I think there should be a review of these individuals and perhaps some firing done."
Taylor and his wife Aimee . . . complained about the book to the school district, citing its occasional use of obscene dialogue and anti-capitalist message.
"The author is a known social Marxist, hates everything American, everything that America stands for or was built on," Aimee Taylor said. "I mean when you read the book you see that strongly in this woman's agenda. It's horrible."
In response to the Taylors' complaint, school district officials convened a materials review committee of teachers, administrators and community members to assess the book. Upon review, the committee ruled that the book's educational merit outweighed its shortcomings.
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
From "Required reading questioned at NH school" posted at WHDH TV-7 Boston 12/6/10
“We need to see what our children are being fed because we can’t trust the school,” said Amy Taylor.
The Taylors will speak before the school board next week.
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
Monday, November 01, 2010
Librarians Hail Kids' Homosexual Indoctrination Books
The American Library Association's Youth Media Awards will include books normalizing homosexual behavior for kids. Thus, these books will be added to public school collections and curricula.
For background, read Gay Agenda of the American Library Association Documented
-- From "Children’s Book Prizes to Include Gay and Lesbian Category" by Hillel Italie, Associated Press 11/1/10
The library association issued a statement Monday saying that the Stonewall Children's and Young Adult Literature Award has been added to the ALA's Youth Media Awards, watched closely by educators and librarians as they decide which books to add to their collections.
The Stonewall prize honors "English-language works for children and teens of exceptional merit relating to the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered experience." Stonewall awards for adult books were started nearly 40 years ago, but the children's category only now.
"Ours is a very inclusive profession and we represent a wide variety of viewpoints," says [ALA] president Roberta Stevens . . . "Millions of children in this country are being raised by gay or lesbian parents. There are young people who are gay and sometimes they feel very alone. This is a real opportunity for youths who may be feeling alone to read about other like themselves."
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
From "Prize Is Created for Gay Literature for Young Readers" by Julie Bosman, New York Times 11/1/10
Robert Stevens, the president of the American Library Association, said in a statement that children’s books that include the experiences of gays and lesbians “are critical tools in teaching tolerance, acceptance and the importance of diversity.”
The American Library Association said there was a growing demand for high-quality children’s books that reflect the experiences of gays and lesbians, citing a national statistic that about 14 million children have a gay or lesbian parent.
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
For background, read Gay Agenda of the American Library Association Documented
-- From "Children’s Book Prizes to Include Gay and Lesbian Category" by Hillel Italie, Associated Press 11/1/10
The library association issued a statement Monday saying that the Stonewall Children's and Young Adult Literature Award has been added to the ALA's Youth Media Awards, watched closely by educators and librarians as they decide which books to add to their collections.
The Stonewall prize honors "English-language works for children and teens of exceptional merit relating to the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered experience." Stonewall awards for adult books were started nearly 40 years ago, but the children's category only now.
"Ours is a very inclusive profession and we represent a wide variety of viewpoints," says [ALA] president Roberta Stevens . . . "Millions of children in this country are being raised by gay or lesbian parents. There are young people who are gay and sometimes they feel very alone. This is a real opportunity for youths who may be feeling alone to read about other like themselves."
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
From "Prize Is Created for Gay Literature for Young Readers" by Julie Bosman, New York Times 11/1/10
Robert Stevens, the president of the American Library Association, said in a statement that children’s books that include the experiences of gays and lesbians “are critical tools in teaching tolerance, acceptance and the importance of diversity.”
The American Library Association said there was a growing demand for high-quality children’s books that reflect the experiences of gays and lesbians, citing a national statistic that about 14 million children have a gay or lesbian parent.
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
Saturday, June 26, 2010
Study Exposes Liberal Indoctrination by Colleges
A new study by the National Association of Scholars has found that 70 percent of the summer reading books assigned to incoming college freshmen in the U.S. show a liberal bias and are not academically challenging, setting off a storm of debate in educational circles.
-- From "Study Finds Liberal Bias in College Summer Reading Lists, Stirring Debate" By Ed Barnes, FOXNews.com 6/23/10
The report, "Beach Books: What Do Colleges Want Students to Read Outside Class?", surveyed 290 colleges and categorized their summer reading lists in broad terms, such as "multiculturalism, immigration and racism" (the most common category chosen by colleges), or "environmentalism, animal rights and food" (the second largest liberal category selected by colleges). The study found that "the choices by and large reflect leftist political perspectives."
"Even where the books themselves may convey more complex social views, most of the books on the list fit neatly with the agenda of the campus left: anti-Western, anti-business, multicultural, environmentalist and alienated. The books do signal what lies ahead for students in many colleges: a four-year program of more of the same," the report concluded.
The study did not look at the alleged bias of the assigned books individually, according to NAS spokeswoman Ashley Thorne, who helped create the list. "We looked at what the books were about," she said, and then categorized the general subject as either liberal or conservative.
"Only 2 percent of the books were considered conservative," she said.
. . . Peter Wood, president of NAS, stood by his group's report, saying, "Something is wrong when Frankenstein is the best book on the list; the only work of philosophy is The Communist Manifesto; and books on Africa outnumber books on Europe nearly six to one."
To read the entire article, CLICK HERE.
-- From "Study Finds Liberal Bias in College Summer Reading Lists, Stirring Debate" By Ed Barnes, FOXNews.com 6/23/10
The report, "Beach Books: What Do Colleges Want Students to Read Outside Class?", surveyed 290 colleges and categorized their summer reading lists in broad terms, such as "multiculturalism, immigration and racism" (the most common category chosen by colleges), or "environmentalism, animal rights and food" (the second largest liberal category selected by colleges). The study found that "the choices by and large reflect leftist political perspectives."
"Even where the books themselves may convey more complex social views, most of the books on the list fit neatly with the agenda of the campus left: anti-Western, anti-business, multicultural, environmentalist and alienated. The books do signal what lies ahead for students in many colleges: a four-year program of more of the same," the report concluded.
The study did not look at the alleged bias of the assigned books individually, according to NAS spokeswoman Ashley Thorne, who helped create the list. "We looked at what the books were about," she said, and then categorized the general subject as either liberal or conservative.
"Only 2 percent of the books were considered conservative," she said.
. . . Peter Wood, president of NAS, stood by his group's report, saying, "Something is wrong when Frankenstein is the best book on the list; the only work of philosophy is The Communist Manifesto; and books on Africa outnumber books on Europe nearly six to one."
To read the entire article, CLICK HERE.
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Bible Ban by Idaho State Agency Challenged
Public charter school continues legal action against state ban of Bible as instructional text
-- From "NCA appeals court ruling on religious texts" by Jessie L. Bonner, Associated Press Writer 6/14/10
The Alliance Defense Fund, an Arizona-based group of Christian lawyers, contend to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that a federal judge erred when he threw out Nampa Classical Academy's case last year.
"A wholesale ban on books with religious content conflicts with established U.S. Supreme Court precedent," said David Cortman, senior legal counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund.
The academy sued the Idaho Public Charter School Commission in September 2009, saying the state had illegally barred use of the Bible as an instructional text. At the time, Cortman said he had never seen such a broad-reaching ban on using the Bible as a resource in public schools.
U.S. District Judge Edward Lodge dismissed the case last month, saying the ban did not violate the school's rights.
The U.S. Supreme Court banned ceremonial school Bible readings in 1963 but said "the Bible is worthy of study for its literary and historic qualities" so long as material is "presented objectively as part of a secular program of education."
Public schools across the country have traditionally avoided Bible courses and the potential controversy but hundreds do offer voluntary classes to students.
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
From "Is Boise banning the Bible?" by Bob Unruh © 2010 WorldNetDaily 6/16/10
The dispute centers on curriculum plans adopted by Nampa Classical Academy, which was preparing for its instruction of more than 500 students. Officials obtained approval from the state board of education in 2008 and then followed up with positive responses from the Public Charter School Commission as it developed its standards and curriculum.
Then, last year, the state commission suddenly raised objections and prohibited the academy from using any "religious documents and text" in its curriculum or in its classrooms, even if used objectively as a resource.
State officials threatened they would not allow the academy to open if school officials used the Bible or other religious texts on their classroom resource list.
The ADF sued, but Judge Ed Lodge dismissed the complaint, ruling that the commission members "have control over the content of the curriculum."
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
-- From "NCA appeals court ruling on religious texts" by Jessie L. Bonner, Associated Press Writer 6/14/10
The Alliance Defense Fund, an Arizona-based group of Christian lawyers, contend to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that a federal judge erred when he threw out Nampa Classical Academy's case last year.
"A wholesale ban on books with religious content conflicts with established U.S. Supreme Court precedent," said David Cortman, senior legal counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund.
The academy sued the Idaho Public Charter School Commission in September 2009, saying the state had illegally barred use of the Bible as an instructional text. At the time, Cortman said he had never seen such a broad-reaching ban on using the Bible as a resource in public schools.
U.S. District Judge Edward Lodge dismissed the case last month, saying the ban did not violate the school's rights.
The U.S. Supreme Court banned ceremonial school Bible readings in 1963 but said "the Bible is worthy of study for its literary and historic qualities" so long as material is "presented objectively as part of a secular program of education."
Public schools across the country have traditionally avoided Bible courses and the potential controversy but hundreds do offer voluntary classes to students.
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
From "Is Boise banning the Bible?" by Bob Unruh © 2010 WorldNetDaily 6/16/10
The dispute centers on curriculum plans adopted by Nampa Classical Academy, which was preparing for its instruction of more than 500 students. Officials obtained approval from the state board of education in 2008 and then followed up with positive responses from the Public Charter School Commission as it developed its standards and curriculum.
Then, last year, the state commission suddenly raised objections and prohibited the academy from using any "religious documents and text" in its curriculum or in its classrooms, even if used objectively as a resource.
State officials threatened they would not allow the academy to open if school officials used the Bible or other religious texts on their classroom resource list.
The ADF sued, but Judge Ed Lodge dismissed the complaint, ruling that the commission members "have control over the content of the curriculum."
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Principal Apologizes for Teacher Banning Bible
A third-grade New Jersey girl is once again allowed to read her Bible during classroom "quiet time" after her teacher ordered her to stop reading the Good Book.
Video from FOX TV New York
-- From "New Jersey teacher told student to put Bible away" Associated Press 12/16/09
Her parents say a New Jersey elementary school teacher told a third-grader the Bible was inappropriate reading material for quiet time.
The principal at Madison Park Elementary School in Old Bridge apologized and said the teacher made a mistake. The principal says school policy allows children to read the Bible or any other religious book during quiet time.
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
From "Teacher orders 3rd-grader: Put Bible away!" © 2009 WorldNetDaily 12/16/09
A dispute developed after Michelle Jordat learned her daughter, Mariah, was told to put the Bible completely out of sight at Madison Park Elementary School in Old Bridge, N.J.
"Her teacher told her to put it away, and she put it in her desk. And then the teacher told her, 'No, put that in your backpack. I told you to put it away.' And it hurt her feelings and confused her. Why would my teacher say that I can't read the Bible when I'm not bothering anybody else?"
Although Jordat accepted the principal's apology, she is looking for something in writing confirming that reading the Bible is permissible during personal reading time. She also indicated she'll be seeking legal counsel.
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
Video from FOX TV New York
-- From "New Jersey teacher told student to put Bible away" Associated Press 12/16/09
Her parents say a New Jersey elementary school teacher told a third-grader the Bible was inappropriate reading material for quiet time.
The principal at Madison Park Elementary School in Old Bridge apologized and said the teacher made a mistake. The principal says school policy allows children to read the Bible or any other religious book during quiet time.
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
From "Teacher orders 3rd-grader: Put Bible away!" © 2009 WorldNetDaily 12/16/09
A dispute developed after Michelle Jordat learned her daughter, Mariah, was told to put the Bible completely out of sight at Madison Park Elementary School in Old Bridge, N.J.
"Her teacher told her to put it away, and she put it in her desk. And then the teacher told her, 'No, put that in your backpack. I told you to put it away.' And it hurt her feelings and confused her. Why would my teacher say that I can't read the Bible when I'm not bothering anybody else?"
Although Jordat accepted the principal's apology, she is looking for something in writing confirming that reading the Bible is permissible during personal reading time. She also indicated she'll be seeking legal counsel.
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
Friday, October 23, 2009
Gay Agenda of the American Library Association Documented
Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays & Gays (PFOX) says there's an entire community of people across the world who say that their sexual orientation changed from gay to straight. But they're not getting their message out, the group says, because libraries across the country refuse to carry literature that describes these experiences or any studies that support them.
-- From "Libraries Should Include Ex-Gay Books, Group Says" by Matt Bartosik, posted at NBC Chicago 10/23/09
"According to Deborah Caldwell-Stone, director of the [American Library Association's] Office for Intellectual Freedom, ALA policy recommends diversity in book collection development by libraries, regardless of partisan or doctrinal disapproval. However, Caldwell-Stone refuses to state whether that diversity policy includes ex-gay books," PFOX executive director Regina Griggs said in a press release.
"Books about leaving homosexuality are censored in most high school libraries, although gay-affirming books for youth are readily available," she continued.
However, the American Psychological Association, along with most mainstream medical groups, has said that mental health professionals and parents should avoid telling young people that they can change their sexual orientation.
In 2008, the American Psychological Association, American Psychiatric Association, and National Association of Social Workers stated in an amicus brief to the Supreme Court of California:
"Sexual orientation has proved to be generally impervious to interventions intended to change it, which are sometimes referred to as 'reparative therapy.' No scientifically adequate research has shown that such interventions are effective or safe."
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
From "Gay Reversal Advocates Say School Libraries Banning Their 'Ex-Gay' Books" by Diane Macedo, FOX News 10/22/09
. . . a book like "My Genes Made Me Do It!: A Scientific Look at Sexual Orientation" — which argues that sexuality is shaped by a variety of factors, not just biological — can't get a spot on the school library shelf.
Neither can "You Don't Have to Be Gay," which describes author Jeff Konrad's struggle to overcome his unwanted same-sex attractions.
But "Baby Be-Bop," the coming-out story of a gay teen, which includes descriptions of his sexual encounters in bathroom stalls with men he never talks to, makes the stacks.
So does "Love & Sex: Ten Stories of Truth," which describes a gay teen's relationship with his tutor with excerpts like: "Matt had one leg locked between mine, so that his d—- was smashed between his stomach and my thigh. And as his hand jerked up and down on me his hips humped with the same rhythm."
Calls from Foxnews.com to Caldwell-Stone were directed to American Library Association Media Relations Manager Macey Morales, who asked for more information about PFOX's allegations and then failed to return follow-up e-mails and phone calls.
To read the entire article above, which includes links to extensive documentation, CLICK HERE.
-- From "Libraries Should Include Ex-Gay Books, Group Says" by Matt Bartosik, posted at NBC Chicago 10/23/09
"According to Deborah Caldwell-Stone, director of the [American Library Association's] Office for Intellectual Freedom, ALA policy recommends diversity in book collection development by libraries, regardless of partisan or doctrinal disapproval. However, Caldwell-Stone refuses to state whether that diversity policy includes ex-gay books," PFOX executive director Regina Griggs said in a press release.
"Books about leaving homosexuality are censored in most high school libraries, although gay-affirming books for youth are readily available," she continued.
However, the American Psychological Association, along with most mainstream medical groups, has said that mental health professionals and parents should avoid telling young people that they can change their sexual orientation.
In 2008, the American Psychological Association, American Psychiatric Association, and National Association of Social Workers stated in an amicus brief to the Supreme Court of California:
"Sexual orientation has proved to be generally impervious to interventions intended to change it, which are sometimes referred to as 'reparative therapy.' No scientifically adequate research has shown that such interventions are effective or safe."
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
From "Gay Reversal Advocates Say School Libraries Banning Their 'Ex-Gay' Books" by Diane Macedo, FOX News 10/22/09
. . . a book like "My Genes Made Me Do It!: A Scientific Look at Sexual Orientation" — which argues that sexuality is shaped by a variety of factors, not just biological — can't get a spot on the school library shelf.
Neither can "You Don't Have to Be Gay," which describes author Jeff Konrad's struggle to overcome his unwanted same-sex attractions.
But "Baby Be-Bop," the coming-out story of a gay teen, which includes descriptions of his sexual encounters in bathroom stalls with men he never talks to, makes the stacks.
So does "Love & Sex: Ten Stories of Truth," which describes a gay teen's relationship with his tutor with excerpts like: "Matt had one leg locked between mine, so that his d—- was smashed between his stomach and my thigh. And as his hand jerked up and down on me his hips humped with the same rhythm."
Calls from Foxnews.com to Caldwell-Stone were directed to American Library Association Media Relations Manager Macey Morales, who asked for more information about PFOX's allegations and then failed to return follow-up e-mails and phone calls.
To read the entire article above, which includes links to extensive documentation, CLICK HERE.
Friday, October 16, 2009
After Parent Complaints, Schools Drop Sexually Explicit Book Studies
The book "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" has been removed from Roanoke County school libraries after a parent publicly complained, resulting in a flood of citizen complaints.
-- From "Teachers tense after book complaint" by Courtney Cutright, Roanoke Times 10/15/09
The review of "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" is under way but school spokesman Chuck Lionberger did not specify when it will be done.
Two copies of the novel were removed from William Byrd High and a third was taken off the shelves at Hidden Valley High School. A third county school library, Cave Spring High School, also had the book until last school year when it was reported missing. Per the division's policy, the ruling on the challenged book applies to only the school where the complaint originated.
John Davis, the parent who complained, said in an interview last week he awaited the panel's decision. "It's not really anything I was looking for except making folks aware," he said. "I was hoping to get the Gospel out some more. We need repentance in the land."
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
From "Gulf High IB student gets reprieve on book she objected to" St. Petersburg Times 9/17/09
It appears Marà Mercado won't have to read "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle" after all. And she won't have to take a reduced score on her required International Baccalaureate program world literature essay, either.
MarÃ's father, Rafael, told the Gradebook that he sat with officials from Gulf High School this afternoon, and they agreed to give his daughter a new novel for her assignment.
MarÃ, a 16-year-old junior, had objected to the required reading of The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, saying she was offended by the graphic sexual content in the book's early pages. Initially, school officials stated that they could not change the assignment. After additional review directed by the Pasco school district's curriculum department, the position seems to have softened.
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
-- From "Teachers tense after book complaint" by Courtney Cutright, Roanoke Times 10/15/09
The review of "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" is under way but school spokesman Chuck Lionberger did not specify when it will be done.
Two copies of the novel were removed from William Byrd High and a third was taken off the shelves at Hidden Valley High School. A third county school library, Cave Spring High School, also had the book until last school year when it was reported missing. Per the division's policy, the ruling on the challenged book applies to only the school where the complaint originated.
John Davis, the parent who complained, said in an interview last week he awaited the panel's decision. "It's not really anything I was looking for except making folks aware," he said. "I was hoping to get the Gospel out some more. We need repentance in the land."
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
From "Gulf High IB student gets reprieve on book she objected to" St. Petersburg Times 9/17/09
It appears Marà Mercado won't have to read "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle" after all. And she won't have to take a reduced score on her required International Baccalaureate program world literature essay, either.
MarÃ's father, Rafael, told the Gradebook that he sat with officials from Gulf High School this afternoon, and they agreed to give his daughter a new novel for her assignment.
MarÃ, a 16-year-old junior, had objected to the required reading of The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, saying she was offended by the graphic sexual content in the book's early pages. Initially, school officials stated that they could not change the assignment. After additional review directed by the Pasco school district's curriculum department, the position seems to have softened.
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
Saturday, October 04, 2008
Virginia School Bans Books Critical of Homosexuality
Librarians say such books "would make gay students feel inferior"
-- From "Conservative Group Urges Libraries to Accept Collection" by Michael Alison Chandler, Washington Post Staff Writer 10/3/08
During a week that librarians nationwide are highlighting banned books, conservative Christian students and parents showcased their own collection outside a Fairfax County high school yesterday -- a collection they say was banned by the librarians themselves.
More than 40 students, many wearing black T-shirts stamped with the words "Closing Books Shuts Out Ideas," said they tried to donate more than 100 books about homosexuality to more than a dozen high school libraries in the past year. The initiative, organized by Colorado Springs-based Focus on the Family, was intended to add a conservative Christian perspective to shelves that the students said are stocked with "pro-gay" books.
Most of the books were turned down after school librarians said they did not meet school system standards. Titles include "Marriage on Trial: The Case Against Same-Sex Marriage and Parenting" and "Someone I Love Is Gay," which argues that homosexuality is not "a hopeless condition."
Fairfax County's policy on library book selection says "the collection should support the diverse interests, needs and viewpoints of the school community."
To read the entire article, CLICK HERE.
-- From "Conservative Group Urges Libraries to Accept Collection" by Michael Alison Chandler, Washington Post Staff Writer 10/3/08
During a week that librarians nationwide are highlighting banned books, conservative Christian students and parents showcased their own collection outside a Fairfax County high school yesterday -- a collection they say was banned by the librarians themselves.
More than 40 students, many wearing black T-shirts stamped with the words "Closing Books Shuts Out Ideas," said they tried to donate more than 100 books about homosexuality to more than a dozen high school libraries in the past year. The initiative, organized by Colorado Springs-based Focus on the Family, was intended to add a conservative Christian perspective to shelves that the students said are stocked with "pro-gay" books.
Most of the books were turned down after school librarians said they did not meet school system standards. Titles include "Marriage on Trial: The Case Against Same-Sex Marriage and Parenting" and "Someone I Love Is Gay," which argues that homosexuality is not "a hopeless condition."
Fairfax County's policy on library book selection says "the collection should support the diverse interests, needs and viewpoints of the school community."
To read the entire article, CLICK HERE.
Friday, June 20, 2008
New Book Debunks Atheists’ Claims
Much of what atheists pass off as fact in their charges against God and religion is really based on myth, says Legionary of Christ Father Thomas D. Williams.
-- From "New Book Debunks Atheists’ Claims" by Karna Swanson, posted at Zenit.org 6/16/08
Father Williams is author of Greater Than You Think: A Theologian Answers the Atheists About God.
“Though the atheists claim to represent the side of reason,” he asserts in his book, “their arguments more often than not are ideological rather than rational.”
In this interview, ZENIT asked Father Williams, a theology professor in Rome and Vatican analyst for CBS News, to explain some of the common fallacies perpetuated by atheism that he addresses in his book.
Q: What spurred you to write this book?
Father Williams: As you are undoubtedly aware, the last several years have seen a surge in neo-atheist literature, with books such as Daniel Dennett’s "Breaking the Spell," Sam Harris’ "The End of Faith," Richard Dawkins’ "The God Delusion," and Christopher Hitchens’ "God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything."
Several of these books have become bestsellers. The problem is, most people only hear one side of the story. They become indoctrinated with the atheistic arguments without ever hearing a reasoned response.
Many people have been confused by these books. Others worry about friends who have read them, or simply would like good answers to the charges atheisms brings against God, religion, and Christianity in particular. I wrote this book to furnish clear, concise replies to the atheists’ charges.
The book lays out -- and responds to -- the chief claims of the neo-atheists in five categories: (1) the case against God and religion, (2) the case against religion’s benefits for society, (3) the case against religion’s compatibility with science and reason, (4) the case against Christianity, and (5) the case for atheism’s superiority.
To read the entire interview, CLICK HERE.
-- From "New Book Debunks Atheists’ Claims" by Karna Swanson, posted at Zenit.org 6/16/08
Father Williams is author of Greater Than You Think: A Theologian Answers the Atheists About God.
“Though the atheists claim to represent the side of reason,” he asserts in his book, “their arguments more often than not are ideological rather than rational.”
In this interview, ZENIT asked Father Williams, a theology professor in Rome and Vatican analyst for CBS News, to explain some of the common fallacies perpetuated by atheism that he addresses in his book.
Q: What spurred you to write this book?
Father Williams: As you are undoubtedly aware, the last several years have seen a surge in neo-atheist literature, with books such as Daniel Dennett’s "Breaking the Spell," Sam Harris’ "The End of Faith," Richard Dawkins’ "The God Delusion," and Christopher Hitchens’ "God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything."
Several of these books have become bestsellers. The problem is, most people only hear one side of the story. They become indoctrinated with the atheistic arguments without ever hearing a reasoned response.
Many people have been confused by these books. Others worry about friends who have read them, or simply would like good answers to the charges atheisms brings against God, religion, and Christianity in particular. I wrote this book to furnish clear, concise replies to the atheists’ charges.
The book lays out -- and responds to -- the chief claims of the neo-atheists in five categories: (1) the case against God and religion, (2) the case against religion’s benefits for society, (3) the case against religion’s compatibility with science and reason, (4) the case against Christianity, and (5) the case for atheism’s superiority.
To read the entire interview, CLICK HERE.
Friday, April 04, 2008
UK: Angry Muslim Parents Force Schools to Shelve Gay Fairytales
Their children were coming home and talking about homosexual relationships, when they hadn't even talked to them about heterosexual relationships yet...
From "Muslims' fury forces schools to shelve anti-homophobia storybooks for 5-year-olds" by Laura Clark, posted 2/2/08 at dailymail.co.uk
Two primary schools have withdrawn storybooks about same-sex relationships after objections from Muslim parents.
Up to 90 gathered at the schools to complain about the books which are aimed at pupils as young as five.
One story, titled King & King, is a fairytale about a prince who turns down three princesses before marrying one of their brothers.
Another named And Tango Makes Three features two male penguins who fall in love at a New York zoo.
Bristol City Council said the two schools had been using the books to ensure they complied with gay rights laws which came into force last April.
They were intended to help prevent homophobic bullying, it said.
But the council has since removed the books from Easton Primary School and Bannerman Road Community School, both in Bristol.
A book and DVD titled That's a Family!, which teaches children about different family set-ups including gay or lesbian parents, has also been withdrawn.
The decision was made to enable the schools to "operate safely" after parents voiced their concerns at meetings.
Around 40 are said to have gathered at Easton to speak to staff and another 50 at Bannerman Road.
Members of the Bristol Muslim Cultural Society said parents were upset at the lack of consultation over the use of the materials.
Read the rest of this article.
Thursday, October 11, 2007
Banned Books? Smoke Screen of Hypocrisy
If someone wants to complain about censorship, let's start with the dwindling number of conservative books on the shelves of our libraries...
From "Banned Books Week: Smoke screen of Hypocrisy" by Linda Harvey, posted 9/23/07 at WorldNetDaily.com
Libraries and schools throughout the country are ready once again to observe Banned Books Week. It's that special time each year when some in the library profession point an accusing finger at parents, especially Christians or conservatives who might dare to question the value or appropriateness of certain materials available to youth. For 25 years since its inception, Banned Books Week has been warning America: "Beware of the ignorance and repression of censors! They will deprive us all of valuable knowledge and freedom."
From "Banned Books Week: Smoke screen of Hypocrisy" by Linda Harvey, posted 9/23/07 at WorldNetDaily.com
Libraries and schools throughout the country are ready once again to observe Banned Books Week. It's that special time each year when some in the library profession point an accusing finger at parents, especially Christians or conservatives who might dare to question the value or appropriateness of certain materials available to youth. For 25 years since its inception, Banned Books Week has been warning America: "Beware of the ignorance and repression of censors! They will deprive us all of valuable knowledge and freedom."
Setting aside any danger that the government might ban valuable materials, which is not happening in any community in America, let's strip away the spin and look at the facts. The supposed dangers are essentially phony. For there are several methods to "ban" a book from a school or library: someone can ask that something already in the library be removed, or, valuable books can be banned from consideration before they ever reach the shelves. This is the dirty little secret behind the bluster and outrage of Banned Books Week: private, library-initiated censorship is a routine practice throughout America.
Library selection committees are systematically purging libraries of any conservative or serious Christian viewpoints and instead, loading the shelves with left-wing propaganda and pornography. This year, the American Library Association is making a special to-do about the "dangers" of objections to "gay-themed books" especially those for youth. While it's doubtful this is an issue that keeps most Americans awake at night, it's important to recognize that as controversial social issues go, there is hardly a more hot-button topic, and one would think that all these "free-speech" advocates and defenders of philosophical liberties would be worried about any suppression of viewpoints on this high -profile subject. Don't the vigilant watchdogs of tolerance seek to protect a "diversity" of thought?
Well, the microcosm of my local library in a suburb of Columbus, Ohio, reflects what many are reporting from around the nation: Conservative materials on the issue of homosexuality are disappearing from the collection, or more often, never appearing in the first place. In researching the catalog of the Upper Arlington Public Library, I searched under titles, authors and subjects for books providing a responsible defense of traditional marriage and warning about the risks of homosexual behavior.
I searched under "homosexuality," "gay and lesbian," "traditional marriage," "Christian morality," "ex-gay," "ex-homosexual," and many other phrases. My search yielded four non-fiction books expressing a conservative viewpoint.
...And time doesn't even permit me to cover all the many offerings detailing homosexual, bisexual and group sex, nor the selections arguing for more tolerance and understanding of adults having sex with children – "intergenerational intimacy" is the new name for pedophilia.
In the section of the library aimed toward adults, I stopped counting at 100 pro-homosexual books..
Read the whole article.
Thursday, August 30, 2007
Illinois School Pushes Smut on Children as Young as 12 with Profanity Laden Book
By constantly lowering the bar on decency, educators are intentionally playing a game of ideological limbo with our children's moral well-being as they seek to create little moral relativists in their own iconoclastic self-image. And they're robbing kids of great reading like Oliver Twist, Treasure Island and many others in the process.
From "Illinois School Pushes Smut on Children as Young as 12 with Porn-Laden Book" posted 8/28/07 at Lifesite.org
Illinois School District 126, covering Alsip, Hazelgreen and Oak Lawn, has defended its choice to assign summer reading to 12- and 13-year-olds that is replete with harsh profanity and references to teen sex (even teen sex with adults).
Prairie Junior High School's required reading list for rising 8th graders gave children six books to choose from over the summer. Parents have complained that three of the six books contain adult content which is highly age-inappropriate. Those complaints, however, have fallen on deaf ears. At a recent school board meeting, school board members said they intend to continue assigning the books.
To add insult to injury, the school didn't even have the courtesy to warn these kids - or their parents - about the adult content within the assigned reading. And parents are understandably furious. If one of my daughters came to me at twelve having been assigned this smut, I'd be ticked-off too.
Whatever happened to classics like Ivanhoe or Up From Slavery? Sure, some of them may even contain limited profanity and adult content, but there's a big difference. The profane content in Fat Kid isn't sporadic. It's pervasive and gratuitous. The book has 110 pages containing the F-word and other profanities, and there are multiple crude sexual references.
With all the objectionable material children are subjected to on the internet, on television and in theatres, it's outrageous that educators, who are charged with helping to mold the minds of these 12- and 13-year-olds, would willingly - if not eagerly - contribute to their moral degradation by pushing this kind of vulgarity on them. It amounts to educational malpractice, and School District 126 should have its mouth washed out with soap.
I telephoned Robert Berger, superintendent of schools for District 126, fully expecting him to assure me that this foolishness would be remedied. But instead, his response was defiant, defensive and arrogant.
Berger refused to answer me when I asked him several times if District 126 believed that such mature content was appropriate for children. (I wonder; if it's so appropriate, then why wouldn't he defend it?)
I asked Berger if one could infer that the district found the material appropriate since it was assigned to children. He quipped, "Infer whatever you want to."
No one's calling for a book burning here, but c'mon, these are just kids. Does District 126 have any standards of decency at all?
Unfortunately the actions of District 126 are symptomatic of a metastasizing moral malady within our larger system of public education. Kids in public schools across the country are constantly inundated with material which promotes profanity, homosexuality, promiscuity and abortion.
The agenda is pushed and the curriculum set by leftist groups like the National Education Association (NEA), the ACLU and the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN). Even the American Library Association (ALA) gave Fat Kids its "Michael L. Printz Award for Excellence in Young Adult Literature." The book also received a rave review from America's largest homosexual activist literary organization, Lambda Literary Foundation.
By constantly lowering the bar on decency, educators are intentionally playing a game of ideological limbo with our children's moral well-being as they seek to create little moral relativists in their own iconoclastic self-image. And they're robbing kids of great reading like Oliver Twist, Treasure Island and many others in the process.
How low will they go?
By the looks of things in Alsip, Illinois, they're not going to bottom out anytime soon.
For additional background on this saga, read last week's blog post.
From "Illinois School Pushes Smut on Children as Young as 12 with Porn-Laden Book" posted 8/28/07 at Lifesite.org
Illinois School District 126, covering Alsip, Hazelgreen and Oak Lawn, has defended its choice to assign summer reading to 12- and 13-year-olds that is replete with harsh profanity and references to teen sex (even teen sex with adults).
Prairie Junior High School's required reading list for rising 8th graders gave children six books to choose from over the summer. Parents have complained that three of the six books contain adult content which is highly age-inappropriate. Those complaints, however, have fallen on deaf ears. At a recent school board meeting, school board members said they intend to continue assigning the books.
To add insult to injury, the school didn't even have the courtesy to warn these kids - or their parents - about the adult content within the assigned reading. And parents are understandably furious. If one of my daughters came to me at twelve having been assigned this smut, I'd be ticked-off too.
Whatever happened to classics like Ivanhoe or Up From Slavery? Sure, some of them may even contain limited profanity and adult content, but there's a big difference. The profane content in Fat Kid isn't sporadic. It's pervasive and gratuitous. The book has 110 pages containing the F-word and other profanities, and there are multiple crude sexual references.
With all the objectionable material children are subjected to on the internet, on television and in theatres, it's outrageous that educators, who are charged with helping to mold the minds of these 12- and 13-year-olds, would willingly - if not eagerly - contribute to their moral degradation by pushing this kind of vulgarity on them. It amounts to educational malpractice, and School District 126 should have its mouth washed out with soap.
I telephoned Robert Berger, superintendent of schools for District 126, fully expecting him to assure me that this foolishness would be remedied. But instead, his response was defiant, defensive and arrogant.
Berger refused to answer me when I asked him several times if District 126 believed that such mature content was appropriate for children. (I wonder; if it's so appropriate, then why wouldn't he defend it?)
I asked Berger if one could infer that the district found the material appropriate since it was assigned to children. He quipped, "Infer whatever you want to."
No one's calling for a book burning here, but c'mon, these are just kids. Does District 126 have any standards of decency at all?
Unfortunately the actions of District 126 are symptomatic of a metastasizing moral malady within our larger system of public education. Kids in public schools across the country are constantly inundated with material which promotes profanity, homosexuality, promiscuity and abortion.
The agenda is pushed and the curriculum set by leftist groups like the National Education Association (NEA), the ACLU and the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN). Even the American Library Association (ALA) gave Fat Kids its "Michael L. Printz Award for Excellence in Young Adult Literature." The book also received a rave review from America's largest homosexual activist literary organization, Lambda Literary Foundation.
By constantly lowering the bar on decency, educators are intentionally playing a game of ideological limbo with our children's moral well-being as they seek to create little moral relativists in their own iconoclastic self-image. And they're robbing kids of great reading like Oliver Twist, Treasure Island and many others in the process.
How low will they go?
By the looks of things in Alsip, Illinois, they're not going to bottom out anytime soon.
For additional background on this saga, read last week's blog post.
Thursday, August 23, 2007
Alsip/Oaklawn District 126 School Board Ignores Pleas of Parents for Decency in Student Reading Materials
The school board arrived at the meeting with a refusal WRITTEN BEFORE even hearing parents' concerns about middle school reading material containing gratuitous profanity and vulgarity...
Over a dozen parents in District 126 thought that perhaps the school board, elected to represent them, might honor their request for decency in summer reading materials for their middle school children. They were wrong.
According to concerned mother, Karen Lukes, the school board claimed that the message of overcoming despair contained in "Fat Boy Rules the World" outweighed all the vulgarity and profanity.
Examine excerpts from "Fat Kid Rules the World" and ask yourself:
Are there not books that convey that same message without the filthy language and themes?
In good literature, aren't the words used to convey a message of nearly equal importance to the message itself?
What does this sort of reading material example to children about acceptable ways of communicating?
Read the previous coverage and wonder, with literally thousands wonderful books out there, why it's too much to ask that educators choose books that do NOT contain gratuitous profanity and adult themes.
Consider finally, who are these school boards elected to represent?
More often than not they seem to merely rubber stamp the choices of educators...
-Abigail Ruth
Related Coverage:
Preventing Bad Books and Other Liberal Propogandizing at Your Child's School
Help for Parents Challenging Bad Books in Their Public Schools
Over a dozen parents in District 126 thought that perhaps the school board, elected to represent them, might honor their request for decency in summer reading materials for their middle school children. They were wrong.
According to concerned mother, Karen Lukes, the school board claimed that the message of overcoming despair contained in "Fat Boy Rules the World" outweighed all the vulgarity and profanity.
Examine excerpts from "Fat Kid Rules the World" and ask yourself:
Are there not books that convey that same message without the filthy language and themes?
In good literature, aren't the words used to convey a message of nearly equal importance to the message itself?
What does this sort of reading material example to children about acceptable ways of communicating?
Read the previous coverage and wonder, with literally thousands wonderful books out there, why it's too much to ask that educators choose books that do NOT contain gratuitous profanity and adult themes.
Consider finally, who are these school boards elected to represent?
More often than not they seem to merely rubber stamp the choices of educators...
-Abigail Ruth
Related Coverage:
Preventing Bad Books and Other Liberal Propogandizing at Your Child's School
Help for Parents Challenging Bad Books in Their Public Schools
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Help for Parents Challenging Bad Books in Their Children's Schools
Here are some of the arguments that parents may encounter when they challenge books (e.g. The Chocolate War, Fat Kid Rules the World, The Laramie Project, or Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes) for their problematic ideological messages, the nature and extent of profanity and obscenity, or the nature and extent of depictions of sexuality, followed by brief responses. Parents who challenge a book because of language need to bear in mind that many of the parents and teachers who approve of these objectionable texts use the same obscene and profane language commonly and casually in their personal lives, even with their children, though they will not likely admit it. Therefore, it is highly unlikely that they will concede that profanity and obscenity are objectionable, for conceding that would constitute a personal indictment:
1. Parents are taking words out of context, and it is the context that justifies the language.
Response: There is no context that renders frequent and excessively obscene language acceptable in texts selected by public school teachers for minor children. In other words, the extreme nature and pervasiveness of obscenity renders the entire text unsuitable for public schools whose mission is to cultivate the best behavior in students.
2. Profane and obscene language is justified because it represents authentic adolescent language.
Response: If the author is justified in using this language to portray authentically adolescent culture and the emotional experiences of adolescents, then surely students are justified in using this language in school in order to be authentic and to express adequately and accurately their emotional truths. Teachers too should be allowed to use this language because it also represents authentic adult language and experience. In fact, society often erroneously and euphemistically refers to profanity and obscenity as "adult language."
3. Counting numbers of swear words constitutes an immature or silly evaluative mechanism.
Response: Taking into account the extent of foul language is neither silly nor juvenile. There is a substantive difference between one incident of "f**k" and one hundred. The incessant drumbeat of obscenities desensitizes readers to their offensiveness and normalizes their use. Moreover, although adults may distinguish between literary use and endorsement, many adolescents do not.
First, the prevalence of foul language should be taken into account. Second, the nature of the obscenity or profanity should be taken into account. Third, who is using the offensive language should be taken into account. Is it the hero or the antagonist? Fourth, parents and educators should realize that books with profuse obscenity and the willingness of educators’ to teach them convey the message that there are justifiable reasons and contexts for using extremely foul language.
4. Since students mature at different rates, some students are mature enough for these texts. Parents, therefore, should decide what is appropriate for their child.
Response: Whoever makes this argument should be asked to define maturity. If they are referring to intellectual development, then it is irrelevant to the discussion in that parents who challenge texts because of language, sexuality, or pro-homosexual messages, are not doing so because they find the material intellectually inaccessible.
If educators are referring to emotional maturity, meaning that students are emotionally stable enough to read and discuss emotionally difficult material without being traumatized, that too is likely irrelevant, for few parents who object to language, sexuality, or pro-homosexual messages are concerned that their children will be emotionally traumatized.
The concern conservative parents have is with moral development. They recognize that all adolescents, including even mature high school seniors, are not yet adults. They are still constructing a moral compass. They are impressionable, malleable, and much more vulnerable to external influences than are adults whose moral compass is likely fixed and stable. For a teacher to contend that there is any 12-18 year-old whose moral compass is fully developed, mature, and fixed represents an ignorant and hubristic assertion.
Every parent should be able to send their child to school confident that their beliefs regarding decency and morality will not be challenged by educators or curricula, especially since this confidence can be secured without compromising the academic enterprise. It is even more important today in a culture in which profanity, obscenity, and sexual imagery relentlessly bombard our youth that schools stand as one of the last bastions of integrity, civility, and temperance.
5. A small minority group is trying to impose their morality or religious beliefs on the whole community.
Response: Since schools are ostensibly committed to honoring the voices of all in the community, there is no justifiable reason to ignore the concerns of even minority voices. Schools should respect the values of people of faith, especially when doing so does not compromise student learning. In addition, objections to obscenity, sexuality, or pro-homosexual messages can be either religious or secular in nature. If objections to, for example, the use of obscenity represented the imposition of religious belief, then why do virtually all school districts have policies against its use by students in school? It is the mark of a civilized society to honor the concerns and values of people of diverse faiths and to aspire to decency.
6. There are other options for those who object to particular texts.
Response: First, opting out of reading an assigned class text results in a diminished, isolated academic experience for students. But equally important is the issue of whether taxpayers, even those who have no children in school, should be required to fund the teaching of offensive material. A text like Angels in America contributes to the debasement of an already vulgar culture, and schools should never in any way contribute to the baser aspects of culture. This does not mean that texts must avoid looking at the flaws and evil that afflict man. Rather, it means that we should choose texts that look at the presence of ignobility and evil but do so in ways that inspire, edify, chasten, and point us in the direction of truth, beauty and righteousness. Texts like Angels in America do none of this.
7. Refusing to offer this book will lead ineluctably to the world of book-burning à la Fahrenheit 451.
Response: This is an irrational, alarmist, specious canard. There is simply no evidence that including in selection criteria the nature and extent of obscene language or sexuality, or a consideration of highly controversial political messages will result in wholesale book banning. There is, however, ample evidence, that a steadfast refusal to ever take into account these elements will result in a slippery slide down the other slope to the use of corrosively vulgar and polemical texts.
8. This book has won prestigious literary awards or has been approved by the American Library Association (ALA).
Response: This justification begs the question: Who serves on committees that award prizes or review texts? And this argument calls for a serious, open, and honest examination of the ideological monopoly that controls academia and the elite world of the arts that for decades has engaged in censorship of conservative scholarship. To offer as justification for teaching a text the garnering of literary prizes or ALA approval without acknowledging that those who award the prizes and belong to the ALA are generally of the same ideological bent is an exercise in sophistry.
What school committees, departments, administrations, school boards, the ALA, the National Education Association (NEA), and organizations that award literary prizes desperately need is the one form of diversity about which they are least concerned and to which they are least committed: ideological diversity.
9. Kids relate to this book and, therefore, it captures and holds their interest.
Response: If this criterion has assumed a dominant place in the selection process, then teachers have abandoned their proper role as educators. Appealing to the sensibilities and appetites of adolescents should not be the goal of educators. There’s another word for capitulating to the tastes of adolescents: it is called pandering. Schools should teach those texts that students will likely not read on their own. We should teach those texts that are intellectually challenging and offer insight, wisdom, beauty, and truth. We should avoid those that are highly polemical, blasphemous, and vulgar.
10. To remove this text constitutes censorship.
Response: Parents who object to the inclusion of texts on recommended or required reading lists due to obscene language, sexuality, or highly controversial messages are not engaging in some kind of inappropriate censorship. All educators evaluate curricular materials for objectionable content, including language, sexuality, and controversial themes. The irony is that when teachers decide not to select a text due to these elements, the choice constitutes an exercise in legitimate decision-making, but when parents engage in it, they are tarred with the label of “censor.”
Furthermore, virtually no parents advocate prior restraint and only rarely are they asking for the removal of a text from a school library. Rather, parents are suggesting that it is reasonable to include the nature and extent of profanity, obscenity, and sexuality when selecting texts to be recommended and/or taught to minors in public schools.
Are those teachers, administrators, and school board members who disagree with that suggestion saying that they will never take into account the nature and extent of profanity, obscenity, and sexuality? If they are claiming that they will never take into account these elements, then parents should reconsider their fitness for teaching.
In all four years of high school English, students read approximately 28-32 books. From the dozens and dozens of texts available, it seems unlikely that any student’s education would be compromised by teachers, in the service of respect for parental values, comity, and modesty, avoiding the most controversial texts.
-Laurie Higgins
1. Parents are taking words out of context, and it is the context that justifies the language.
Response: There is no context that renders frequent and excessively obscene language acceptable in texts selected by public school teachers for minor children. In other words, the extreme nature and pervasiveness of obscenity renders the entire text unsuitable for public schools whose mission is to cultivate the best behavior in students.
2. Profane and obscene language is justified because it represents authentic adolescent language.
Response: If the author is justified in using this language to portray authentically adolescent culture and the emotional experiences of adolescents, then surely students are justified in using this language in school in order to be authentic and to express adequately and accurately their emotional truths. Teachers too should be allowed to use this language because it also represents authentic adult language and experience. In fact, society often erroneously and euphemistically refers to profanity and obscenity as "adult language."
3. Counting numbers of swear words constitutes an immature or silly evaluative mechanism.
Response: Taking into account the extent of foul language is neither silly nor juvenile. There is a substantive difference between one incident of "f**k" and one hundred. The incessant drumbeat of obscenities desensitizes readers to their offensiveness and normalizes their use. Moreover, although adults may distinguish between literary use and endorsement, many adolescents do not.
First, the prevalence of foul language should be taken into account. Second, the nature of the obscenity or profanity should be taken into account. Third, who is using the offensive language should be taken into account. Is it the hero or the antagonist? Fourth, parents and educators should realize that books with profuse obscenity and the willingness of educators’ to teach them convey the message that there are justifiable reasons and contexts for using extremely foul language.
4. Since students mature at different rates, some students are mature enough for these texts. Parents, therefore, should decide what is appropriate for their child.
Response: Whoever makes this argument should be asked to define maturity. If they are referring to intellectual development, then it is irrelevant to the discussion in that parents who challenge texts because of language, sexuality, or pro-homosexual messages, are not doing so because they find the material intellectually inaccessible.
If educators are referring to emotional maturity, meaning that students are emotionally stable enough to read and discuss emotionally difficult material without being traumatized, that too is likely irrelevant, for few parents who object to language, sexuality, or pro-homosexual messages are concerned that their children will be emotionally traumatized.
The concern conservative parents have is with moral development. They recognize that all adolescents, including even mature high school seniors, are not yet adults. They are still constructing a moral compass. They are impressionable, malleable, and much more vulnerable to external influences than are adults whose moral compass is likely fixed and stable. For a teacher to contend that there is any 12-18 year-old whose moral compass is fully developed, mature, and fixed represents an ignorant and hubristic assertion.
Every parent should be able to send their child to school confident that their beliefs regarding decency and morality will not be challenged by educators or curricula, especially since this confidence can be secured without compromising the academic enterprise. It is even more important today in a culture in which profanity, obscenity, and sexual imagery relentlessly bombard our youth that schools stand as one of the last bastions of integrity, civility, and temperance.
5. A small minority group is trying to impose their morality or religious beliefs on the whole community.
Response: Since schools are ostensibly committed to honoring the voices of all in the community, there is no justifiable reason to ignore the concerns of even minority voices. Schools should respect the values of people of faith, especially when doing so does not compromise student learning. In addition, objections to obscenity, sexuality, or pro-homosexual messages can be either religious or secular in nature. If objections to, for example, the use of obscenity represented the imposition of religious belief, then why do virtually all school districts have policies against its use by students in school? It is the mark of a civilized society to honor the concerns and values of people of diverse faiths and to aspire to decency.
6. There are other options for those who object to particular texts.
Response: First, opting out of reading an assigned class text results in a diminished, isolated academic experience for students. But equally important is the issue of whether taxpayers, even those who have no children in school, should be required to fund the teaching of offensive material. A text like Angels in America contributes to the debasement of an already vulgar culture, and schools should never in any way contribute to the baser aspects of culture. This does not mean that texts must avoid looking at the flaws and evil that afflict man. Rather, it means that we should choose texts that look at the presence of ignobility and evil but do so in ways that inspire, edify, chasten, and point us in the direction of truth, beauty and righteousness. Texts like Angels in America do none of this.
7. Refusing to offer this book will lead ineluctably to the world of book-burning à la Fahrenheit 451.
Response: This is an irrational, alarmist, specious canard. There is simply no evidence that including in selection criteria the nature and extent of obscene language or sexuality, or a consideration of highly controversial political messages will result in wholesale book banning. There is, however, ample evidence, that a steadfast refusal to ever take into account these elements will result in a slippery slide down the other slope to the use of corrosively vulgar and polemical texts.
8. This book has won prestigious literary awards or has been approved by the American Library Association (ALA).
Response: This justification begs the question: Who serves on committees that award prizes or review texts? And this argument calls for a serious, open, and honest examination of the ideological monopoly that controls academia and the elite world of the arts that for decades has engaged in censorship of conservative scholarship. To offer as justification for teaching a text the garnering of literary prizes or ALA approval without acknowledging that those who award the prizes and belong to the ALA are generally of the same ideological bent is an exercise in sophistry.
What school committees, departments, administrations, school boards, the ALA, the National Education Association (NEA), and organizations that award literary prizes desperately need is the one form of diversity about which they are least concerned and to which they are least committed: ideological diversity.
9. Kids relate to this book and, therefore, it captures and holds their interest.
Response: If this criterion has assumed a dominant place in the selection process, then teachers have abandoned their proper role as educators. Appealing to the sensibilities and appetites of adolescents should not be the goal of educators. There’s another word for capitulating to the tastes of adolescents: it is called pandering. Schools should teach those texts that students will likely not read on their own. We should teach those texts that are intellectually challenging and offer insight, wisdom, beauty, and truth. We should avoid those that are highly polemical, blasphemous, and vulgar.
10. To remove this text constitutes censorship.
Response: Parents who object to the inclusion of texts on recommended or required reading lists due to obscene language, sexuality, or highly controversial messages are not engaging in some kind of inappropriate censorship. All educators evaluate curricular materials for objectionable content, including language, sexuality, and controversial themes. The irony is that when teachers decide not to select a text due to these elements, the choice constitutes an exercise in legitimate decision-making, but when parents engage in it, they are tarred with the label of “censor.”
Furthermore, virtually no parents advocate prior restraint and only rarely are they asking for the removal of a text from a school library. Rather, parents are suggesting that it is reasonable to include the nature and extent of profanity, obscenity, and sexuality when selecting texts to be recommended and/or taught to minors in public schools.
Are those teachers, administrators, and school board members who disagree with that suggestion saying that they will never take into account the nature and extent of profanity, obscenity, and sexuality? If they are claiming that they will never take into account these elements, then parents should reconsider their fitness for teaching.
In all four years of high school English, students read approximately 28-32 books. From the dozens and dozens of texts available, it seems unlikely that any student’s education would be compromised by teachers, in the service of respect for parental values, comity, and modesty, avoiding the most controversial texts.
-Laurie Higgins
Thursday, August 16, 2007
Preventing Bad Books and Other Liberal Propogandizing at Your Child's School
Here are some suggestions for parents who are fed up with the subtle and not so subtle messages that activist teachers communicate to students...
The school year is just beginning and already some parents, including the courageous Karen Lukes whose son will be an eighth-grader in District 126, are being confronted with the problem of schools teaching inappropriate texts. Although taxpayers must address this issue directly, which will involve challenging the specious “book banning/ censorship” arguments employed by school boards and administrations, there is something parents can do in the meantime to minimize their children’s exposure not just to inappropriate texts but to ideologically biased classroom proselytizing. Parents should object to teachers rather than texts.
Here are some suggestions for parents who are fed up with the subtle and not so subtle messages that activist teachers of a liberal bent work into their classroom teaching through their classroom comments, curricular materials (including textbooks, speakers, films, plays, novels, short stories, and essays), and even their desks and classroom displays:
Parents should no longer accept the unacceptable choices of either tolerating polemical, biased, and vulgar texts, or opting their child out of reading them, which results in an isolated, diminished academic experience for their child.
Parents are entitled to have their children placed in an apolitical, ideologically neutral academic context. Insisting that their children be placed in classes taught by apolitical teachers who truly respect diverse voices, including conservative voices, will prevent parents from getting caught in the specious and somewhat difficult "book banning/censorship" discussion. Parents aren't challenging texts; they're challenging teachers. Furthermore, administrations and department chairs, faced with these scheduling problems, may eventually decide to reign in their ideologues.
-Clive
The school year is just beginning and already some parents, including the courageous Karen Lukes whose son will be an eighth-grader in District 126, are being confronted with the problem of schools teaching inappropriate texts. Although taxpayers must address this issue directly, which will involve challenging the specious “book banning/ censorship” arguments employed by school boards and administrations, there is something parents can do in the meantime to minimize their children’s exposure not just to inappropriate texts but to ideologically biased classroom proselytizing. Parents should object to teachers rather than texts.
Here are some suggestions for parents who are fed up with the subtle and not so subtle messages that activist teachers of a liberal bent work into their classroom teaching through their classroom comments, curricular materials (including textbooks, speakers, films, plays, novels, short stories, and essays), and even their desks and classroom displays:
- Parents can go to their middle school and/or high school websites and find out which teachers sponsor gay and straight alliances and liberal political activist groups (e.g. AWARE).
- Parents can also ask what texts will be taught or used (e.g. The Chocolate War, Fat Kids Rule the World, Angels in America, The Laramie Project, or The People's History of the United States) by a particular teacher. Parents should ask for the reading list for the entire year. Teachers who have a reasonable respect for the values and beliefs of all parents will not have highly controversial texts on either required or recommended reading lists.
- If parents have kids who have already gone through the school or have already completed a year or more, they should ask those kids and/or their parents which teachers are known for bringing their politics into the classroom or who displays a "Safe Space" sticker, the inverted pink triangle, the rainbow flag, or the lower case Greek letter "lambda" on their desk, classroom door, or wall. Kids usually know who the liberal, activist teachers are. Liberal teachers develop reputations, often as the "cool" teachers
- Then parents should call or email the appropriate department chair and/or their child's counselor, and politely insist on a schedule change, explaining that they will not permit their child to be in the classroom or under the tutelage of any teacher who has made their liberal politics known in school.
Parents should no longer accept the unacceptable choices of either tolerating polemical, biased, and vulgar texts, or opting their child out of reading them, which results in an isolated, diminished academic experience for their child.
Parents are entitled to have their children placed in an apolitical, ideologically neutral academic context. Insisting that their children be placed in classes taught by apolitical teachers who truly respect diverse voices, including conservative voices, will prevent parents from getting caught in the specious and somewhat difficult "book banning/censorship" discussion. Parents aren't challenging texts; they're challenging teachers. Furthermore, administrations and department chairs, faced with these scheduling problems, may eventually decide to reign in their ideologues.
-Clive
Thursday, August 09, 2007
Oak Lawn Mom Demands Decency From District 126
Parents should be able to trust educators to choose reading material for children that does not contain gratuitous profanity and graphic sexuality...
From "Oak Lawn mom demands ban on racy book" by Angela Caputo, posted 8/3/07 at dailysouthtown.com
Note the use of the word 'ban' in the headline of this article in the Daily Southtown. Using the word 'ban' is both misleading and inaccurate. This word was chosen specifically because it has a negative connotation. No one wants to be known as a 'book banner.' They've managed to imply that this courageous mother as a fanatic in the first few words. But is she?
Karen Lukes is simply asking that children not be given books containing gratuitous profanity and overt sexual content.
Apparently the media and educators believe that although books have to be evaluated for scores of criteria including vocabulary and artistic merit -- graphic profanity and sexuality should NEVER be a reason to reject a book for children...
It's extremely difficult to sympathize with such reasoning.
Karen Lukes didn't think much about the book that her son randomly picked from a list of suggested summer reading compiled by teachers at Alsip's Prairie Junior High.
Follow the saga at culturecampaign.com
From "Oak Lawn mom demands ban on racy book" by Angela Caputo, posted 8/3/07 at dailysouthtown.com
Note the use of the word 'ban' in the headline of this article in the Daily Southtown. Using the word 'ban' is both misleading and inaccurate. This word was chosen specifically because it has a negative connotation. No one wants to be known as a 'book banner.' They've managed to imply that this courageous mother as a fanatic in the first few words. But is she?
Karen Lukes is simply asking that children not be given books containing gratuitous profanity and overt sexual content.
Apparently the media and educators believe that although books have to be evaluated for scores of criteria including vocabulary and artistic merit -- graphic profanity and sexuality should NEVER be a reason to reject a book for children...
It's extremely difficult to sympathize with such reasoning.
Karen Lukes didn't think much about the book that her son randomly picked from a list of suggested summer reading compiled by teachers at Alsip's Prairie Junior High.
Frankly, she said, she was thrilled to see the 14-year-old crack a book during the break from school.
But as the Oak Lawn mother began to read alongside her soon-to-be eighth-grader, she was stunned to discover that "Fat Kid Rules the World" by K.L. Going was laced with profanity and other mature content.
Now she wants Alsip, Hazelgreen and Oak Lawn School District 126 administrators to shelve the book for good.
"I want it pulled," Lukes said. "It's vulgar, and it's a total contradiction. The kids can't go around and talk like this ... What kind of message does it send?"
District 126 Supt. Robert Berger stands by the award-winning selection as one of many books offered to students. All seventh- and eighth-graders at Prairie Junior High are required to read at least one book, preferably from the recommended summer reading list, before school begins.
"These are standard pieces of literature used (in schools) across the country," Berger said. "Appropriateness is for students and parents to judge."
Berger said two other parents have complained about the book.
"Fat Kid Rules the World" chronicles the friendship between an angst-ridden teen named Troy and Curt, a homeless punk-rocker. The pair first cross paths as Troy contemplates throwing himself from a subway platform in a suicide attempt.
The coming-of-age novel, which broaches mature subjects -- from drug and alcohol use to adolescent sexual fantasies to ditching school -- has been compared to J. D. Salinger's "The Catcher in the Rye."
When it was published in 2003, "Fat Kid Rules the World" ranked on the "Best Books" list compiled by the School Library Journal. Going also received The Michael L. Printz award, which is sponsored by a publication of the American Library Association.
Being given an award by the ALA is no guarantee of decency. The official stance of the ALA is that to withhold even sexually graphic material from children amounts to 'age discrimination. '
"Parents who would tell their children not to read Playboy 'don't really care about their kids growing up and learning to think and explore." --Judith Fingerett Krug, ALA Director for Intellectual Freedom.
The ALA apparently finds it perfectly acceptable to discriminate against common sense...
Read the rest of this article.Follow the saga at culturecampaign.com
Tuesday, June 05, 2007
Transgenderism Advancing Quickly Among Young People
From "Male, Female, Other? The assault of the "transgendered" agenda" by Linda P. Harvey, posted 5/28/07
A book that's been popular among teens in America for a decade is called Girl Goddess #9.
But please, don't run out and buy it for the kids you know. Here's why.
The book is a rambling, nearly incoherent collection of dark and depressing tales featuring sad kids in corrupted circumstances. That's not how it's presented, of course. This is all supposed to be "edgy." But all the stories feature disturbing elements of child neglect and/ or corruption.
For instance, the story "Dragons in Manhattan" is about a little girl named Tuck who lives with two lesbians and one of them is her mom. As the story of this bohemian family unfolds, Tuck goes to school and feels ashamed of her household.
"No other kid at school lived with two women who slept in the same bed and kissed on the lips all the time." And she suddenly longed to find her real dad. As a reader, your heart breaks at this moment of truth amidst a story of contrived chaos. But then Tuck takes off by her little self to California to search for him.
And what does she find at the end of her lonely quest? Her "dad" is really one of her two moms, who had a sex change operation following her conception.[1] Everyone is smiling and it's all okay, though, by the end of the story.
Our kids are lost in a free-fall culture, and are being sold poison packaged as perfume. As if foisting "gay" rights on them wasn't enough, now they are supposed to accept the artificial change of a person's biological sex as a good thing. The "transgendered" agenda is suddenly emerging everywhere.
...Schools Pushing "Trans" Agenda
I truly believed that the last straw, the "wake up" call, would be the push for equal rights in schools for "transgendered" teachers and students. And here and there, outrage has been the response on the local level.
In 2006, in a school near Toms River, NJ, a substitute kindergarten teacher in his 70's calling himself Lily McBeth came to school dressed as a woman after a sex change operation. Yet even after an outcry from local parents, the school board refused to fire him. He is still teaching.[2]
Last fall, a male high school teacher in Batavia, NY began dressing as a woman. Some parents asked to have their kids transferred to another class. The request was denied and the teacher could not be fired, because "gender identity" is protected as a disability under NY law.
In 2001, a male middle school principal in Wilmette, IL, returned to school after summer vacation as a woman, having undergone sex change surgery. The school did not fire him, but offered "counseling" to children and parents to cope with the change. A male art teacher in Eastchester, NY returned to school as a woman, and a Northbrook, IL science teacher also had female-to-male sex change surgery before returning to her/his teaching post.[3]
Dare we state the obvious? It's not the children and parents who need counseling...
Continue reading this article.
A book that's been popular among teens in America for a decade is called Girl Goddess #9.
But please, don't run out and buy it for the kids you know. Here's why.
The book is a rambling, nearly incoherent collection of dark and depressing tales featuring sad kids in corrupted circumstances. That's not how it's presented, of course. This is all supposed to be "edgy." But all the stories feature disturbing elements of child neglect and/ or corruption.
For instance, the story "Dragons in Manhattan" is about a little girl named Tuck who lives with two lesbians and one of them is her mom. As the story of this bohemian family unfolds, Tuck goes to school and feels ashamed of her household.
"No other kid at school lived with two women who slept in the same bed and kissed on the lips all the time." And she suddenly longed to find her real dad. As a reader, your heart breaks at this moment of truth amidst a story of contrived chaos. But then Tuck takes off by her little self to California to search for him.
And what does she find at the end of her lonely quest? Her "dad" is really one of her two moms, who had a sex change operation following her conception.[1] Everyone is smiling and it's all okay, though, by the end of the story.
Our kids are lost in a free-fall culture, and are being sold poison packaged as perfume. As if foisting "gay" rights on them wasn't enough, now they are supposed to accept the artificial change of a person's biological sex as a good thing. The "transgendered" agenda is suddenly emerging everywhere.
...Schools Pushing "Trans" Agenda
I truly believed that the last straw, the "wake up" call, would be the push for equal rights in schools for "transgendered" teachers and students. And here and there, outrage has been the response on the local level.
In 2006, in a school near Toms River, NJ, a substitute kindergarten teacher in his 70's calling himself Lily McBeth came to school dressed as a woman after a sex change operation. Yet even after an outcry from local parents, the school board refused to fire him. He is still teaching.[2]
Last fall, a male high school teacher in Batavia, NY began dressing as a woman. Some parents asked to have their kids transferred to another class. The request was denied and the teacher could not be fired, because "gender identity" is protected as a disability under NY law.
In 2001, a male middle school principal in Wilmette, IL, returned to school after summer vacation as a woman, having undergone sex change surgery. The school did not fire him, but offered "counseling" to children and parents to cope with the change. A male art teacher in Eastchester, NY returned to school as a woman, and a Northbrook, IL science teacher also had female-to-male sex change surgery before returning to her/his teaching post.[3]
Dare we state the obvious? It's not the children and parents who need counseling...
Continue reading this article.
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