High School Principal Cancels Entire Reading Program To Stop Students From Reading Cory Doctorow's 'Little Brother'
from the you-want-to-learn-about-questioning-authority? dept
Welcome to the modern equivalent of a book burning. The principal of Booker T Washington High in Pensacola Florida has apparently cancelled the school's "One School/One Book" summer reading program all in an effort to block students from reading Cory Doctorow's (absolutely fantastic) book Little Brother. It appears he may be against the fact that one of the messages of the book is the importance of "questioning authority," and has decided to show the school what true, obnoxious authoritarianism looks like.Little Brother had been selected and approved as the school's summer One School/One Book reading pick, and the school librarian Betsy Woolley had worked with Mary Kate Griffith from the English department to develop an excellent educational supplement for the students to use to launch their critical discussions in the fall. The whole project had been signed off on by the school administration and it was ready to go out to the students when the principal intervened and ordered them to change the title.In an attempt to... er... question that authority, Doctorow and his publisher, Tor, are sending 200 free copies of the book to the school. A school trying to ban books is almost always a stupid idea, but it seems particularly stupid in this day and age with this particular book. In the end, all it is likely to do is cause more people to actually read the book and to, you know, question authority.
In an email conversation with Ms Griffith, the principal cited reviews that emphasized the book's positive view of questioning authority, lauding "hacker culture", and discussing sex and sexuality in passing. He mentioned that a parent had complained about profanity (there's no profanity in the book, though there's a reference to a swear word). In short, he made it clear that the book was being challenged because of its politics and its content.
Ultimately, the entire schoolwide One Book/One School program was cancelled.
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Filed Under: booker t washington high school, challenging authority, cory doctorow, florida, little brother, one school one book, pensacola, reading, students
Companies: tor
Reader Comments
The First Word
“Re: Re: Wait...
"when controversial reading was to be assigned"There is no such thing. Kids should read EVERYTHING: Homer and Aristophanes, Shakespeare and Jong, Asimov and Hunter S. Thompson, Sagan and Gould, Sun Tzu and Doyle, Faulkner and Rowling, Einstein and Thurber. The great, the minimal, the profound, the romantic, the tragic, the inspiring, the profane, the funny, all of it, as much as they can, as often as they can, whenever they can.
"Controversial reading" is the recent construct of uneducated, fearful people seeking to incite moral panics to suit their own political/social/economics/religious ends. (I find it instructive to note how many those behind these charades have no objection to children reading the major religious work of the western world: the bible. Yet it contains rape, murder, torture, sodomy, racial cleansing, bigotry, racism, homophobia, xenophobia, genocide, war crimes, pedophilia, etc., etc., etc.)
The burning of an author's books, imprisonment for opinion's sake, has always been the tribute that an ignorant age pays to the genius of its time. -- Joseph Lewis
Dort, wo man Bucher verbrennt, verbrennt man am Ende auch Menschen. (Where they burn books, they will in the end also burn people.) --- Heinrich Heine
When any government, or any church for that matter, undertakes to say to its subjects, "This you may not read, this you may not see, this you are forbidden to know," the end result is tyranny and oppression, no matter how holy the motives. ---Robert Heinlein
Lock up your libraries if you like, but there is no gate, no lock, no bolt that you can set upon the freedom of my mind. ---Virginia Woolf
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Don't these people remember...
The best way to get a teen to do something is to say "it's not allowed". They're going to rebel over this.
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Re: Don't these people remember...
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Re: Don't these people remember...
Looks like a fun time for the principal next fall.
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Maybe it was all carefully thought out and planned and- wait, 'Highschool principal'...
Never mind.
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Re:
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Don't Question Authority - Reject it.
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Wait...
Instead of asking the parents about the book, the principle takes it upon himself to act like the parent of all of these children and decide what was appropriate?
And this couldn't have been solved by just asking the parents how they felt at the next PTA?
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Re: Wait...
Just taking a poll isn't the way you resolve questions like this -- you need principles. A principle principle for principals should be encouraging students to learn and think on their own.
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Re: Re: Wait...
Forcing everyone to read a single book always smells too much like propaganda to me (even if it's propaganda that we might agree with).
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Re: Wait...
This is Florida after all. The principal is allowed to stand his ground.
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Re: Wait...
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Re: Re: Wait...
One was offered. Here's the wording from the 'educational supplement link', apparently this was not good enough for the fine Principal:
"Parents are invited to join the conversation by reading and discussing Little Brother with your students.
..
Parents are the ultimate authority in deciding appropriate material for their children, so parents requesting an alternative assignment should contact Mrs. Griffith"
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Gotta watch the fine-print
*Available choices parents have for 'appropriate reading material' for their children shall be made known after the Principle has determined what books are 'acceptable', with reading any 'prohibited' books to be strictly forbidden.
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Re: Re: Re: Wait...
Hahaha, don't you know nobody reads anymore after college?
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Re: Re: Wait...
There is no such thing. Kids should read EVERYTHING: Homer and Aristophanes, Shakespeare and Jong, Asimov and Hunter S. Thompson, Sagan and Gould, Sun Tzu and Doyle, Faulkner and Rowling, Einstein and Thurber. The great, the minimal, the profound, the romantic, the tragic, the inspiring, the profane, the funny, all of it, as much as they can, as often as they can, whenever they can.
"Controversial reading" is the recent construct of uneducated, fearful people seeking to incite moral panics to suit their own political/social/economics/religious ends. (I find it instructive to note how many those behind these charades have no objection to children reading the major religious work of the western world: the bible. Yet it contains rape, murder, torture, sodomy, racial cleansing, bigotry, racism, homophobia, xenophobia, genocide, war crimes, pedophilia, etc., etc., etc.)
The burning of an author's books, imprisonment for opinion's sake, has always been the tribute that an ignorant age pays to the genius of its time. -- Joseph Lewis
Dort, wo man Bucher verbrennt, verbrennt man am Ende auch Menschen. (Where they burn books, they will in the end also burn people.) --- Heinrich Heine
When any government, or any church for that matter, undertakes to say to its subjects, "This you may not read, this you may not see, this you are forbidden to know," the end result is tyranny and oppression, no matter how holy the motives. ---Robert Heinlein
Lock up your libraries if you like, but there is no gate, no lock, no bolt that you can set upon the freedom of my mind. ---Virginia Woolf
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Re: Re: Re: Wait...
"Kids should read EVERYTHING"
I agree completely, but the school system also has to serve families who don't agree with that. However, I would not that when I was of that age, all but one or two kids would get the required parental permission, so most parents also agreed with us.
Still, I don't really see a problem with providing an opt-out for those few parents who want to restrict what their children are exposed to. Better that than being unable to serve those kids at all.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Wait...
So send permission slips home.
Boom, problem solved.
I don't think of school systems as substitute parents. Why would we ever teach our kids to think that way?
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Wait...
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Wait...
Sometimes being a parent means having to actually do stuff yourself rather than expect everyone else to solve it for you.
Imagine if the parent had read the book, approved the kid reading it... they could have a conversation about it, the topics, the themes, etc...
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I'll never understand the human propensity for self-delusion. Instead of fixing the errant social construct about which this book was written, let's just ban the book and put our heads in the sand and pretend that none of this is happening. And people wonder how society degrades.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Wait...
PS
I bought a copy of "Little Brother" years ago so I could give it to my kid. When he turned 11 I had him read it. He loved it. I read it. I would be calling that principal to get an appointment to discuss the book with him. I really wish my kids went to a school were stupidity like this exhibited itself so I'd have a chance to go to an office and chew up some scenery. It wouldn't do any good, but I would be able to use all my best lines on some officious dope.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Wait...
This is spot on. "Teaching the controversy" is an expression designed to let everyone weasel out of actually teaching.
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Re: Re: Re: Wait...
By definition, there most certainly is such a thing, but you're absolutely right that kids should never be prevented from reading controversial material.
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""Controversial reading" is the recent construct of uneducated, fearful people"
Define "recent". The destruction of texts has been going on throughout history. The printed bible was originally kept under lock and key so that the peasantry wouldn't be able to read it (even those who could read). And those who kept it so (locked away) were not at all uneducated and knew from their own studies the risks to power of uncontrolled access to ideas and works of the mind.
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Re: Re: Re: Wait...
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False dichotomy
I get the "we overprotect our children" bit, but your post throws up a false dichotomy. Do you actually believe that all children of all ages are capable of absorbing any or all experiences without negative effects?
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Re: Wait...
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How does a person in the 21st Century not realize that a decision such as this one will make them a target for national outrage? How does a person who likely has access to newspapers, television, and the Internet not realize how much of a censorious jackass a decision like this will make them look?
Regardless of the quality, few people like hearing about attempts to stifle access to (or discussion of) content – especially books. That way lies madness and a harm upon society that no sane person would dare bring upon his fellow man.
In one act, this principal tossed away their integrity and their principles as an educator because they disagreed with one book’s politics. I don’t see how any rational person would ever trust him to educate a child – or oversee the education of children – ever again.
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Re:
In order to toss something away, you first have to have it.
A worse way of putting this is that this act can be viewed as a demostration of long-held values and priorities. Some aspects of this may (or may not-- you never know) be a surprise to the parents and school board.
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Re:
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Re:
Easy: because he knows the "outrage" will blow over with the start of the next news cycle. Oh, sure, there will be some people in his town that will get upset, but the rest of the country will move on to the next "outrage" over a kid with a Pop Tart shaped like a gun.
Who cares about that principal not allowing books when we have a dangerous student roaming the hallways with loaded Pop Tarts. I hope the kid doesn't make things worse by pointing his fingers at people! Has the SWAT team been called out yet?
Wait, what were we talking about again?
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So is this guy Old Guard or...
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(The) Fantastic(ks)!
Why WOULD a kid put BEANS in his ears?
After a while, the reason appears.
He did it 'cuz you said, "no."
As many here have observed, this is not a new idea.
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Way to go there guy!
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So he didn't want to pollute his purity by actually, actually READING the book?
There's really no more to say. Except that I just skimmed it and I recommend he read it for himself, he will indeed see that his worst nightmares about it are justified, and now he's lost control of letting kids discuss it in class and have teacher input. Foot-bullet.
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A Clergymans’s Daughter
To my mind it’s a disgrace that schoolbooks can be printed with such words in them. I’m sure if any of us had ever known that Shakespeare was that kind of stuff, we’d have put our foot down at the start. It surprises me, I must say. Only the other morning I was reading a piece in my News Chronicle about Shakespeare being the father of English Literature; well, if that’s Literature, let’s have a bit LESS Literature, say I!
(Taken from: A Clergymans’s Daughter (George Orwell))
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Book banning in a positive light
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Banning Little Brother
http://tinyurl.com/mhu8rrv
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Re: Banning Little Brother
If you're going to take the moral high ground about other people, you'd better make sure you're standing on firm moral foundations yourself. If you don't let facts get in the way of a good self-righteous rant, you've lost the plot somewhere along the way.
There's enough real rubbish going on in the world without making up more. I think you need to read more because you're clearly still too trusting of your own chosen sources of authority.
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Check out the school's summer reading list
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Check out the school's summer reading list
LIST: http://www.btwash.org/summer%20reading%20list%202014.pdf
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When I was a kid...
I think public education has always been about indoctrinating drones, it's just that now they are making no pretense otherwise.
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Take a look at world literature:
Or the Old French "Roman de la Rose" in its culmination by Jean de Meun combining the learned allegories with the crude.
Doctorow is probably weak sauce in comparison to those...
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Wait...
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the book.
I allways think that prizipals are smart^^. but obiously not this one.
great reading kids get wize and beat this crazy system.
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Why waste all that public money on teaching children how to read when it could be better spent buying some politicians new mansions, yachts and fancy cars? I mean really - where are your priorities people ?????
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Book-banning principal
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Re: Book-banning principal
You answered you own question, he was promoted to get him away from kids, and to minimize his opportunities to stop their educuation.
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Re: Re: Book-banning principal
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Banning books
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What happenned next?
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Re: What happenned next?
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Re: Re: What happenned next?
I apologize for my poor reading skills. I misread this:
http://craphound.com/summerreadingbrochurefinal12.pdf
"Parents are invited to join the conversation by reading and
discussing Little Brother with your students.
"Little Brother was a Florida Teens Read nominee for 2009-2010 and has been categorized as young adult fiction."
However it now appears that "Little Brother" is on the 11th grade reading list rather than the whole school. (does that mean 15-16 year olds?)
http://whs-ecsd-fl.schoolloop.com/file/1289140567980/1376459413970/4278655134204228924.pdf page #2.
--
vagabondo
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Praise god...
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Clever Marketing Scheme
For the guy who leaps and bounds to the conclusion that this principal must be a Christian, like all those rednecks down south, that it's Christians who want to ban books, that no one stops kids from reading the bible, here's this story which also recently happened in Florida: http://www.dcclothesline.com/2014/05/07/florida-public-school-bans-student-reading-bible/ . In fact I see stories like this one at least as often as I've seen the ones about schools banning 'Huckleberry Finn' or 'Brave New World'.
You don't have to be religious to be a control freak. I think tyranny of the mind is pretty evenly represented among all types of people. One difference though, is that if you don't send your kid to church, or he refuses to go, nobody gives a shit. If you don't send him to school, however, the law can take him away from you if deemed necessary to ensure that little fucker's regular attendance at the child indoctrination center.
Another difference is that no kid ever shot up his church, but lots of kids have shot up their schools.
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Freedom of mind
She has obviously never been forceably administered Thorazine, Stellazine, and/or Haldol.
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Re: Freedom of mind
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My hero!
-Spiff (aka Rubberman)
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INCORRECT UNSUBSTANTIATED INFORMATION
BTWash Parent
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