Banned Book Week     10/8/2009

“Banned Books” and Virginia Parents

Earlier this week, World Net Daily (WND) reports in "Perversion 101: Kids taught 'gay' sex, rape, bestiality" by Chelsea Shilling that - -

"A father of a high-school student is infuriated after he said a teacher provided 'banned books' to her 11th-grade students, including at least one with explicit descriptions of homosexual sex acts, rape, masturbation, profane language and even bestiality. John Davis, father of an 11th-grade student at William Byrd High School in Vinton, Va., told WND that[an] English teacher . . . provided her personal copy of a book called 'Perks of Being a Wallflower' by Stephen Chbosky to one of her English students, and it was passed to his son."

"Banned Book Week"

Reportedly the teacher, in honor of the National Library Association’s “Banned Book Week” (September 26 - October 3), had assembled a classroom shelf of "banned books" and assigned them to her students, along with a ticket-shaped bookmark that read, “Read Banned Books. They’re Your Ticket to Freedom.” This copy of author Chbosky’s book was reportedly the teacher’s own—but there were two additional copies in the school library, which, according to WND, the principal told Davis he would remove. Read the whole WND post here. [http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=112014]

The high school's story

According to school spokesperson Vickie Carrell, William Byrd High School has released the following statement:

“We can confirm a teacher did hand out the book, 'Perks of Being a Wallflower' to a student in her English class. Apparently that student shared it with her boyfriend, whose father brought it to the attention of the school. The principal had two copies of the book removed from the library, and it is being reviewed under the school’s system’s policy relating to challenged material.”

Indoctrination?

The Vinton story [http://www.rcs.k12.va.us/wbhs/] says much about the absence of sensitivity to traditional values, whether moral or intellectual, in the attitudes of the education establishment.

And something is very wrong with the logic of the "Banned Book" celebrations.

Apologists attempt to take the high ground, pointing out that great authors such as Jacob Grimm, Ann Frank, Immanuel Kant, Rudyard Kipling, Isaac Asimov, Mark Twain, Dante, and William Shakespeare have at times been banned. They fail to point out that each of those "bannings" took place at different times under different circumstances for different reasons and often for very limited periods of time or only in certain jurisdictions.

But when today's "Banned Book Week" celebration works its way out to the local American high school of 2009, the “Banned Book” umbrella may be extended to cover a multitude of works that are far from great literature and, instead, provide little more than indoctrination for dangerous life styles morally unacceptable to the student's family.

Would that these Vinton students would be asked to absorb Dante, Shakespeare, Twain, and Kipling instead of a selection from this fare! [http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/banned/frequentlychallenged/21stcenturychallenged/2008/index.cfm]

We can be grateful that “Banned Book Week” is over for another year. But there remains the serious divide between the practices of much of the education establishment and the cultural expectations of most Virginia parents, which continually threatens to put parental rights at risk.

A good first step in bridging this divide would be for high schools like William Byrd to make their books and curriculum available online, as its library books already seem to be. Parents and teachers could then enter into a constructive dialogue to prevent these troubling events.

But the education establishment must not assume that they can take taxpayer money and yet turn a deaf ear to community wishes. They have already shown that they do not hold the cultural high ground.

See Back to School Survival Kit at www.lighthousepolicy.com.

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