Sounds like to me that someone named Connie needs to run for the school board.

linking to CNN videos makes baby jesus cry.

Wow. That was beyond idiotic. Though the CNN video format makes me so, so very sad.

i subbed for a teacher who used that book. i saw a small part of the film but never read it, but i think by high school at least 11-12, they ought to be able to read whatever the hell they want.

That school board needs a collective cockpunch. The students liked it, the teacher saw results, 149/150 students' parents said they were OK with her teaching it, and they still punished her? So the school board knows what's appropriate better than the students, the students' parents, and the teacher?

fark that. Censors are farking dirt.

Jubeebee: That school board needs a collective cockpunch. The students liked it, the teacher saw results, 149/150 students' parents said they were OK with her teaching it, and they still punished her? So the school board knows what's appropriate better than the students, the students' parents, and the teacher?

fark that. Censors are farking dirt.

School boards usually crumble with just a single complaint. Doesn't matter what the topic is, all it takes is for one parent to complain and they'll scrape any plans.

149 of 150 permission slips to parents said it was OK to use. But we don't like parental involvement in kids' education, right school board?

"If you knew the people of this community..." Sounds to me that the board's attorney is the one who doesn't know the community.

I Love how scary the school board is
"people in our township..."
"those words are bad"
bwhahahahahahahahahahhaahha

of course, it is indiana
I like that it was OK for it to be a library book, but not a classroom book?

could the teacher have assigned the book and just told them to get it from the library?
or accidently left a stack of them in the hall ??
"ooops"

/yup, schools boards, trying to ban darwin since the dark ages

These school board member need to get their heads out of their asses. Kids talk that way as do most adults. I have been working in a corporate environment for years now and I hear everyone from the data entry clerks to upper/senior management talking worse than that.

The kids are learning a lesson and they are READING (which is hard enough to get a kid to do). If the parents signed the permission forms then they should be able to read it without the School Board coming in and forcing their own archaic values on the kids.

Well, problem solved - now these kids will never learn any swear words or be exposed to violence.

This book was used in my high school. Never saw the movie or read it, though.

And if my podunk school in the middle of Bible Belt, USA allowed it, it couldn't have been too bad.

OMG it says f*ck in a book! Won't someone think of the children! This kinda shiat makes me sick. I haven't read the book (yet...thinking about checking it out out now) but it seems like the only thing the school board members have against it is the fact that it uses "zomgz swear words". Yeah like high school kids haven't heard those by now.

They may be crude, but profanity has a place and a meaning in our language. When you're writing about life in the ghetto talking about subjects like child abuse, rape, and poverty, words like "darn" and "fudge" just don't cut it. They're not descriptive and they're not real. I really feel bad for that teacher. Try to do something good for kids, and that's the thanks you get. Educators have it really rough.

What book is it? The video isn't loading for me.

I was a high school English teacher and I farking hated that book.

fark these people. fark them hard.

I know seniors who are inspired.

/And inspiring

Lady Chatterley's Lover? Tropic of Cancer? The Bible?

/didn't wait for the farkin' video

flavor of the month: linking to CNN videos makes baby jesus cry.

Sorry. I googled the keywords in the video, but couldn't find other articles.

Here ya go if the video doesn't work for you:
Link (new window)

jimpoz: What book is it? The video isn't loading for me.

Me neither.
Tried IE and disabling pop-ups and adblock.

What's the matter?

"First God made the idiot. That was for practice. Then, he made the school board." - Mark Twain

ScottMpls: Lady Chatterley's Lover? Tropic of Cancer? The Bible?

/didn't wait for the farkin' video

It was the "Freedom Writers" book.

AKA Stand and Deliver
AKA Dangerous Minds
AKA every other "teacher helps inner city kids grow" book-turned-movie

Standing up to a bunch of busybodies, who represent no one but the one parent of 150 who didn't want their precious snowflake reading naughty words, is equivalent to "If it feels good, do it." That's quite the fundamentalist logic that woman has there.

Conservatives are the weak link of our civilization. We need to stop tolerating their bullshiat. Call out this behavior where ever it occurs, and hold their feet to the fire until they relent.

Why did you link to a CNN video link? -1 subby.

tetheredswimming: Why did you link to a CNN video link?

Because when I googled for "heermann, freedom writers", I didn't find anything else on that topic at Google News.

-1 subby.

/cries.

Farkalated

What really disturbed me is the school board guy that said they "looked at the content" of the book and decided it was inappropriate. The context of the book is the important part. It's not just swearing for swearing's sake.

If you look at the article Kar98 so kindly linked to, the board has gone after other staff on charges of 'insubordination' against the wishes of the local community.

Sounds like somebody's on a power trip. Rather disgusting examples of humanity, all in all.

But but the teacher was letting kids get the idea the it's okay to do something when they've been told "no" - to question authority. We can't have that going on in our schools! Otherwise those kids won't grow up to be good, obedient citizens.

that.citizen905: Standing up to a bunch of busybodies, who represent no one but the one parent of 150 who didn't want their precious snowflake reading naughty words, is equivalent to "If it feels good, do it." That's quite the fundamentalist logic that woman has there.

Conservatives are the weak link of our civilization. We need to stop tolerating their bullshiat. Call out this behavior where ever it occurs, and hold their feet to the fire until they relent.

MODERN "Conservatives". Thank Reagan for bending over to the religious right. There are plenty of real conservatives left out there, just a lot of them are more unwilling to allow a democrat to be elected than to actually vote libertarian.

While the board's decision was a stupid one, she should have been fired. If my stupid boss tells me to do something, and I don't like his decision, I can't just do the opposite and not expect to get fired. If one of my subordinates decides that my decision is stupid and does the opposite, he's fired, too.

The remedy for this teacher was to get the parents to petition the board to allow the book to be read, not to say "screw the board, I'm going to do what I want to do."

If 149/150 parents disagreed with the board and the board didn't change its position, you recall the board.

jestme: But but the teacher was letting kids get the idea the it's okay to do something when they've been told "no" - to question authority. We can't have that going on in our schools! Otherwise those kids won't grow up to be good, obedient citizens.

Count bodies like sheep to the rhythm of the war drums?

Why would anybody want to read a book about filthy inner-city youths who are nothing but criminals and thugs anyways?

As a person who graduated from Wilson High, in Long Beach, CA. It's not an "Inner City School".

The book and the movie pissed me off.

/Graduated a year before the riots.

threebrain: Why would anybody want to read a book about filthy inner-city youths who are nothing but criminals and thugs anyways?

Because the message of said book as that same inna city yoofs can get their shiat together, drop the nubian 'tude and actually do something useful with their lives, to wit, start to learn to begin with.

beachhousemike: While the board's decision was a stupid one, she should have been fired. If my stupid boss tells me to do something, and I don't like his decision, I can't just do the opposite and not expect to get fired. If one of my subordinates decides that my decision is stupid and does the opposite, he's fired, too.

The remedy for this teacher was to get the parents to petition the board to allow the book to be read, not to say "screw the board, I'm going to do what I want to do."

If 149/150 parents disagreed with the board and the board didn't change its position, you recall the board.

A school is not a private company.

I just saw a link to this on CNN. I despise video only reporting so I decided to check fark in case the article had posted somewhere else so I could grab the 10 seconds worth of information and toss aside the 3 minutes worth of useless fluff shiat. Quite dissappointed when I saw the article was indeed posted but in the craptacular CNN Video format.

/War concise news

What is it with HS English teachers that makes them think that mostly white, intelligent, middle class kids in rural America have any...farking...thing in common with urban ghetto kids in street gangs?

Thirty years ago they had the kids reading "The Outsiders", which was covered with literary awards solely because it depicted ghetto kids in street gangs. Otherwise it was a terribly written and trite piece of hogwash the author had sucked out of their thumb.

I think English teachers, if they could, would instead to prefer to teach their white, intelligent middle class kids in rural America, Ebonics instead of English. "Because that is what ghetto kids speak, so it must be good!"

At the same...farking...time they were foisting that crapola on the students, there were drama class kids who had *memorized* enormous passages in Shakespeare and knew what they meant. One girl sitting in the back was reading Les Miserables, occasionally breaking into tears because of the depth of emotion found in Hugo's prose.

"Oooo...Oooo! But "The Outsiders" is about ghetto kids in street gangs, so it *must* be good! The movie about it was full of Hollywood A-list stars."

They can take that scumber and throw it in a dumpster with "Bless the Beasts and the Children", "A Raisin in the Sun", "The Catcher in the Rye", and endless numbers of other literary award winning crap children are ordered to read.

Can't they do better than that?

How do I reach these kiiids?

Also, this.

Aww, conservatives are so cute when they try to distance themsevles from other conservatives.

Yeah, you can throw modern out there all you like, but you're still part of the problem if vote for the same people as them (and since you identify yourself as conservative, you do).

You can't teach with the book, but it's in your school library?



I have a feeling that Indiana school boards (okay that one in particular)is SLOWLY turning into Kansas's school boards (during the Intelligent Design deal).

/When you're possessifying Kansas, is it Kansas' or Kansas's, since there is only one Kansas...kinda like only one Chuck Norris?

Jumpin' Jesus on a pogo stick. I remember the screaming up the flue 35 years ago when 'To Kill a Mockingbird' contained the 'n' work just like conversation (or just like folks in Alabama spoke in the 1930's), and 'A Separate Peace' and 'Catcher in the Rye' contained the 'f' word. My parents found it funny that people were offended.

Laughter is the only practical response to idiots like this.

Boo to news videos on the internet. If I wanted to watch the news, I'd turn on the TV.

whammer
They can take that scumber and throw it in a dumpster with "Bless the Beasts and the Children", "A Raisin in the Sun", "The Catcher in the Rye", and endless numbers of other literary award winning crap children are ordered to read.

I'll see your Raisin in the Sun and raise you Black Boy and anything by that freakish turtle woman Eudora Welty.

Person: Yeah, you can throw modern out there all you like, but you're still part of the problem if vote for the same people as them (and since you identify yourself as conservative, you do).

God I hope you were referring to me. I'm so far left that most conservatives would call me a Commie.

I have never heard a person who was opposed to the use of swear words give a cogent reason as to why they shouldn't be used or say precisely what horrible things happen when kids hear read or speak swear words. So, say you put a kid in a room and play a recording of a person saying f*ck 10,000 times or so. What's the worst that could happen? As I see it, the worst is that he will then proceed to use the word, but that's only a problem because knuckle-dragging dumbasses like the members of that school board MAKE IT A PROBLEM for their disease of Christian reactionism! So, the child might suffer from a paucity of employment opportunities because the dumbass interviewers should take issue with his choice of words.

Making an analogy to law, swear words then are not mala in se, but mala prohibita.

/I find f*ck to be extremely useful. One can use it to laconically convey great intensity of feeling - which is its primary use. People will always feel a need to express frustration and strong feeling, so if the use of f*ck is abolished, people will simply find a new method. And, no, exclamation marks do not cut it, on account of rampant overuse and hyperbole!
//So, mods, when were you thinking you'd remove these goddamn stupid farking filters?

This inner-city-youth-speak-out book is nothing. In 9th grade English, Ms. K had us read "The Old Testament." For the love of Christ, you should have seen the stuff in these books, for instance, in one chapter, some scheming Lolita gets her old geezer of a father drunk and rapes him, conceives a child, and yada, yada, yada, things get so twisted around that before the chapter is even out, the old geezer is regularly banging both the scheming Lolita, and his other daughter (also a minor). Now that's a book Perry School Board maybe needs to keep out of the hands of it's students. Although, in retrospect, I don't remember any of my classmates getting their father drunk to have non-consensual sex, nor shamelessly bearing the child of their father, nor even rocking the sister-sister-father polyamorous relationships, so maybe in the end... idunno... books? teens? who knows.

/ Old Testament, obscure?
// "Well it was a helluva yada yada."

She should be snatched up by a better school with more pay, and given the right to let the kids, and their parents, decide if material is "too excitable" in nature or not.

Maybe the old white admin was afraid that "those ghetto kids" might read such prose and turn into violent maniacs, shooting up the place in a hail of blood because they'd read the f-word.

Old-headed idiots.

RemyDuron:
A school is not a private company.

Neither is the place I work. Nonetheless, you violate a direct instruction from a superior, your ass is fired, even if the instruction was a dumb one.

beachhousemike:While the board's decision was a stupid one, she should have been fired. If my stupid boss tells me to do something, and I don't like his decision, I can't just do the opposite and not expect to get fired. If one of my subordinates decides that my decision is stupid and does the opposite, he's fired, too.

Even if it becomes clear that the decision of your subordinate was the right choice and produced good results? If yes, then you really are stupid and care more for your ego than for your company.

senorglory:it's

well, "its," really.