Book Banning

[AndyinPA]

There was a long article about this in the WaPo the other day. The point of it was how it sowed distrust between students and teachers.

[raison de arizona]

There was a long article about this in the WaPo the other day. The point of it was how it sowed distrust between students and teachers.

I think this is a gift link, but if it isn't I can post one: https://www.washingtonpost.com/educatio ... nc5hLGt1q8

[Kriselda Gray]

Eight graders don't know the names of body parts?

I didn't. I was spectacularly naive until I got to college.

[neonzx]

Eight graders don't know the names of body parts?

I didn't. I was spectacularly naive until I got to college.

Yeah sorta same. But the "kids" today have access to everything on their cell/mobile phones.

[pipistrelle]

In 6th grade IIRC we were separated into boys and girls and given more information than we could probably understand.

[raison de arizona]

In 6th grade IIRC we were separated into boys and girls and given more information than we could probably understand.

At my grade school we had sexual assault education from an outside group that included being able to name the body parts the bad person touched. The good parts didn’t come until movies in PE in 7-8th grade.

[Foggy]

At my grade school we had sexual assault education from an outside group that included being able to name the body parts the bad person touched.

Oh, the potential for amusement there, if only I had been present for the classroom discussion.

Beware of juvenile humor

► Show Spoiler

"No, Johnny, that isn't your johnson, that's your trouser lizard!"

"No, Debby, those aren't your boobs, those are your guns!" (Yes, I lived in LA in the '80s.)

But I better stop there ...

[neonzx]

Charlotte County is the county next door north to Lee (where Slim and I live)
The ban is for all grades -- preK through 12.

Fuck these people. Fuck all these people!

Florida school district orders librarians to purge all books with LGBTQ characters
https://popular.info/p/florida-school-d ... librarians

Librarians in public schools in Charlotte County, Florida, were instructed by the school district superintendent to remove all books with LGBTQ characters or themes from school and classroom libraries.

Charlotte County school librarians sought guidance from the school district about how to apply an expansion of the Florida Parental Rights in Education Act, better known as the "Don't Say Gay" law, to all grades. "Are we removing books from any school or media center, Prek-12 if a character has, for example, two mothers or because there is a gay best friend or a main character is gay?" the librarians asked. Charlotte County Superintendent Mark Vianello answered, "Yes."

The guidance by Vianello and the school board's attorney, Michael McKinley, was obtained by the Florida Freedom to Read Project (FFTRP) through a public records request and shared with Popular Information. FFTRP requested "electronic records of district and school decisions regarding classroom and library materials." In response, FFTRP received a document memorializing a July 24 conversation between Vianello and district librarians, known in Florida as media specialists.

The guidance made clear that all books with LGBTQ characters are to be removed even if the book contained no sexually explicit content. The librarians asked if they could retain books in school and classroom libraries with LGBTQ characters "as long as they do not have explicit sex scenes or sexual descriptions and are not approaching 'how to' manuals for how to be an LGBTQ+ person." Vianello responded, "No. Books with LBGTQ+ characters are not to be included in classroom libraries or school library media centers."

[raison de arizona]

Unbelievable. Almost.

[raison de arizona]

Want to Know How Far-Reaching the Right-Wing Movement Against Free Expression in Schools Is?
PEN America just released a scary report.

PEN America just released a new report that illuminates how far-reaching the right-wing movement against free expression in schools has become. Book bans increased by 33 percent during the 2022–23 school year, compared to 2021–22—which was already an exceptional year for literary censorship.

More than revealing the scale of the bans, the report also offers insight into a few of the organizations behind them: Moms for Liberty, Citizens Defending Freedom, and Parents’ Rights in Education. According to the report, a staggering 86 percent of book bans last year occurred in school districts with a local chapter of one of these three groups.

The groups use a range of tactics to shape the ideology of their local curricula—from taking over school boards to enlisting parents to protest, to promoting restrictive legislation. To understand the extent of their commitment is to understand what it will take to fight back.

These groups make little effort to hide their intentions. The Vermont chapter of Parents’ Rights in Education hosted an event earlier this year for “parents fed up with transgender and DEI education,” while the national organization claims that schools are “utilizing material from Marxist doctrine” to perpetuate “anti-American, anti-white, and anti-capitalist sentiments amongst students.”

They don’t just air grievances. Their website offers free trainings for parents to help them testify to school boards—or even get elected to them. They advocate for bathroom bills and teacher restrictions and laws requiring school staff to out queer students to their parents. And of course, they’re pushing for book bans—though the organization’s executive director would have you believe these aren’t real bans, because you can still purchase the books in question “via booksellers or the Internet.”

https://www.thenation.com/article/activ ... chools-is/

[neeneko]

Charlotte County is the county next door north to Lee (where Slim and I live)
The ban is for all grades -- preK through 12.

Maybe time for some malicious compliance and remove all books with straight characters. If proponents of the law claim that it is neutral, then it should apply to hetrosexuality too. Then again, kids simply having no books would probably make these people happy.

[raison de arizona]

Charlotte County is the county next door north to Lee (where Slim and I live)
The ban is for all grades -- preK through 12.

Maybe time for some malicious compliance and remove all books with straight characters. If proponents of the law claim that it is neutral, then it should apply to hetrosexuality too. Then again, kids simply having no books would probably make these people happy.

Seriously, I believe that is the ultimate goal for some of these groups. Just keep nibbling until there is nothing left.

[RTH10260]

I wonder what these parents think about securing their old age pensions when uneducated kids only make the minimal salary and cannot contribute to their social security and medicare costs.

[pipistrelle]

Judd Legum
@JuddLegum
20h • 6 tweets • 2 min read Twitter logo Read on Twitter
1. On Tuesday, Popular Information reported that librarians in Charlotte County, Florida, were instructed by the school district superintendent to remove all books with LGBTQ characters.

The story spread widely on social media.

Then things got interesting.

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1707 ... 91265.html

[AndyinPA]

https://abcnews.go.com/US/school-cultur ... =103377259

Across the country, a generation of young readers is standing up against efforts to ban or restrict certain books in schools and libraries.

Student-led banned book clubs and anti-censorship groups have been popping up in states where a conservative-led movement to remove certain books or lessons has led to boisterous board meetings, protests, and more.

The students behind these groups say they have long been left out of the conversation, despite being the most impacted by such restrictions.

[RVInit]

https://abcnews.go.com/US/school-cultur ... =103377259

Across the country, a generation of young readers is standing up against efforts to ban or restrict certain books in schools and libraries.

Student-led banned book clubs and anti-censorship groups have been popping up in states where a conservative-led movement to remove certain books or lessons has led to boisterous board meetings, protests, and more.

The students behind these groups say they have long been left out of the conversation, despite being the most impacted by such restrictions.

Thanks for posting this. I needed something positive today.

[neeneko]

Thanks for posting this. I needed something positive today.

Once students get involved, bans are pretty much pointless now, at least in term of keeping the books out of people's hands. They barely worked in the 80s when usenet was the best way to get them, I can not imagine they are very effective today where a pdf of pretty much anything is just a few clicks away.

[RTH10260]

[raison de arizona]

How the ‘sex act’ has become a potent weapon for book banners in Iowa

Kim Reynolds, Iowa’s Republican governor, signed a law in May that, among other provisions, requires schools to remove books that depict a “sex act.” That statutory phrase has now helped unleash a frenzy of book-banning across the state, one that illustrates a core truth about these types of censorship directives.

Their vagueness is the point.

When GOP-controlled state legislatures escalated the passage of laws in 2022 and 2023 restricting school materials addressing sex, gender and race, critics warned that their hazy drafting would prod educators to err on the side of censorship. Uncertain whether books or classroom discussions might run afoul of their state’s law, education officials might decide nixing them would be the “safer” option.

What’s happening in Iowa right now thoroughly vindicates those fears. This week, the Iowa City Community School District released a list of 68 books that it removed from schools to comply with the law. Among the titles: “Ulysses” by James Joyce, “Nineteen Minutes” by Jodi Picoult, “The Handmaid’s Tale” by Margaret Atwood and “The Bluest Eye” by Toni Morrison.

The Iowa law requires K-12 schools to remove materials that depict any one of a series of sex acts that include intercourse and other types of genital contact. The law also bans instruction on gender identity or sexual orientation before seventh grade.

Beyond Iowa City, the Des Moines Register reports that school districts across the state have removed hundreds of books from their school libraries, also in response to that law. Among these titles: “1984” by George Orwell, “Brave New World” by Aldous Huxley, “Slaughterhouse-Five” by Kurt Vonnegut and “Forrest Gump” by Winston Groom.

Gift link: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions ... ofJcpRIoYg

[AndyinPA]

[MN-Skeptic]

Beyond Iowa City, the Des Moines Register reports that school districts across the state have removed hundreds of books from their school libraries, also in response to that law. Among these titles: “1984” by George Orwell, “Brave New World” by Aldous Huxley, “Slaughterhouse-Five” by Kurt Vonnegut and “Forrest Gump” by Winston Groom.

Oh good lord. I remember reading 1984 and Brave New World when I was 13 years old, in 1966, the year we moved to Iowa. I think we had those books because my older sisters had read them for a high school English class in Wisconsin. If I remember right, I think one of those books mentioned a prostitute and I had to look that up in a dictionary to see what it was. I survived the experience.

These RWNJs are absolutely nuts!

[RTH10260]

I guess the US is only steps from declaring kisses a sex act again

[neeneko]

I guess the US is only steps from declaring kisses a sex act again

Well, at least when gay people do it.

[Ben-Prime]

Apparently, the acknowledgement that there *are* gay people is apparently a sex act now, too. So go figure.

[northland10]

Apparently, the acknowledgement that there *are* gay people is apparently a sex act now, too. So go figure.

Man talking AT a woman.. that is safe.

Man talking TO a woman.. getting to the danger zone.

woman, any age, talking TO a man.. Sex act. Burn the book and any woman (or younger girl) talking to a man

Acknowledging the existence of the GAY... burn the book, and then find somebody who might be gay and burn them.. just for good measure.

Using the word Gay as in happy (happy and gay), ban the book and threaten to burn down the library if they do it again, then notice all the usages of the term gay and fag in old books (people are smoking fags?), so burn down the whole library. Problem solved.

Too also, if you see the bad books in somebody's house, burn down that house.

Update everything else with newspeak.. wait, you have to burn that book, too...

Party at the farmhouse with the rest of the male pigs because you are more equal than the rest.