Seriously?

I might have (okay, I did) admitted to burning one book and recycling another, but I have to say that Wesley Scroggins is an idiot. If you don't know who Scroggins is, you can do one of two things. You can click on this link  to read about it or just read on here. Oh, or you can close this page and go on about your merry way and leave the whole censorship thing to the rest of us.


Here's the gist: Scroggins is speaking out against Speak, a young adult novel by Laurie Halse Anderson, Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut, and Twenty Boy Summer by Sarah Ockler. He cites softcore porn, language, and promiscuity to be the "problems" with these works. As an aside, he is also miffed about the inclusion of homosexuality, oral sex, anal sex, and use of a condom being taught in 8th grade sex education and reproduction in 4th grade sex education.


First of all, Mr. Scroggins is an associate professor of management. He holds no degrees in education, psychology, sociology, or medicine. For some reason, he seems to feel that the rape in Speak is sexually exciting, the "f" word in Slaughterhouse Five is excessive, and the flirting and dating in Twenty Boy Summer is glorifying drunken teen parties and sex. 


I don't know anything about Twenty Boy Summer, so I can't comment there, but on the other two? He's dead wrong. Speak is the story of a girl trying to move on and deal with a horrible rape. It has helped so many kids deal with situations and has helped others come to understand those circumstances and empathize. For those of us parents who read it with our children, it opened the door to communication about some tough topics. It is for High Schoolers, and that makes sense as far as the subject matter.


Slaughterhouse Five swears no more than the average 15 year old on the school bus. Yes, it's a lot, but Vonnegut is brilliant. Depriving High School students of his prose because of words they hear every day is idiotic. Just because they hear it doesn't mean they have to say it... at least that's what I have always told my sons. 


Censorship is wrong. Our children are going to face all kinds of situations and language in their lives. It's up to us to teach them what to expect and to give them the tools to respond. I feel sorry for the children of the Republic School District in Missouri. We need to challenge people like Scroggins who scream about banning books. We need to use controversial literature to spark conversations with our children. 


All I can say is this: Don't want your kid to read a particular book? Whatever. Just don't try to stop mine from reading it.

Book Burning

I was going to soften you up with a little recap of that nutty Pastor who was going to burn the Quran for no other reason than he's a nut, but I opted to skip that and jump right into the part about book burning. More specifically, the fact that I have actually burned a book. Well, not me, but I was an accomplice and I lit the fire.

Now, don't get all upset. I didn't participate because of censorship or because I was feeling hateful about the author or the subject matter. It was purely a stress reliever and celebration. Really. My son was sentenced  invited to read The Zimmerman Telegram when he was 13. It was the lovely consolation prize for the children who were considered "gifted" and therefore deserved some additional opportunities. The teacher (and I use that term loosely) who assigned the book was one I had issues with. She tried to teach the kids "no taxation without revolution". Anyway, she gave the students involved photocopies of the book. That's right. She photocopied ten copies of an entire book. Then fun really began.

That book was as dry as burnt toast. If you love history, I'm sure you'd have been in heaven, but my son and I were gagging it down. In support of this lovely program, I had agreed to read it with him. What was I thinking? We slogged through it and when it was all over... we burned it. We pulled out the pages and lit a fire in the firebowl in the backyard. We took turns gleefully tossing the pages into the flames. It was a celebration of having made it through the punishment  reward and coming out unscathed. It was actually pretty fun.

So, yes. I did once participate in a book burning. Shocked? Maybe sometime I'll tell you about the book I *gasp* threw away!