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News Fri Jul 24 2009
Hemingway & Sedaris "Not Appropriate for Developing Minds"
Today in here's-why-we-still-need-Banned-Books-Week news: A school board member at a high school in New Hampshire wants short stories by Ernest Hemingway and David Sedaris, as well as two other stories by Stephen King and Laura Lippman, removed from the reading list of an upper-level English class. The school's principal removed the stories from the class reading list after a group of parents complained about the "mature themes," saying they were not appropriate "for developing minds that are very impressionable," only to have that decision protested by another group of parents and students and have the English Department head resign. The Hemingway story is, as you might guess as it's frequently targeted for its supposed impropriety, "Hills Like White Elephants." The story is thought to be about abortion, although the word appears nowhere in the very short text and, honestly, I never thought it was about abortion until it was suggested to me and I had to concede that, of the many things it could possibly be about, abortion might be one. The Sedaris story in question is "I Like Guys," which, as Book Club members might recall from our discussion of Naked, is not just about homosexuality, but about how, in dealing with our differences from the majority, we just might become the sort of oppressors from whom we are trying to escape. Both stories provide excellent teaching opportunities, so it's unfortunate, though not terribly surprising, that they would be challenged. After all, how horrible it would be for students who are at the age where they are struggling with things like sexuality to realize that others have gone through the same struggles as they. We can't have that happening.
Says a graduate from the school, in perhaps the best statement about any act of censorship in schools: "I'm ashamed this happened in my town. Sheltering people doesn't help anyone learn. It just dumbs down the school. It just sickens me that this can happen in my town." [via]
Julie @ Publish Chicago / July 24, 2009 11:12 AM
Does it ever end? Sheesh.