Johnston County school officials are scouring the library shelves for potentially offensive books after “How the Garcia girls lost their accents,” a novel by Julia Alvarez, was removed from school libraries and classrooms earlier this fall due to sexual content and profane language. This raises a question: At what point do parents and school officials need to get involved and inquire about what books are used in schools?
It is amazing in this day and age that there are people who are banning books because of the real life aspect in them. And to be spending tax payer’s money that should be spent on educating children, is instead being spent to go through the library of schools is ridiculous! Are we now going to see groups of people burning books? Be careful, the Bible contains a lot more about sex, drugs, abuse, etc. than most any book out there!
I say "Congratulations to the couple for standing up for their principles in the education of their daugher."
The exerpts you printed are some of the milder objections. Some of the more graphic and offensive are:
“..grins wickedly and drives a little ways out of town to (the) whore house. ....asks for a cabin.... he has risked getting into a lot of trouble.... nice girls at a whore house... How many taboos can we break here.... incest, group sex. lesbian sex, virgin sex- .....Virgin sex? .... Who’re you talking about? (They see their sister going into another cabin) with a guy that thinks condoms cause impotence.” [pg 124-125]
“He was nude... He was wore down with frustration, he said. I was cruel. ... didn’t understand that unlike a girl it was physically painful for guys not to have sex .... I thought you’d be hot-blooded being Spanish ... under all that Catholic bullshit, you’d be really free.... But Jesus, you’re worse than a fucking Puritan.” [pg 98-99]
“The man spoke up. Where ya’ going? ...Excuse me she asked politely... leaning into the car...Something caught her eye. She looked down and stared, aghast. The man had tied his (shirt) ..above his waist and was naked (below). String... looped around his penis... his big blunt-headed thing grew so that it filled and strained at the lasso it was caught in.... C’moninere... C’m’on he moaned. He cupped his hand over his thing.... a pained, urgent expression was deepening on his face. ...His arm pumped at something... and after much agitation he was still. The face relaxed....bowed his head as if in prayer.” [pg 157-158]
There are many other such excerpts like this sprinkled throughout the book, but this is enough to see why a parent who is raising a daughter to be sexually moral would not want her school promoting this kind of smut in the name of literature.
Lets ban other books that mention sex- what's better is to close down all libraries because every book has either sex, death, or other non-moral words in it. After living in Johnsotn County for years (and finally getting out of it), I can understand why the board banned the book and will ban others. Either citizens can't read them or are to backwoods to understand the books. I got my children out of the school system in time enough for them to receive a very good education. My first child has graduated and is going a top university. Next is for the County Commissioners to build a fence around the county to make sure people don't come in to corrupt it citizens.
Ignorance is bliss in Johnston County, NC. Yes, that individual parent has the right as a parent while the child is legally under 18 to dictate to HIS child what she will and will not read. That right stops there. That parent along with the ignorant district board, just took everyone elses right to choose what they want their child to read. Who are they to think they can make that choice for everybody else and to ASSume that everybody else thinks and believes the same. No one MADE that child read that book, she was given a choice to take a different assignment, which she did, so the madness should stop there. Those many parents who appose this banning now have to abide with this one parent making that choice for them. Now wasn't that the original complaint coming from that parent, having the right to chose? Hmmmmmm.... "Wait a minute, did I just take someone else's rights just to force my beliefs on to everybody??".
Two wrongs don't make a right.... Sounds like that parent just got his 15 minutes of fame my friend. In this day in age, there is no more "burning of books". If you haven't noticed even Johnston County is getting out of the dark ages. Reality is making that happen. The majority of today's kids are already exposed to the "nasty" real world BEFORE they get to school, now not only are the kids not getting reality help from home or from their parents, now the schools can't try to help the kids make sense out of it! So guess where their going now for answers!?!
Ban the Bible too!
It's got sex, murder, violence, and glorifies genocide! It contains a graphic depiction of a man engaging in coitus interruptus, a semi-pornographic love letter, and several other things that CLEARLY have no place in a MORAL society like ours.
Just a thought, of course.
Like any censor, you focus on one passage out of context. I suggest if you do not like a book, don't read it. You love to read those passages you quote, suggeting to me you find the book very attractive.
If you had actually read those scenes in their entirety, including what was between those ... you would realize that those scenes DO NOT promote sex. Actually, just the opposite - those nice girls at the whorehouse went there to rescue a gullible younger sister who was in over her head. The second scene was about a girl who wouldn't give in to a guy's pressure to casual sex. And the last was about a flasher. The girl was horrified and the parents called the police over the issue. I fail to see how these scenes promote sex. Actually, they teach girls to not be gullible, to not give in to pressure, and to be careful about approaching a strange man's car.
People should really read a book before they pass judgment.
Hey, I've seen that website too. Look up the word "context." Your site pulls all the curse words out of books and prints them out of context in order to stir up controversy. I guess it worked on you. But since you didn't take the time to read the book and you probably won't look up the word context either, I'll put it here for you.
context ( ) n. The part of a text or statement that surrounds a particular word or passage and determines its meaning.
Now you've learned something valuable and our kids can too if we just open our minds and eyes to what is right in front of our faces.
OK. You do know that religious kids still experience all of this stuff, right? And if they are raised in an environment where they are kept from reading anything difficult, then they will feel that they are alone when it happens to them. To read about it - to understand that you aren't alone in what you've seen - it's healing and freeing. It doesn't make you want to go out and do it. Reading does not make a person immoral - it helps them to define their character. Have more faith in your faith. If you are teaching your child correctly, you use these materials as opportunities to discuss difficult topics. Trying to avoid it keeps kids feeling ashamed of what is actually prevalent and has been prevalent for thousands of years. People have sex. People have sex with the wrong people. Kids get introduced to the "world" too early. But that is life and it needs to be expressed and discussed.
Banning Books
Will they also be removing, say, Hamlet and Macbeth over their erotic content, or Herman Melville's Moby Dick for its homosexual undertones? I am really curious about this, especially regarding the Shakespeare plays. Much of the language of Shakespeare appealed to its audiences because of -- not in spite of -- its clever puns and references to sex and human anatomy. I hope these prissy school boards read Hamlet and Macbeth carefully (I am happy to cite act and scene for you) and decide whether they are willing to ban the Bard too. Alvarez shares this element with the greatest writer in English literary history, though perhaps she is only more blunt and honest. If this school district has a zero-tolerance policy, they ought to chuck Shakespeare -- and become the laughing stock of the nation.