Banning Books

I knew a really neat man who was a demolitions expert in Viet Nam..he was a really intelligent, kind and wonderful person.. when he died last year, his family and friends sat around at the funeral dinner and told stories of Ed and his early explorations in explosives..we're talking kitchen bombs here..he and some friends used to make those little tiny snappers and sprinkle them on his porch so as to scare his sisters and their dates!

Ahahah! They have the funniest reasons!

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland: "Animals should not use human language."

The Happy Prince and Other Stories- stories were "distressing and morbid."

James and the Giant Peach- contains crude language and encourages children to disobey their parents and other adults... (can't stop laughing at that one)

A Light in the Attic-- because the book "enourages children to break dishes so they won't have to dry them."

Twelfth Night--because of a policy that bans instruction which has "the effect of encouraging or supporting homosexuality as a positive lifestyle alternative."

Where's Waldo?--because there is a tiny drawing of a woman lying on the beach wearing a bikini bottom but no top.

And you can't forget the Harry Potter burners, of course. I ask you: who are these people? And why are they still alive?

No Book is harmful, except for a deadly papercut Its only how the readers interrupt them. I could undertand books such as Hitlers - Mein Kampf or Marx - Communist Manifesto and even thats stretching it. If you ban a book, you increase its appeal. Plus ignorance is bliss. How can one learn if wisdom is forbidden ?

I think the list is funny in all sense of it. Some of the reasons are just plain idiocy

I took a look at Forbidden Library and picked one at random.

Little House on the Prairie. Laura Ingalls Wilder. Buccaneer; Harper; Transaction. Challenged at the Lafourche Parish elementary school libraries in Thibodaux, La. (1993) because the book is "offensive to Indians." Banned in the Sturgis, S. Dak. elementary school classrooms (1993) due to statements considered derogatory to Native Americans. It always amazes me how people would rather ignore or revile literature from a past era, rather than use it to teach acceptance and tolerance. Obviously the characters depicted in the novel do not have "politically correct" 21st century viewpoints. Why not use the opportunity to discuss how things have (hopefully) changed?

And who would have thought The Bible would be banned.

The Bible. William Tyndale, who partially completed translating the Bible into English, was captured, strangled, and burned at the stake (1536) by opponents of the movement to translate the bible into the vernacular. Beginning around 1830, "family friendly" bibles, including Noah Webster's version (1833) began to appear which had excised passages considered to be indelicate

Give me a break.

Actually - as well as that, Laura, the main character, has a great deal of sympathy for the Indians.There is a haunting scene, after the local tribes nearly decided to massacre all the settlers, but are dissuaded by a chief who understands how awful the consequences will be for them - where the people ride in single file off their land, towards a reservation.

Laura, despite her own enculturation, understands this as a haunting tragedy and a wrong.

Any teacher worth their salt could teach the Little House books to help the kids understand the whole frontier thing and the struggle between the new people, and the natives, better than any history book could ever do.

My sister had Little House in the Big Woods and Little House on the Prairie--and i believe she later acquired and read the other Ingalls books.

It just appalls me that these books are banned. What a bunch of goddamned idiots . . . i'm gonna hafta leave to preserve my blood pressure . . .

I agree! I did a number of presentations, and lessons for small children in the home-schooling group I used to belong to. And, I used simple things to give lessons. For example:

The video "Fantasia" by Walt Disney: To introduce music and movement to young children.

"Peter & the Wolf": For the hyper active child. I asked them to dance out every character in any way they wanted to dance it. They were pretty tired and quiet after that.

I also used Peter and the Wolf to teach the children to memorize and in their pronunciation. We created a large puppet theater out of a refrigerator box, and they gave a performance.

The video cartoon "An American Tail" I used to introduce the concept of immigration to children.

If a teacher is good, she can teach with anything.

My feelings here are extensive, but I can express one thought succinctly - if you don't want to read a book, that is your right, but don't you dare tell me what I can or can not read!

Often it's not so much what is taught, but how it is approached. While I do not swear or use epithets, I have spoken both in class in careful contexts and never had a problem (including the F-bomb and the N-word)!

LOL
Who are these people? Good question.

Another questions: What do they read to there kids at night?

Is it a form child abuse/neglect to ban a kid from reading fiction such as Harry Potter or LOTR?
Is denying them the choice taking away their human rights?

Who are these people and what do they read????

Peace,
E

What they should do to these people (idiots who ban books) is lock 'em in a room for a week with Farenheit 451. Anyone who has participated at all on this form will enjoy this book.

All books should be allowed to be printed. If a parent doesn't want a kid to read a book, then they shouldn't give it to them. However a lot of kids who are homeschooled or protected are so wrapped up in a world where they believe anything there parents say that it really hurts them. They simply can't deal with the world, and all the differnet opinions (Give them a copy of Farenheit 541 too!). I'm not insulting any homeschoolers here, but I'm warning, please don't protect (or censor) your kid for too long, you aren't doing him a favor! Let him watch Jon Stewert. Expose him to all the opinions of the world! Let him decide. Because if you don't your kid won't share them with you. He's afraid that you will not like him believing in science so much that he is an athieist! Support him! Prepare for life in it's glory.

-FanFan

I am strongly against any book being banned, including books I may be in great disagreement with. No books banned, nada, no how.

We all, collectively, lived through the bonfire(s) of the vanites and the subsequent burning of the monk who promoted those, savonarola.

Enough already, back then.

The given link has some absurd reasons to ban some of the classics of this past century.

But, it's stretching it a bit if you said that NO books should be banned. Imagine being able to sign out a book abt how to make a bomb or other 'weapons of mass destruction' (hehehe)? I mean, some could argue that by placing strick restrictions, you can make that book available to the public. But how would you distinguish a would-be killer from an innocent person just out thirsty for knowledge?