Happy Birthday to the Dirtiest Book of All

[Jilly_in_VA]

Dr. Bill Nolte and I have something in common. Neither of us has read Dear Martin, a widely praised YA novel by Nic Stone. This did not stop Nolte, in his capacity as school superintendent of Haywood County, North Carolina, from yanking Dear Martin from a 10th-grade class curriculum after one parent complained. That’s right, one parent.

That dad, Tim Reeves, shown here airing his objections at a Haywood school board meeting, objected to his son being exposed to the novel’s profanity and sexual allusions. I do not question his sincerity or his right to lodge a complaint. I do question his gullibility as a dad. As someone who was once a North Carolina teen, I know the first thing I would do if I wanted to wriggle out of reading a book for homework: I’d go home and complain to my folks about cuss words and sex.

But Reeves’ possible shortcomings as a father don’t bother me nearly so much as that school superintendent’s behavior. To cave like that when just one irate parent walks through the door? To pull a book without, as he admitted, having consulted with the school’s principal or the teachers involved, or having read the book? Talk about not doing your homework.

This is not the first time Dear Martin has been yanked from a school, and it is certainly not the only book to endure such condemnation. Last week’s book bonfire star was Maus, Art Spiegelman’s Pulitzer-prize-winning graphic novel about the Holocaust. In that case, the cries of the McMinn County, Tennessee, parents appalled by the cussing and the sex seemed especially ludicrous since the book’s protagonists are mice and its villains are cats and pigs. Not so long ago we were hearing that today’s young people are so sensitive as to require trigger warnings on any book even possibly upsetting, but it sure seems now like it’s the parents, not the kids, who need coddling.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/happy-birthday-to-james-joyces-ulysses-the-dirtiest-book-of-all?ref=home

[ProudMNDemocrat]

1. By the time kids get to Middle School, they know how to swear

They hear their parents use language . They see their parents act in uncivil ways. They see others act in uncivil ways towards one another.

What are they trying to protect kids from? They are going to learn things anyway that their parents will find shocking. This is where parents need to give their kids the correct answers no matter how uncomfortable the situation and questions are. As well as access their own behaviors in an honest manner.

Banning books is not the answer.

[murielm99]

2. Middle school? Nah.

My kids rode the bus. They learned much earlier than that.

[ProudMNDemocrat]

4. I said by the time kids get to Middle School.

Which means "before that".

My kids too rode the bus to Catholic school. My husband and I were very mindful of how we talked around our kids. We knew that what they learned was well before 5th grade.

Over the Christmas break, my 10 year-old Granddaughter called her younger sister "a little shithead". She did not learn that from me.

[Jilly_in_VA]

3. They're doing this

because the books offend them, not because "it hurts the kids". You know this. Why even ask?

[Nevilledog]

5. Too bad these parents aren't disturbed when their kids have to endure active shooter drills

[Grammy23]

6. Do these people pay any attention to things broadcast on tv

Or are things THEY PAY to stream into their homes every single day? And they’re upset with a few books in the school library??

They allow their kids to watch tv shows and movies that deal with these issues. But books in the library are a bridge too far?

Good dog, can’t they find something else to complain about?

[Wounded Bear]

7. Banning books tends to boost sales...

Seriously, these folks never heard of the "forbidden fruit" effect?

[rurallib]

8. When the headline said "dirtiest book of all" I thought sure the book would be the bible

How does that one keep getting a pass from all the concerned blue noses?