Burlingame schools pull 8th-grade book pulled from class

[Sequoia]

Citing his concern for "the morals of our society," Burlingame schools Superintendent Sonny Da Marto has stopped four eighth-grade classes from reading "Kaffir Boy," an award-winning memoir of growing up in a South African ghetto during apartheid.

Da Marto had banned the book from the Burlingame Intermediate School late last month when the 13- and 14-year-old students were nearly halfway through it, said their English teacher, Amelia Ramos, who was required to take the books back from 116 students.

"The kids were angry," Ramos said. "They were frustrated. They were appalled. And some were so upset that they couldn't muster any type of verbal response. They were very quiet."

A divided Burlingame Board of Education discussed the issue at a public meeting Tuesday night but declined to reverse Da Marto's decision.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/04/12/MNGKFP7A9K1.DTL

[enki23]

1. i assume,that this guy's worries about "morals of our society" means he's worried we'd develop some

fire the piece of shit before he contributes any more to the demoralization of a generation.

[displacedtexan]

2. This happened to me in 10th grade.

The novel was The Ox Bow Incident.

Some kid freaked out about the "colorful language" used by the author.

Naturally, most of us ran to the public library to check out the book!

[Javaman]

4. Slauterhouse 5, Diary of Anne Frank, 1984, Catcher in the Rye...

were all banned at a neighboring school, Island Trees, to my home town when I was in junior high.

A buddy of mine that went there said, everyone just went to the store and bought a copy anyway.

One of his teachers bucked the system and continued to require the books be read even though they were banned.

[IndyOp]

3. It sure is uncomfortable reading about other people's lives...

:grr:

Mathabane has been dealing with objections to Page 72 for years. In 1999, he wrote an essay that appeared in the Washington Post, titled, "If You Assign My Book, Don't Censor It."

In the essay, he calls "Kaffir Boy" disturbing, but not pornographic. He explains the prostitution paragraphs:

"My father, the only breadwinner in a family of nine, had been arrested for the crime of being unemployed. There was no food in our shack ... Desperate for food, one afternoon I linked up with a group of 5-, 6- and 7-year-old boys on the way to the nearby men's hostel. Their pimp, a 13-year-old boy named Mphandlani, promised that at the hostel we would get money and 'all the food we could eat' in exchange for playing 'a little game' with the migrant workers who lived there."

Mathabane writes that he was shunned by the boys for running away. He concludes that "resisting peer pressure is one of the toughest things for young people to do.

"That is the lesson of the prostitution scene. It's a lesson that seems to be lost on the people who want to censor my book."

[Ilsa]

5. One more sentence:

SNIP
The book has been challenged frequently since its publication in 1986 because of two graphic paragraphs describing men preparing to engage in anal sex with young boys. SNIP

The article says the book has been taught in this age group across the US, but I think I'd rather see it moved to a little older age group than 14 year olds.

I dunno, I guess I still think of kids in this age group as being a little more innocent and capable of reading alot of other books that are fabulous and reading this when they get a wee bit older. It seems like an intense passage for a 14 year old. It's a real shame they started the kids on this book and then yanked it while they were in the middle of it.

[IndyOp]

6. Would you have the same thoughts & feelings about 14-yr-olds reading

the book if it mentioned "penis" "vaseline" and "vagina" -- and there were little girls lining up instead?

I am just asking...

[Ilsa]

15. Yeah, I suspect I would.

I am not saying the book should be censored or anything. But I wonder about the age group for this reading assignment. I'm not sure all 14 year old kids are ready for something that intense. A year or two might make a huge difference in how well a kid is able to process this kind of information presented in a very personal way, not clinically.

Why did you think I'd feel any differently about girls vs boys? Was it something I said?

[IndyOp]

22. I did not suspect that you would feel differently, I was truly just asking...

My gut reaction is that the book was yanked by the school district not just because it depicted small children selling themselves for sex just to eat - but because the sex was homosexual in nature. Would the parents of that child have been so upset if it had been little girls who had been pimped? I suspect that for many people, it would be less upsetting if it were little girls.

Just this past week I had two social workers come visit the careers class I teach at a college and one mentioned that the youngest girl she had known that had been sexually abused was 6 months old. A student raised her hand and asked how anyone would know that molestation was happening to a baby - the baby couldn't say that someone touched her down there. The social worker took a deep breath and reported that the baby had to have surgery to repair the damage. Obviously, the vast majority of people who've heard this story have been horrified, but the man who raped the 6-month old baby apparently thought it was okay and lots and lots more men think that raping an adolescent girl is a way of "teaching" her about sex.

My reading of literature about sexual abuse includes jokes like, "Q: What do you know for sure about a 12-year Tennessee girl who is still a virgin? A: She doesn't have any brothers!" and limericks like, "Daddy, Daddy don't be so mean, reach up on the shelf and take down the Vaseline."

The reality of sexual abuse of children is all around us and I think that children of age 14 know more, suspect more, than you might think. They are also at an age where they are at increasing risk. While the book may cause some upset for some children, it may help some who were molested / are being molested to know that it has happened to other kids. This is a harsh reality, but a reality nonetheless. I would bet good money that some children who have been molested get help as a result of reading the book.

No easy conclusions to be drawn here...

Thanks for answering my question, though.

[Kali]

8. what is a REAL shame is that real children are really prostituted in the

real world. I have no problem with 13 or 14 year olds learning about reality - many of them are already living it.

[Ilsa]

16. That is true. MAny kids already understand this world at age 14

and how degrading it can be. I'm not certain all 14 year olds are ready, which is why I think I'd rather see it for a slightly older age group. A year or two can make a huge difference in how well a kid can process this kind of sexual information.

[TheFriendlyAnarchist]

17. Being 15 myself, I would say that the majority of people my age could read that w/o problems.

I would go as far to say that it would be alright for 7th and 8th graders, but I would draw a line at 6th grade. While it's an intense passage, at that age it's important to have some sort of guidance along that, and better it come from a teacher and reading a book than through each other or television and news.

I'm not entirely sure how old you are, if you have children, or really anything about you, however the majority of people (at least guys) over the age of 13 aren't 'innocent' when it comes to sexual or violent things (or at the very least, knowledge about them) in the least bit. For better or worse, this is how it is.

[proud2BlibKansan]

25. It really isn't appropriate for kids that age

but it is still a great book.

[havocmom]

7. I get emails daily on ridiculous challenges to books all over the nation

There is a movement afoot, folks. They are waging a war on literature. Same folks who whine and snivel about political correctness and nanny state want to take away good books.

They've OKed torture. They want kids to grow up ignorant of real history. They don't want ANY books which disturb their personal view or which challenge their comfortable delusions. They WANT Dark Ages: Part II.

Join your local Friends of the Library or similar group. Let the public know you are FOR free speech and against banning books. Start paying attention to your local school boards. There is some bad, bad shit goin on and defenders of free thought need help!

[villager]

11. Also visit the AS IF! website -- a group of teen lit/YA authors fighting censorship

http://asifnews.blogspot.com/

[havocmom]

13. Thanks for the link

Adding it to my arsenal!

[villager]

27. good. Thanks! Feel free to leave comments on the site, too!

:thumbsup:

[Sequoia]

18. Why do you get emails about book bans?

[havocmom]

26. Friends & colleagues who strive to protect and encourage artistic and political freedom,

free thought and access to the tools for well rounded educations: in a nutshell, librarians.

[Neshanic]

9. All books from the old regime must be burned.

[symbolman]

10. I hope they try

to ban mine.. I will give them such a Noogie :)

See below, soon to be made public.

[Sequoia]

19. Oh cool! When's it out, what's it all about?!

[symbolman]

20. Here's the basic synopsis

Mick Swan, a charismatic, rudderless, womanizing drug dealing cabbie in the 1970's 'Wild West' town of Fairbanks during the heyday of the Alaskan Pipeline, flees a biker club death threat to seek the sanctuary of the bush, where he's hired by Los Alamos and forced to live in a mobile camp.

The ripstop material of the tents and Cookshack guarantee there are no secrets between the cute Cookies, Mechs, Techs, Bosses, and armed Vietnam Veteran helicopter pilots. He's on the run with these "Gypsies of the Sky" all summer, madly sampling lakes and streams by chopper 18 hours a day, under a sun that never sets, unknowingly seeking Uranium.

He bonds deeply with his team mates, multiple girlfriends, his own heart, and grows ever closer to Nature, yet he's still bored, and soon whips the camp into a frenzied, fierce competition between Sampling teams, and pilots take huge risks with their teams, his most of all, while death, injury, and wild animals stalk them.

A strange, intimidating Veteran, Cassidy, nudges Mick into an unwitting Spiritual Quest on nameless mountains in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, where Mick is assailed by visions of the demise of the caribou herds.

Global warming, is but one evil out of many ravages the oil company corruption has inflicted on the ecosystems, thousands of animals, and the environment up north. He keeps it all light hearted despite bear attacks, a village lynching, and other savage adventures, even when his team, "The Good Guys" crash, burn, and are lost, starving, in the vastness of the tundra.

As the season progresses, Mick is struck dumb when he sees the entire earth "alive", and is changed forever, as Cassidy, an old Dharma Bum, reveals that which holds everything together, the Universe, the environment, and even Mick, himself.

********

I've produced 24 lovely copies at LULU.com, if you ever want to have an actual BOOK made, it's the place to do it :)

BUT, those are being used to contact people in the film biz, as I've had some Hollywood interest already, as well as getting an agent, once the film rights are sold then I'll be able to get more money from the Publishers. Seems like the way to go these days, book to film, sort of a backdoor move..

About time for a two fisted Environmentalist, who's had many adventures, eh? The book is based on my two summers when I flew in Helicopters with Vietnam Veterans all over the top half of Alaska, and most of it is true, especially the part where I saw nothing but Caribou from horizon to horizon by chopper when they migrated, while we were flying at about 150 mph for a LONG time.

It was an epiphany, and I want to share that on the big screen, the Spiritualization of the Environmental movement.

Not about Jesus really, but many religions - The 'Jesus Bolt' is the one Bolt that Holds all the blades on the chopper, when that falls out, the next person you will be talking to is Jesus Himself :)

Thanks for asking, I'll be glad to post it here (or buy a DU ad) when this baby goes public!

[Sequoia]

21. Well, it does indeed look very interesting.

Have you considered sending a copy to some of the bigger TV stations or newspapers that review books? Maybe you could write a press release and send it off to them. Now with Global Warming FINALLY okay to be in the news it might get some interest.

[musette_sf]

12. in memory of Kurt Vonnegut

let's make some noise about this.

Dr. Sonny H. Da Marto, Superintendent [phone]
[e-mail]

Ted Barone, Principal [phone]
[e-mail]

and thank a brave, principled teacher today:
Amelia Ramos
[e-mail]
http://www.everyschool.org/u/smcoe/aramos/webpage.html

[havocmom]

14. Better 'n flowers

:headbang:

[MedleyMisty]

23. I read it in freshman English

I wasn't damaged in any way.

It's pretty clear that the real reason is that it might teach the kids something about racism and discrimination and what it's like to not be white. Either that or the whole obsession with bodies and sex and how it's "dirty", which is part of sexism.

[proud2BlibKansan]

24. That is one of the best books I have ever read

And it continually comes up on banned books lists. :grr: