I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is former U.S. poet laureate Maya Angelou’s autobiography. The book includes details of her rape and subsequent pregnancy. Included in the curriculum of a sophmore advanced English class, some parents want the book banned.
Fond du Lac High School Principal Mary Fran Merwin said parents, teachers, principals and at least two ministers spoke at the meeting, where no decision was made. She said the school has used the book for a decade.
“It is Angelou’s own account of growing up,” Merwin said. “It has a number of attributes, and it’s a historically relevant story about a black woman growing up in the United States.”
Rape occurs in our society. Unwanted pregnancies occur in our society. Yes, these are uncomfortable topics. But banning books that discuss them does not make them go away. Perhaps a discussion in an academic setting will help young women to understand why these things occur and how to best avoid them.
Banning books only stops the conversation from taking place.
VIVIAN J. PAIGE | All Politics is Local 
“Your analogy to TV and radio simply does not match the school system, which is run by the government”
Umm…the FCC controls the broadcasting rights and the television and radio signals. Since they consider those “public”, they can also control the content through fines and revocation of licenses. This means that companies would lose tons of money. The government therefore does control what we see and hear.
This family is going out of their way, not through the school board, but through the school to decide the curriculum. They were given an alternative book yet they still persist. Maybe I’m making a supposition of what SW was saying but I think he meant that this family has no right to impose their values on the rest of the school. If there were an uprising of parents, maybe this complaint would have merit. But there isn’t one, so they should take the other assignment and go on with life.
“I’m sure our friends on the left would have no problem with schools requiring Ann Coulter books for students as well.”
Students shouldn’t have to read books that are fiction when they are advertised as non-fiction.
That excludes the Democrat platform.
So what’s your position on mangling names, Insider? Just do it for fun, or is it a fundamental part of re-education?
Um, Jack – how is removing a book from the curriculum different from it being banned?
citizen tom and Jack –
Yes, you have the right to influence what YOUR child reads. And these parents did. Their child chose an alternate book. But that wasn’t enough for THEM – oh no – THEY needed to have ALL the control and tell the REST of the school system that no one else can read the book either.
It always tickles my irony bone — the same people who screech about the “government” forcing its will on parents and children spend most of their waking hours figuring out how to foist their religious point of view on the rest of society. Me thinks that’s called hypocrisy.
Kevin — You make exactly my point, because they government does not make such requirement of private schools.
Vivian — removing it from the curriculum does not prevent anyone who want to read the book from reading it. Banning a book does.
Olivia — if the schools are public, the public has the right to try to influence what the schools teach, because the public is paying for the schools.
Jack – you’re splitting hairs. Removing it from the curriculum has the effect of banning it.
I read this book in 7th grade… and its one of the few that i kept. Its a true-story of an African American growing up in Arkansas (with a wonderful grandmother)… The story has high points and low points, but its true… If you don’t like it… Tough Shit and get your head out of the sand!
No, Vivian, it does not, unless children are only allowed to read the books on the curriculum. “The Lord of the Rings” was not on my high school curriculum, but I read it anyway.
Kevin, the point you make about the government regulating the airwaves is ironic. One reason TV news shows used to be less stridently opinionated than they are now is because the Feds could use that licensing power more effectively. When the government has the opportunity, it can and will exercise control. Such, I fear, is human nature.
Fortunately, with the advent of cable and the Internet, the Feds licensing power has eroded. These technologies do not depend on the airwaves. So now we are getting back to the old rough and tumble news media with competing points of view.
This group wants to “Remove from the curriculum” the American Herritage Dictionary, to name one of hundreds. They are nut jobs.
They are as bad as the Parent Music Resouce Center (Gee, thanks Tipper) and the “concerned” citizens whose sole purposeis to watch every hour of TV and file complaints with the FCC. I forget the groups name right now, but they are respopnsible for ober 85% of the complaints and their mere existance caused an increase of complaints from something like 100-1500 in one year…
Nut cases
That’s Brent Bozell’s Parents Television Council, Squeak. A sad bunch of people.
“Kevin — You make exactly my point, because they government does not make such requirement of private schools.”
Maybe because it’s 11 at night and I’ve had a long day, but I don’t see how I’ve made your point. The parents should move their kids to private schools just like SW took his business elsewhere with radio and TV. If the parents don’t like the assignment, they in my eyes can do one of four things: 1) move their child to a private school, 2) do the alternative assignment, 3) challenge the system by going through the school board and make a fight of it, 4) read the book on their own with their child and teach another point of view/slant on it.
Being a teacher myself, I have no problem giving an alternative assignment. But there are lessons taught in certain books that are not found anywhere else. I know it’s tough for some people to imagine but the canon of literature being taught today is going to be different from 20-30 years ago. Heck, what I was taught 10 years ago is not the same books I’m teaching today. Don’t fear change. And please don’t fear Maya Angelou.
MB? Mangling names? Please refill your prescription.
My position still holds. Parents can petition their government to allow or disallow anything in the curriculum, and they should. I’m amazed that, in the name of “free speech,” y’all want them to shut up.
I don’t have any problem with the book, except that I don’t think these kids will be asked in a job interview what they thought of the rape and pregnancy issues in this book.
I also wouldn’t have a problem with the book as long as the entire reading list was broad. Are religious books in the list? Conservative books on social issues?
Kevin — I see no reason the parents should not petition the school or the teacher who made the decision to have the children read this book. If they do not beleive the book is appropriate for teenagers, then they, as parents and taxpayers, have the right to try to get the book out of the curriculum.