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Chrishayden
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 3030
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, November 25, 2006 - 10:30 am: | 
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Well, at least this gave me the opportunity to post something about Black books--
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Posted November 24, 2006
Fond du Lac parents want controversial book out of class
Angelou account of rape stirs objections
The Associated Press
FOND DU LAC — Some Fond du Lac parents have asked school officials to remove former U.S. poet laureate Maya Angelou's autobiography from the high school curriculum.
Students at Fond du Lac High School read "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" in sophomore advanced English classes.
But some parents have objected to passages that describe Angelou's rape and subsequent unwanted pregnancy. About 80 people attended a meeting Tuesday at the school this week to discuss the book and the request to remove it.
School Superintendent Gregory Maass said the initial complaint came from one family.
"We had a mother and father and student who questioned the book," he said. "The high school provided the student with an alternative book."
The parents were not satisfied and asked for the book to be removed from the curriculum, Maass said.
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."
School board president Gary Sharpe said the request was the first to remove a book in his eight years on the board. A school committee will make a decision on the book, and if parents remain unhappy, they can appeal to the superintendent and school board, he said.
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Abm
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Abm
Post Number: 6820
Registered: 04-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, November 25, 2006 - 11:11 am: |
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It's like I can almost begin to SEE and SMELL the book burning bonfires. |
Azmera
First Time Poster
Username: Azmera
Post Number: 8
Registered: 07-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, December 01, 2006 - 01:19 pm: |
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It amazes me that in this day an age people raise such a commotion over a book that i bet almost half the schools in the country have on there reading list in high school. All kids need to read that book once before they graduate from high school because it still gives you lesson on life that you don't have to go thur yourself. If they are that up in arms over words on a page then I know they need to be over the things their kids watch on TV or listen to on the radio also. But as it is said this is america the home of free speech. They need to let others judge if they won't there child to read it or not and have to pulled altogether just because of somethings said in the book. For if you do that book then which other books you are made to read in high school are you going to pull next. For a lot of the classic have something that someone can object to. |
Renata
Veteran Poster
Username: Renata
Post Number: 1581
Registered: 08-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, December 01, 2006 - 10:19 pm: |
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Azmera, I was at my mother's house watching some show with my niece and nephews, who are in their teens. Some "TEEN choice" or something. there was some girl singing a song about being a "promiscuous girl". I was shocked that this would be on a show for teens. So news that this book is considered unsuitable for teens is just crazy when you consider everything they're exposed to. |
Zane
Newbie Poster
Username: Zane
Post Number: 27
Registered: 11-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, December 10, 2006 - 08:38 pm: |
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I own a first print edition of I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings" that I purchased on Ebay several years ago. That is a classic and it is shame that there is even a debate over it in schools. The kids know more than we give them credit for. |
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