Fighting the censorship in our schools, one book at a time.
Thursday, November 15th, 2007A local high school here in Arizona is having a problem with an english teacher assigning Jake, Reinvented as an assignment. The parents figure that the themes in the book are too risque to be dealt with in the classroom. However, this book is published for the teen sector and marketed thusly. Personally, I don’t think it’s a big deal. I think the big deal is instead that we are choosing to take away from a story when it doesn’t even come close to what our kids are being shown in the media. It’s just a bandaid if we’re taking books away. This is the same type of bandaid that parents use in their arguments that video games are evil. Come on people. Listen up and get real here. The real problem isn’t a story where teens are talking about what’s really going on in the high school. It’s simply that the book is an easier target to attack than the media as a whole.
Personally, I’m going to head to the library at some point and check out Jake, Reinvented. And hopefully, the poor teacher who was reprimanded for using this book in her lessons will have other parents come to her aid and tell her that she’s doing just fine.
