Schools Educate, Parents Raise
Michelle Malkin blogs on books available to 6th graders as told by the New York Daily News. The NYDN story says:
Sixth-graders at a Queens school were getting quite an education - in homosexuality, French kissing and cursing - thanks to three books widely available in classroom libraries.
…
The poem “I Hate School” in a book called “You Hear Me?” includes the rhyme, “F— this s—, up the a–. I don’t think I’ll ever pass.”
Another poem compares eating an orange to having sex, while several passages repeatedly use vulgar slang for genitalia. And the book “Am I Blue?” is an anthology of stories about gay teenagers that parents found too adult-themed for 11- and 12-year-olds.
Malkin writes:
You might want to make sure they aren’t reading this crap
I agree, kind of. If government funded schools are going to keep that kind of stuff in a 6th grade library, then definitely. That’s the father of four speaking. But I wouldn’t go so far as to call it crap. That kind of artistic expression has a place in higher learning if, for no other reason, than to challenge the beliefs of the learner. It’s also an expressive voice for the writer and people like the writer.
In the K-12 schools, students should be learning basic skills to survive in the world and building a knowledge base to prepare them for life. Parents are the ones that should be controlling exposure to materials like the Queens’ books. Teachers teach, parents raise. Once the parent and teacher have forged a finished person, then let that person decide if the books are for them… in college or on their own.
There’s value in the books themselves, but potentially harmful effects at the age group exposed to it. Keep it out of the schools, but in the body of available literature.
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