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New York Parents Fit to be Tied Over Racy Homework Assignment
Filed under: News, In The News, Weird But True, New In Pop Culture
Sex, drugs, swearing ... it's all in a day's homework. Credit: Getty Images
Moral outrage abounds these days.
Last month, they grabbed the torches and pitchforks when an art teacher at PS 70 revealed she was a former prostitute. Now, just in time to keep those torches lit, comes a substitute teacher in Queens who junked the planned reading assignment for a racy novel.
Students in an honors writing class at Robert Goddard High School were supposed to read "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow," a perfectly wholesome story about a headless horseman who rides around looking for people to decapitate.
Instead, they were assigned a passage from "The Rules of Attraction," the 1998 novel by Brett Easton Ellis about self-absorbed college students in a world of sex, drugs, angst and language that would make a sailor blush. The plot involves topics such as abortion and suicide.
However, the assignment wasn't to read the whole book. Just a passage.
Nonetheless, CBS News reports, Melissa Naprawa is among the parents livid over the incident. Her 16-year-old daughter, Giavanna Grasso, is none too happy either.
"The homework was to find the most descriptive parts," the teen tells CBS News. "The only descriptive parts were the parts where they were doing sexual things."
Naprawa tells the network she found the assignment appallingly inappropriate.
"I just don't understand where the teacher's head was in this when she assigned this," she says.
One place teacher Nancy Filingeri's head is not being found these days is Robert Goddard High School. Officials at the New York City Department of Education tell CBS News she won't be returning to class. The 22-year-old's future as a New York City teacher, they add, remains in severe doubt.
They tell the network she came up with the assignment on her own. "The Rules of Attraction" was not part of the class curriculum. Students were supposed to stick to gentle, unoffending authors such as Edgar Allan Poe and Ray Bradbury.
Perhaps they could read Poe's "The Mystery of Marie Roget," inspired by the 1841 rape and murder of 21-year-old woman in New York. Of course, that story involves abortion and suicide, too.
Abortion, suicide, sex, profanity and violence all play big roles in Bradbury's "Farenheit 451," as well. The 1951 novel, set in a world where books are considered dangerous, is often banned from public schools.
Some books, parents fear, might get adolescents thinking about sex and using bad language.
That could be why "The Rules of Attraction" is so attractive among young readers.
"It's practically a de facto brochure for the awesome anarchy that is liberal arts school," writes Foster Kamer of The Village Voice in response to the controversy. "If there are any reasons to go to college besides to get a college education -- the job-market value of which is dropping by the day -- they're in that book."
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ReaderComments (Page 1 of 4)
10-08-2010 @ 11:30PM
Mrs. V. said...This made me laugh...I read Fahrenheit 451 when I was in 7th grade. I don't see why reading a "racy" passage is doing high school students much harm. Like they don't run into sex and profanity all over the place!
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10-10-2010 @ 7:48AM
daisy! said...I read Farenheit 451 in 8th grade (at a catholic school). I do not remember anything racy about it either. I'm going to reread soon (because I recommended it to my son) and I think the author of that article should too.
10-10-2010 @ 2:15PM
Marti said..."Running into" sex and drugs all over the place is different than requiring a student -- for a grade -- to read about it. And believe it or not, not ALL teens are having sex, using profanity, and taking drugs. Required reading should be appropriate for every spectrum of student, from the moral church goer to the promiscuous druggie. If parents want to allow their children to read controversial material, let them do it in their own home. Do not make it required reading.
In this country, ONE person can have a problem with "under God" in the pledge and we allow the whole class (or school) to stop saying it. But when SEVERAL parents have moral objections about inappropriate reading material, they are criticized and told to get with the times...
10-10-2010 @ 2:23PM
Gerry C said...I too read F451, but not in High School. And it is also one of my top 10 movies of all time. Saying abortion is a "big part of the plot" is ridiculous, it is trivial at best, I can't even recall it being in there. It is much like abortion being part of the movie Dirty Dancing. It is important for the plot to begin developing, and becomes mentioned in the end, but it is hardly the central premise of the movie. The "sex" is more sensuality than sexuality. Plus it is all viewed in the negative sense of the world without literature, and imagination, causing people to degrade towards an animalistic nature. And once again it is not the central theme or point.
But the issue here is not what adults could or should choose to read. The point is what children in school should be exposed to and how the parents should determine it, not some "substitute teacher" coming along and deciding.
10-10-2010 @ 6:33AM
Debra Sica said...Maybe if you were a parent you would understand a little better. But you mention Poe & Bradbury and not the fact that the books you mention were actually used. Every author has some books that should not be given to students. Doesn't mean that all their books are bad.
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10-10-2010 @ 6:35AM
david said...My favorite movie as a child was "A Clockwork Orange". I grew up listening to NWA and reading Playboy's I found at my fathers company. I have never harmed another human being, taken any drung or commited any crime. I am respectful and loyal to my beautiful wife and work 60 hours a week. It's actually the people who are repressed and sheltered that act out socially. I do think, however, that such material should be optional for students under 18.
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10-10-2010 @ 7:09AM
Jane said...We live in the 21st century now. There is way more racy subject matter on tv and at the theater.so what does it matter. At least it gets kids to read.
My teen comes home and tells me things about what's going on with her teen friends that I would have NEVER heard of in the 80's when I was a teen.
Read on!
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10-10-2010 @ 7:57AM
GLORIA STONE said...I am a 68 year old grandmother who has the honor of now raising a 10 year old grandson. I grew up in the days that you did not say a woman was pregnant, birth control was never thought of, sex was something that the "bad girls" did and on and on.
Today, I am telling my grandson EVERYTHING, and i mean everything. I tell him about sex, drugs, girls, you name it and I talk to him about it. I want him ot be exposed to all of the things out there and we cannot hide it from them. I had rather him hear it from me that someone else and not be able to make the right decision at a crucial time.
Don't misunderstand me, I know that he is still going to be curious, do things that may or may not be right for him, but I hope to give him a head start of this crazy world and how to deal with all of those situations before the call him to a violent, horrible war that puts him over the edge.
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10-10-2010 @ 7:41AM
Arlando said...I find it quite amazing that we still allow Huck Finn to be taught which has over 240 instances of the "N" word. Yet,we rail against a so-called "racy passage". Are these parents who are upset just as upset at Huck Fiinn? My word, what do they think they are protecting their children from - thinking?
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10-10-2010 @ 11:43AM
Laura said...In fact Huck Finn ridiculously is banned from schools. There's nothing wrong with Huck Finn however. Our society has become so PC that that word is considered worse for kids to read than reading about rape, abortion and suicide. I would bet the snide liberal author of this article would in fact have more of a problem with Huck Finn being assigned to students than "Rules of Attraction" which he mocks parents for opposing.
10-10-2010 @ 11:32PM
kt said..."The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" is a SATIRE. Mark Twain used the N-word and other derogatory phrases to show the ignorance of Southern racists. Twain himself was one of the more progressive authors in terms of promoting equality and diversity. Perhaps you should actually read the book and look at its context before you freak out about it. As for the "Rules of Attraction" article... Hate to break it to you, but by the time most kids are in high school, we already know about sex, drugs and violence. Most of the stuff in these so-called "racy books" is just an affirmation of what we've seen on TV or talked about with our friends. I think parents don't want to realize that their children are growing up and entering the "big, bad scary world" of sexuality. Gimme a break.
10-10-2010 @ 7:44AM
susan said...I don't see what the big deal is..As a parent of a 21 year old and a 16 year old, I would say what the passage is saying is very relevant..What it leads up too, what it is saying about these acts, the outcome..I would find it a great opportunity to discuss these situations with my child and get an insight of their reactions to it..I would explain what I find acceptable,what society finds acceptable and why, and the cons of these actions..If you don't discuss these actions with your kids, you are leaving them open to find out about them on their own..
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10-10-2010 @ 7:49AM
B said...Im on the fence on this one, I think a lot of parents have thier heads buried in the sand, and truely dont know (or dont WANT to know) how much thier kids REALLY know and understand, with all the TV shows and movies, how can they not know? unless you keep your child in a bubble there is gonna be exopsure to the world. one the other hand, some maturity levels just arent ready for this subject matter, and maybe, just maybe its an oppertunity to guide your child through this with "that talk" instill in the child,your own morals and thoughts, stop waiting for these little pop-up surprises before you get involved.
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10-10-2010 @ 7:51AM
Stephen said...Too much ado about nothing. While there may a few teenagers out there that live within a bubble most know of, are aware of and even are involved with drugs and sex. While this book is offensive to a majority of the people responding to the voting question I tend to view this book in a different way. While most people believe it is a sex manual I also see it as a book describing the hazards and pitfalls of living a life this way. Just as there are two sides to a coin there are two ways to view this book. Besides, I'm sure everyone of the parents responding were virgins when they finally got married...right?
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10-10-2010 @ 8:04AM
TOM said...KIDS LEARN ENOUGH GARBAGE ABOUT SEX AT HOME, MOST MOTHERS ARE LIVING WITH THERE BOYFRIENDS AND CALL THEM THERE FIANCE SO HALF THESE TEACHERS ARE MOSTLIKELY DOING THE SAME THING. THIS IS A MORALESS COUNTRY. NO SENSE FIGHTING IT THIS COUNTRY IS GONE TO HELL.......
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10-10-2010 @ 8:33AM
tmaurer145 said...I agree that the assignment was not appropriate. I do not think that having high school students read excerpts from "The Rules of Attraction is necessary or wise. But, do parents know what their children are reading? Did any of them ever buy their daughter a book from the "Gossip Girl" series? OR "The A-List"? Those books focus on wealthy high school kids who are into recreational drug use and sexual exploits. So did half of the Christopher Pike books from a few years back. Many of them focused on abortion, drugs, sexual promiscuity..............while I do not want high schools assigning reading assignments from any of those books either, I do think parents need to do a quick reality check and see what types of books are in the YA section of libraries and bookstores. Not much different from "The Rules of Attraction"
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10-10-2010 @ 8:38AM
peppercalhoun said...We have to assume the teen-aged girl in this story is not having sex,doing drugs,or committing any crimes before,during,or after the introduction of this book or it's passage,right?Having mentored more than one teen in my life(I'm now 40),I know that is more far fetched than it sounds.Sex-ed,art,music,-these things should be a part of our culture and education,without them we revert 200 years,16 and single makes a girl an old maid,right?There is more sex on regular tv now than what used to be on cable in the 80's,never mind in a book!!! I am not a parent,thank God,otherwise I would be saying "if you were a parent you'd understand" -please give that one a rest!!! This art teacher needs to come down south and teach where it would be appreciated instead of scorned.There is still a lot of teen sex,education is the only defense,not fear and ignorance...Please open your minds before they close in on you...
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10-11-2010 @ 10:11AM
me said...i live down south and i do not think replacing a regular school book with a book that teaches about sex would be tolarated. i can clearly see that you have not raised kids.
10-10-2010 @ 8:40AM
Sammy said...Amazing how things stay the same, no matter what it is. Way back in the 60's, when I was in "middle" school and high school, there was a problem with children being exposed to too much information. And, most, if not all of us young people wanted to know more. Besides, if you want drugs(alcohol), sex, adultry, murder, rape and other violence, look no further than the "holy" bible.
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10-10-2010 @ 8:46AM
Rick said...While I agree that most high school kids are NOT that innocent, the real problem is that this sub's job was to stick to the lesson that was left for her. She chose to disregard what the teacher had left for the students...so she has to take her potentially career-ending lumps. Dumb move on her part.
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