New York Parents Fit to be Tied Over Racy Homework Assignment

Let us not forget that our children already know about sex, drugs, and violence from watching television, going to the movies, looking at a billboard, and even through flipping through the pages of a magazine. As a teacher, I feel these books are harmless. It's ironic how parents will go to great lengths to get their children the latest video game which encompasses violence and profanity as well as allowing your children to wear just about the first thing they see on the clothing rack - making them look as though they are heading to the club and not to class, BUT you same parents flip out when your kid is required actually to read a book, write a book report, and God forbid......actually get a decent passing grade for their work. Get over yourselves America.

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I am sick to death of the "social engineering" going on in our public schools! This is just one example of it!

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I'm 19 and I think just because students may "know about" these things already, doesn't mean it should be all in our schools.
I had a substitute teacher who started off by saying, "Now I've gotten a lot of complaints, but I'm going to tell you right now, don't be a little snitch, okay?" The rest of the class period was full of cursing, sexual jokes, racial jokes and gestures, and that's just from the teacher! Yeah I heard about all of the things he was talking about, but I didn't want it in my place of education. Outside of the world I can choose to listen, but in school....it's mandatory.

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I agree! As a high school senior, we were supposed to watch "Stand By Me," but the teacher decided the use of the f-word was too much for us 17 & 18-year-olds. Instead, she had us watch "The Gladiator," which was full of violence, maiming, and killing. I have no stomach for violence, which I told her. She told me I could go to the library and write a report instead. Not wanting to give my classmates another reason to tease me, I stayed and got to watch such scenes as a man getting his face ripped off by a mace. How is that less inflammatory than a four-letter word? I'll never understand people's reasoning on the issues of sex being worse than violence.

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The colleges need to add a course for all students who are taking classes to become teachers. 1. You're an adult now and no longer one of them (teenagers), you're to responsibly lead them. 2. It is not your job to have "relations" with any of them and it is not your job inlighten them on every sexual behavior in the world. For crying out loud when people go from being teens to adults these days they don't seem to realize that they have crossed over to a different realm of responsibility.

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i read stories with themes like that all the time and i'm 13. kids are screwed up because parents block the real world from them; once the kid finds out what really happens compared to you telling them, the mistakes they make can be life altering. sex is real. suicide is real. ignorance is not bliss.

if you don't tell your daughter sex can get you pregnant and she sleeps with someone and gets pregnant, who's fault is it really?

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Maybe they should read, "The Steam" by Steve Alper. Written before the Tim Donaghy scandal, The Steam tells the story of an addicted gambler who teams up with a crooked NBA referee. Aside from prophetic, The Steam is an Awesome read, and delves deeply into the power of addiction...

However, I'm sure overbearing, parents will cry, and say, "The Steam isn't suited for childred. LOL.

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WOULD YOU ALLOW YOUR CHILDREN TO READ A BOOK THAT CONTAINED SCENES OF RAPE, INCEST, ADULTERY AND HIDEOUS TORTURE. OH WAIT!!! THAT WOULD BE THE BIBLE.

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All these kids watch T.V. you can't beat that for all the sex, vilence & tons of profanity!! Another case of ignorant parents totally out of touch with reality, & the "distressed" daughter....yeah right, she was probably covering her own butt with "mommy dearest" & afraid she'd be in trouble!
Puritanical attutudes, 21st century & america hasn't learnt a thing from the past!!!!

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She is 22 years old teacher??? Is that kind of too young or not so mature teacher??

Yikes

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I thought it was a highschool, so why is the poll asking about middleschool?

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First, read the article. This was not assigned to middle schoolers and it was NOT assigned to 18-year-olds. A 16-year-old was the one speaking about this project. A 16-year-old is still a minor and a child and a teacher has no right to provide such racy material to them. Assign it all you want in college when these kids become adults but a high school is not a place for this.

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Never having read the book I can't fully pick one side or the other since the parents' comments aren't in context. All I know is I read "Go Ask Alice" in high school & while it was full of sex without love & drugs & had a ton of profanity, it was really a story about how the first two would ruin your life & couldn't be told in an honest way without the profanity. So I would have to say if this book was written in the same way, I would definitely have no problem allowing my high school honors kid read it. Maybe these outraged parents should actually read the book before crucifying a teacher who seems to want her students to think.

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Hey Tom Henderson, that anti-conservative SNEER is quite unattractive (even for YOU) and your liberal bent is GLARINGLY OBVIOUS. (And about that "poll": As others have pointed out, these were not "middle school" students, they were in an honors High School writing class, what's the deal with that question)? FURTHER, what is a SUBSTITUTE teacher doing changing the curriculum anyway? I'll bet it wouldn't bother you one iota to find PLAYBOY on the shelf in your elementary school library! The left wing lunatics haven't taken over yet, pal, and parents still have a right to expect school teachers to have morals, UNLIKE the 2 miscreants you mentioned. I wouldn't want those 2 responsible in any way for "educating" my teen! Sneer at THAT, you progressive putz!

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First, these were assigned to 16-year-olds. A 16-year-old is still a CHILD and a MINOR. It is completely inappropriate for a teacher to give this material without parental consent. I am appalled that people are supporting her. Sure, kids see horrible things in this world but that doesn't give a teacher to discuss sensitive subjects. There are still teenagers that haven't lost their innocent views and haven't been exposed to these things. These books belong in a college class of adults, not a classroom full of children. I don't care if it was just a passage because according to the student interviewed, it certainly had enough offensive information contained.

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This was a HIGH SCHOOL assignment, not middle school. I have daughters in both - and I wouldn't want my 6th grader reading it, no. But my high schooler?

Geez, people, do you really think high school kids aren't talking about all that stuff, anyway? Perhaps writing about it - which would then engage them in mediated discussions IN CLASS - might be a way to help them view some of these things more responsibly?

My oldest daughter is 15, a sophomore at a college prep school out here in the boring ol' Midwest . . . and they just read Fahrenheit 451. It had a profound impact on her - and I've heard her discussing it with her friends. The maturity is amazing! Discussions of a world in which she does not ever want to live - how it got that way, how to stop it. She is adamantly pro-choice, but the book actually softened her views a bit and helped her see the tragedy that abortion can be. We both remain in favor of choice, but she better understands now what an incredibly emotional topic it is.

I haven't read the book in question, so I can't comment directly - but in this day and age, I'd suggest talking to your teen calmly and straightforwardly about these things, and saving your moral outrage for the cruelty and bullying epidemics we are seeing across the country.

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I am a teacher. I can guarantee that kids from elementary to high learn more on the playground and bus ride than that book will teach them. But with that said... teachers are role models and any kid can find inappropriate material to study at any time including on their home computers and cell phones... the teacher made a poor decision in assigning that, even to Honors students...why expose them to this? It was a tasteless choice. Not because of the "things it might make them think or do"..they are honors students... they will decide their fates... but it was a bad choice because in the world of amazing literature...her bias has cost her a career, as it should. Stick with what is approved, she was hired to inspire and teach good choices... she blew it on both accounts.

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Only one person on this entire forum has actually hit on the real
problem here. This was a SUBSTITUTE teacher who ignored the real
teacher's instructions. Speaking as a teacher with over a decade of
experience, I can only say that this happens far too often. There are
many responsible and trustworthy subs out there, but unfortunately,
there seem to be almost as many who feel they know better than the
trained professional they are temporarily replacing. I can't begin to
explain the frustration a teacher feels when she comes back after an
absence to discover that her carefully crafted plans were ignored.
Hopefully, the school in the article has dealt with that aspect of the
whole business.

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