New York Parents Fit to be Tied Over Racy Homework Assignment

high school kids should just continue to stick to "The Catcher in the Rye", because you know there's nothing racy in there, there's not even a lick of profanity....

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This is an honors high school class. The class is not a bunch of little kids. They are all old enough to drive. Why are parents making such a big deal about nothing. It is a book. A fictional(make-up, or NOT REAL) story. It is not telling the students to go out and screw everybody they know, cuss up a storm and do drugs. It is a story based in the real world. Do these stupid parents ever turn on the TV or are they to busy trying to protect their little babies from reality. I'll bet all the money in the world that three quarters of the kids in that class have been having sex since they were 14. And half of the kids in the class are addicted to drugs. These students are juniors in high school. You can't protect them from knowing about what is going on in the real world. The teacher is not telling the students to go out and practice one of the sex scenes from the book. Accept the fact that your little princess is almost an adult and able to make up their own minds. They are not stupid.

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A high school teacher made us read "The Plague" by Albert Camus. It was a total gross out. I wanted to strangle the teacher for requiring that we read that. That one novel stunted my growth as a reader, so teachers should really be careful and be more sensitive to the psychological component of younger students.

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If you walk down the hall of any HS, teenagers are cursing and talking about relationships, including sex. They are going to do this regardless of whether they read it in a book. If you can allow students to read Shakespeare, which also had profanity and sex scenes, why not American literature? Albeit, "literature" may be a stretch in some cases, but they read it nonetheless. Truthfully, books like these may hold students' interest more because they feel they can relate to the language used. I had to read some terribly boring books when I was in HS and college. All the books mentioned probably would have held my attention longer and I may have even read them cover to cover.

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And we wonder why our society is so vexed. Listen to some of these parents. These liberal parents who think it is sophicated and politically correct to stand for nothing. Get some conviction parents! Your kids need role models no matter the age, but particularly the older ones. They don't need for you to be stand for whatever goes... Sad.

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I feel that some parents are still in the dark themselves about what their kids are well aware of and in a lot of cases know about and understand better then the parents do. I don't have a problem with high school honors class reading it but would object if it were to be used in middle school as in some cases, those 'chicks" are not all at emotional or mental age and it would be a lot of giggling and stupid questions that would only confuse the issue. My last thoughts are that in almost any given day on the news reports the stories are much worse and very blatant at times in this "information age".

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im in ninth grade and in health class. if ninth graders can learn about sex and abortion, not to mention watch videos about it, im pretty sure juniors can read a book with that topic in it.

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When I was a freshman, our summer reading project included a book that had a sex scene in it. My mother read the book first and decided to cross it out with pencil so that I could still read it if I so chose. She trusted me to make the decision on my own and that is what should be done here. If the students don't like having to read about sex, drugs, and foul language, have them bring it up to the administration. If they're honors students, they're smart enough to be able to think for themselves and go do that. Then, it's their decision to not read it, not their parents'.

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First of all the pole aske about my opinion on MIDDLE SCHOOL students which to me means lower than 8 th grade. Then the complaint was bout a 16 year old daughter who at 16 should be in high school? It was not an appropriate assighment by a most likeyl unsupervised and socialy naive and inexperienced teacher.

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At least it wasn't the Bible with all that sex and violence in it. That torture scene with that crucifiction is WAY over the top.

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No problem, young girls need to know about sex by the time they are 12 so they can treat thier boyfriends well.

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There are bad teachers just like there are bad lawyers, bad doctors, and bad judges! Don't fault all NYC teachers because of a few bozo's in the system! If its an offense that is unethical to teaching AND the offense is found to be absolutely true, then the teacher should lose their license. There is a way to remove teachers from the system...sadly we live in a world of corrupt politicians who play with our money and our lives, but they usually get to keep their jobs!

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Actually I'm responding to "Me" who wrote "...I'll never understand people's reasoning on the issues of sex being worse than violence."

let me explain. In the 1970s to the 1980s studies were done that show the same area in the brain are affected by exposure to sex and violence. Exposure to violence (action more often than not is called violence), increases agression and promotes "violence". But these are short lived. Imagine if you will a rubber band. Exposure to violence streches the band but when you let go it quickly returns to its unstressed state. But exposure to sexuality does not wear off quickly. It further increases the need for sexuality to provide for more excitation. Think of it like crack cocaine. The first time high is the greatest but it takes ever more crack to get one to the same level of high. Exposure to sexuality increases the tolerance level, and requires even greater levels to produce the same effect. But as the 2 are interconnected, the levels of violence exposure and sexual exposure to get the same emotional/psychological "satisfaction".
If you don't understand let me put it another way. If you are standing on the floor and you jump, you get to a certain height before comming down, andd you come down quickly. Exposure to "violence" is the equivalent of jumping. The top of your head goes up a certain distance and comes down. Violence - aggression - sexuality, all go up a little for a short time then settle back to normal levels. Exposure to sexuality, is like going up a set of stairs, and jumping up. Each step up takes you higher and increases the need to go up further. Nearly all serial killers and rapists, have a similar personal history. Early exposure to sexuality, a continuous need for more sexuality, and violent sexuality, which in turn breeds more.
So we can say exposure to violence breeds short term violence and sexuality with little long term effects, but exposure to sexuality breeds long term violence and sexuality and a increase tolerance level, requireing more sexuality and a likewise more violent version to produce the same stimulus.

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This was an HONORS class - intellegence level higher than normal. My daughters read 8th grade level in the 4th grade. My oldest, while reading Uncle Tom's Cabin for a report in school, was admonished by the teacher that it was too old for her. Granted she had to read it slower because of the language used, but she thoroughly enjoyed it. With PARENT SUPERVISION, to be there to answer questions and start a discussion on the subject, I think it was appropriate. This is life - drugs and sex are out there and it would be best the children be WELL INFORMED before they decide to partake on a dare or to fit in. And many books they were assigned in high schol they read in elementary and middle school. (Oh, and by the way - they were never into drugs nor were they promiscuous.)

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And you, kj, are part of the reason gay kids kill themselves. "Homosexual agenda in textbooks" ---- What on God's green earth are you talking about?? The only "agenda" gay people have is to be treated fairly, to not be bullied and belittled, to receive the same rights as everyone else. This whole mentality of "gay = less than" is utterly absurd, whether it comes from your religion or your own personal homophobia. It is simply a different version of human sexuality, no better, no worse, than anything else. Biblical translations (that may or may not be correct) appear to condemn it, but that is highly uncertain as the word "homosexual" did not even exist back then. The acts did, yes, and were quite common - but it is likely promiscuity and men taking advantage of boys that was being condemned. You'll notice Jesus never mentions it - never, not once.

You need to take a good, hard look at what your views are doing to our kids.

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To change the subject slightly - the author of this article obviously never read Sleepy Hollow. The description given is from the Tim Burton movie, not the short story.

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