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Teacher Suspended For Reading Ender's Game To Students
An anonymous reader writes "Forbes reports that a middle school teacher in South Carolina has been placed on administrative leave for reading sci-fi classic Ender's Game to his students. According to blogger Tod Kelly, '[A parent] reported him to the school district complained that the book was pornographic; that same parent also asked the local police to file criminal charges against the teacher. As of today, the police have not yet decided whether or not to file charges (which is probably a good sign that they won't). The school district, however, appears to agree with the parent, is considering firing the teacher and will be eliminating the book from the school.'"
As usual, this case has been discussed in other places first. IIRC the "bruised testicle" was part of what the bitching is about.
We're in a bad spot in our society when these idiots aren't laughed out of the office. Let the freak homeschool her precious snowflake and stop being a burden on us.
Read an artice about this here http://geeks.thedailywh.at/2012/03/15/geek-news-classroom-controversy-of-the-day/, and it said there was three books that were read and the Enders Game was the only one that was known that the teacher read. So it's possible that something inappropriate was read to the children if that story wasn't off.
Ender is a school child who kicks another school child to death in the school bathroom. Nobody has any question that it's happened, but not much seems to happen to Ender because of it.
Because of this particular scene in the book, I've always felt that it should not have been promoted as a children's book. I have also felt that Orson Scott Card is, IMO, unsavory for cooperating in promoting it as a children's book.
Spoiler alert: it's a pattern that foreshadows what happens at the end of the book. He lashes out in self defense against threats to his survival (or perceived threats) and immediately regrets it. It's not his fault that he kills. It is the fault of those who manipulate him and his peers so that these life-or-death conflicts keep occurring, without outside intervention.
The Daddy casts sleep on the Baby. The Baby resists!
It is. Here's what a Pastor said while introducing Rick Santorum two days ago:
So there you have it. Santorum didn't object at the time, either.
The original story reported it a bit differently:
"According to the incident report, a teacher had been reading pornographic material from the Internet to the students in class. One of the stories was about prostitutes having their faces covered with ejaculation."
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Unless this is the writer's cut that my library didn't stock - this wasn't enders game they were reading.
I'm drawing a blank here but about the only thing I can think of that would qualify as close to pornography is the part where Ender beats the shit out of that bully and the book talks about how his medical sheet reads "bruised testicle."
After the teenager's mother contacted police, investigators contacted the school.
School officials have since said two of the three books the teacher read were determined to have materials (primarily swear words) and, in some instances, subject matter and terminology that school administrators consider inappropriate for the middle school.
According to commonsensemedia.org, which claims it has in-house staff and a team of reviewers who are experts in children's media, technology, health and policy matters, "this book was not originally intended for children. The violence is, at times, quite brutal, as kids kill other kids, though unintentionally, and the main character is admired for his ruthlessly efficient violence, though he himself is disturbed by it."
The website also advises parents to be aware of violence, sex and language, but states that the content is appropriate for children 12 years or older.
The student who gave a statement to the school is 14.
You can't take the sky from me...
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Why not, where do you think this is coming from? Read this:
Mind you, I have nothing against abstaining from pornography or preaching against it, but this is something else. And don't say Santorum speaks only for himself, the point here is how many votes he is getting.
Actually reading TFA, they've posted an update that, more than likely, the offending material wasn't from Ender's Game at all, but probably some other, unrelated, material from the internets. Card thinks that his book was lumped in because it's been a perennial target of the evangelical right due to his being a Mormon.
But this time the original article was flawed too, and it ahs subsequently been updated (although I'm sure 95% of /. readers will never know that). Supposedly the teacher read stuff off the internet to the class that was "pornographic" and Card himself has said he heard what was read and it WAS inappropriate for kids (and he maintained that his book is perfectly OK for 14 years olds).
That'd be unthinkable here in sweden. Every school is required to have the same educational standards in order to insure that everyone (in theory) gets equal education and access to information. Homeschooling is not allowed. So for example, a deeply religious parent could not (legally) deny their child "inappropriate" views on contraception, religion, or in any other way restrict their mental freedom completely.
Emotions! In your brain!
More importantly. God promises he won't destroy it "with water, but will do so with fire" (which is what revelations then details... but contrary to the good congresscritter, it only speaks about what God will do. It never says "you will not destroy yourselves."
Unicode killed the ASCII-art *