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Parents try to perform magic by making Harry Potter disappear.

Discussion in 'BBS Hangout' started by Refman, Sep 20, 2002.

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  1. Refman

    Refman Member

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    Please read all sentences bolded with Ref saying WTF???

    http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/metropolitan/1582772

    Mad at Harry: Potter books top hit lists
    By ARMANDO VILLAFRANCA
    Copyright 2002 Houston Chronicle Austin Bureau

    AUSTIN -- Citing concerns ranging from paganism to profanity, parents, students and teachers made 218 challenges to remove 134 books from school libraries across the state last year, according to an annual report by the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas.

    And at the top of most lists were the Harry Potter series of books about a boy wizard. The Harry Potter books were challenged 71 times in 21 different school districts. All the challenges to the series, however, were rejected.

    Of the 218 challenges, 38 books were banned; 57 had their use or access restricted; 22 remained, but students were allowed to choose alternatives; 16 are awaiting final decision on their status; and 85 were retained without restriction.

    "What we find alarming is that we are finding an increase of challenges and an even more intensified increase of certain types of challenges," said Will Harrell, executive director of the ACLU of Texas, which prepared the report titled "Free People Read Freely."

    Harrell said the highest number of challenges were based on mystical and pagan references in books. A third of all challenges were based on those concerns.

    "That suggests to us a movement that is religiously based that is targeting schools to influence," he said.

    While the number of challenges increased 50 percent last year, compared to 141 in the 1997-98 school year, the first year of the survey, the percentage of books banned dropped, Harrell said.

    Fifty-five books were banned from school libraries in 1997-98 compared to 38 in 2001-02.

    Challenges also were made to the Bible and Webster's Dictionary. Other books challenged include Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream and Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

    The single most banned book last year was Taming the Star Runner, by S.E. Hinton, a Tulsa, Okla., writer known for her books about young adults. Four of her books have been adapted for film, including The Outsiders and Rumble Fish.

    The book was banned at the Lamar, Ector County (Odessa) and Cherokee school districts for its use of profanity or inappropriate language. The Ector County school district reported the most challenges among school districts with 10.

    Vidor Independent School District topped the list for banning the most books among school districts in the state. Among the six books removed from Vidor school library shelves were Snow Falling on Cedars, a novel about Japanese internment during World War II, and a book about former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun. A parent complained about the book's reference to Roe vs. Wade, which the parent deemed inappropriate for elementary grade level.

    Harrell said most of the challenges made in Vidor were "blatantly bigoted."

    The Vidor school superintendent was unavailable for comment Thursday.

    Books by well-known authors such as Stephen King, Tom Clancy and Judy Blume also were banned in some school districts. Three of King's books and two of Blume's books made this year's banned list.

    At the Fort Bend Independent School District in Sugar Land, four books were challenged at the George H. Bush High School library because their subject matter dealt with homosexuality. All were retained without restriction.

    The report found some good signs, including increased interest by parents in what their children are reading and the resolve of school districts to reject some challenges.

    But, Harrell said, state education officials should implement a uniform system for the process of challenging and removal of books in school libraries. Currently, the banning of books is at the discretion of individual school districts.

    "Any conclusion that we draw is that there needs to be consistency across the state on how these matters are handled," Harrell said.

    Debbie Graves Ratcliffe, Texas Education Agency spokeswoman, said state education officials in the mid-90s moved toward giving local school districts greater control and that there currently are no plans to set state guidelines for the removal of books.

    "It's really up to their community values to determine which books if any should be banned," she said.

    For the past six years, the ACLU of Texas has submitted open records request to all school districts and charter schools in the state for the number of challenges and books banned.

    The report is co-sponsored by the Texas Library Association.

    ==============================================

    This is really troubling. Our kids have fallen WAY behind the world's education level, yet parents want to get rid of The Bible, Webster's, Twain and Shakespeare. They may mistakenly think Harry Potter is bad for their kids...but those books are one of the precious few things that are actually getting these kids to want to read. Sheesh.
     
    #1 Refman, Sep 20, 2002
  2. SmeggySmeg

    SmeggySmeg Member

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    Burn Baby Burn

    [​IMG]

    Goose-Step Anyone!!!:mad:
     
    #2 SmeggySmeg, Sep 20, 2002
  3. Mango

    Mango Member

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    <A HREF="http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2002432034,00.html">JK Rowling reportedly pregnant</A>
     
    #3 Mango, Sep 20, 2002
  4. getsmartnow

    getsmartnow Member

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    Do you know what is really funny about this whole thing? IMHO, J.R.R. Tolkien's writing is far worse than J.K.Rowling (from a 'Christian' point of view). Yet they don't have a problem with Tolkien because he was a devout Catholic.
    Just because Rowling isn't Christian, they don't like her work. It's nuts, baby!
     
    #4 getsmartnow, Sep 20, 2002
  5. Major

    Major Member

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    Challenges also were made to the Bible and Webster's Dictionary. Other books challenged include Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream and Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.


    The dictionary is evil. It deserves to be banned.
     
    #5 Major, Sep 20, 2002
  6. getsmartnow

    getsmartnow Member

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    Yeah, turns out the zebra did it! :D
     
    #6 getsmartnow, Sep 20, 2002
  7. StupidMoniker

    StupidMoniker I lost a bet

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    The bible, the dictionary, Huck Finn, and TKAM all have language in them that would get them a PG-13 if not an R rating were they in a movie. To take them out of the hands of grade shcool children is not that unreasonable. It is possible to get an abriged dictionary, which is not mentioned as banned or not in the article. Maybe we should have the third graders reading about people being raped like in the color purple, or people being soddomized and turned into pillars of salt. I want kids to read as much as the next guy, and could frankly care less what it is that they read or see. But to claim these standards are unreasonable is to ignore all of the other areas where community standards are used (movies, television, magazines)
     
    #7 StupidMoniker, Sep 20, 2002
  8. Pipe

    Pipe Member

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    No public school is teaching the Bible or Huckelberry Finn or To Kill a Mockingbird to third graders or, for that matter, any grade level elementary school student. :rolleyes:

    My daughter is reading TKAM later this year - she is in 7th grade. It is one of my favorite books and I am looking forward to discussing it with her.
     
    #8 Pipe, Sep 20, 2002
  9. Refman

    Refman Member

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    Well let's just remove the Bible from churches where children attend. The problem is that if you look hard enough and twist context just enough you can find every piece of literature out there objectionable. This creates a hypersensitivity and the argument becomes lost when there is actually something that should be taken out of the hands of children.
     
    #9 Refman, Sep 20, 2002
  10. moestavern19

    moestavern19 Member

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    yeah, If the whole Bible was a movie, It would be rated NC 17. for extreme gore and violence, explicit scenes of sex acts and forewards by Charlton Heston.
     
    #10 moestavern19, Sep 20, 2002
  11. Refman

    Refman Member

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    It would also make Ghandi look like a Disney short. :)
     
    #11 Refman, Sep 20, 2002
  12. Nomar

    Nomar Member

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    How is Tolkein's writing worse exactly?

    His works embrace the idea of a supreme being, and there are certainly no anti-religious sentiments.
     
    #12 Nomar, Sep 20, 2002
  13. rimbaud

    rimbaud Member
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    Actually, Tolkien's world is a polytheistic one. Additionally, there are "minor gods" walking around with humans. Further, it is a kind of creation story of it's own...being a kind of pre-historical "Earth" and explaining the rise of men.

    So, plenty to offend.
     
    #13 rimbaud, Sep 20, 2002
  14. Nomar

    Nomar Member

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    Minor gods walking around with humans? Perhaps you refer to the Valar and Maiar. These minor gods are more akin to angels than creators themselves. In fact, Aule, a powerful Valar created the race of dwarves in the story. But he could not create life himself. Only through the power of the one god could the dwarves be brought to life. Tolkein's world is monotheistic.

    Never does Tolkein claim that Arda or Middle-Earth are our world. So, not much to offend.
     
    #14 Nomar, Sep 20, 2002
  15. rimbaud

    rimbaud Member
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    No offense, Nomar, but either your memory is bad or your reading comprehension is.

    I meant minor gods in the Jesus sense...not really minor, but not creators. "Wizards" would count as such.

    Sorry, this is wrong. He created them - life and all. He was lesser, true, and was accountable...but Greek/Roman polytheism had similar structures. Meaning this is polytheistic.

    He mentioned it in letters and others have written about it.

    Damn, I feel like a nerd for arguing this...long story behind why I know it all. Tolkien was an academic, after all.
     
    #15 rimbaud, Sep 20, 2002
  16. Nomar

    Nomar Member

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    #16 Nomar, Sep 20, 2002
  17. rimbaud

    rimbaud Member
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    And that could be considered blasphemy - since Christians only believe in Christ.


    Polytheism does not mean multiple equal leveled-gods...there are usually hierarchies of power. Tolkien has one major god and multpile minor ones that have no basis in Christianity - thus, they could be seen as anti or non Christian.

    Quotes. "And Aule made the Dwarves even as they still are...Aule's work was complete, and he was pleased, and he began to instruct the Dwarves in the speech he had devised for them...
    Iluvatar gets mad.."the creatures of thy hand and mind can live only by that being, moving when thou thinkest to move them"
    Aule agrees that is too much responsibility for him...offers to smite them..."the Dwarves shrank from the hammer and were afraid, and they bowed down their heads and begged for mercy"
    Iluvatar said no big deal - I spearated them from you, etc. now they can be like the other races.

    Yes, the big god placed them among the other races, but the little one created them and gave them life (since they could talk and move around, etc)...which is what the original argument was about. Christianity has all creation coming from one God - again, this is different. Tolkien is being more polytheistic...and this is just one example.

    I didn't quite mean it like that...like I have some kind of special pass (I actually think there is a blip about it on the DVD) ...just that I had been told when I was young how great it all was because Tolkien was an academic. Meaning that when I read the stories I also had to learn all of the dry "historical" stuff about Tolkien and ME, etc.

    I ammend the first sentence of my last post - it did sound arrogant...I think instead of your memory being bad you were/are misunderstanding my argument.
     
    #17 rimbaud, Sep 20, 2002
  18. fadeaway

    fadeaway Member

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    They celebrate Christmas in the Harry Potter world.
     
    #18 fadeaway, Sep 20, 2002
  19. gr8-1

    gr8-1 Member

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    Next thing you know, they'll be making us wear flair.
     
    #19 gr8-1, Sep 20, 2002
  20. ballerman

    ballerman Member

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    [​IMG]

    Maybe the parents would like this version better.


    [​IMG]


    george says its ok.:p
     
    #20 ballerman, Sep 20, 2002
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