Repped, but it really isn't awesome. What would be awesome is for fewer books to be banned from school libraries. Yeah, I know you know this. What we're doing here is settling for payback. Of a very ugly, mean-spirited kind that I've been advocating for the bulk of my adult life. I'll take it, if it happens. Which it won't.
For a public school library? Yeah, there are books I'd ban, and books I wouldn't allow a student to check out on his/her own. I'm sure there are plenty of works by various racial superiority types... I think David Irving's written a book or two. There is no way I'd allow info like that to be presented to a student without first getting a thorough explanation about what it is and why we don't believe a word of it. I can't imagine allowing porn books in a school library, for example. That would be different from artistic nudes. The right can tell the difference, but they'd rather not have to.
I don’t think the people looking to ban things can tell the difference. They see nudity = bad, usually based on their own depravity, but that’s what they show.
I was thinking of it being the school librarian as the one to make the decision. That person wouldn't be banning books, but would have the position where they decided what was appropiate for the school and the students, and what was not. Additionally, said librarian would work with the various teachers bringing in new material for a class, or that had not come up on some list. Truthfully, there has to be a limit somewhere. But it should be based more on shelf space (and, unfortunately, budget) than anything decided by non-librarians/teachers (re: parents).
Just to clarify…are you saying that no books should be banned but you think that certain books shouldn’t be in elementary school libraries, others shouldn’t be in middle school libraries, etc. right?
They should be. But this environment is chock full of meddling parents who'd complain. I'd rather they complain to the people they felt worthy of electing than have them complaining to the professionals who actually trained for the gig. Better the willfully blind appeal to the willfully blind, takes longer for either of them to ******** things up.
Why not? Banning books is a political decision which should not be put on any school. In fact, it takes the trust out of educators decisions. It is on the same place as teaching religion in public schools (biology/any science). Yes, at the librarian's discretion. A "book ban" is a political decision, and should not play a part in what is in school libraries. This.
They aren't, at least not in my experience. A board is made up of people who often haven't ever been in front of a classroom. They're elected by equally clueless parents as often as not. Yeah, it's a political decision. I want the professionals to avoid the fallout created by the knownothings.
It's fascinating to go back to the beginnings of some of these threads and see how we were gaslit all along
Update on the Michelangelo David stupid controversy. Hillsdale cuts ties with Florida school embroiled in David controversy https://www.detroitnews.com/story/n...l-michelangelo-david-controversy/70063592007/ "This drama around teaching Michelangelo’s 'David' sculpture, one of the most important works of art in existence, has become a distraction from, and a parody of, the actual aims of classical education," Hillsdale College said in a Thursday news release. "Of course, Hillsdale’s K-12 art curriculum includes Michelangelo’s 'David' and other works of art that depict the human form." If the school is too being idiotic for Hillsdale, that is saying something.
My guess is that is an excuse. It seems to be a poorly run school, and they want to wash their hands.
Way back in my school days we had a class on Michelangelo’s David. One anecdote from when Michelangelo unveiled it was a comment about a bump on its nose. So Michelangelo takes his mallet and chisel and palms some marble chips, climbs up and pretends to tap at the offending member dropping chips and dust. When he climbed down he was applauded. The class agreed he wasn’t really talking about the nose.
Wow. Princeton is quite selective https://www.dailyprincetonian.com/article/2023/03/princeton-accepts-no-students-to-the-class-of-2027
^^Humor^^ That said, I believed it for a second, then thought, "even with their endowment, it wouldn't be prudent to do that"
I was surprised at that number, but would not have been at a lower number. I say that because Marquette is dropping enrollment, in part because fewer Illinois students are coming (change in state law about accepting students into state institutions). But it is also cyclical, in that fewer students means fewer professors, which means fewer classes, which leads to fewer students, etc.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2023/04/05/two-alabama-districts-pandemic-learning/ Another article on how wealth divides significantly in education. This is 3 years on from the start of the pandemic. “We turned off schools and inequality grew a lot,” said Tom Kane, faculty director for the Center for Education Policy Research at Harvard University, who helped create the Education Recovery Scorecard, a project of Harvard and Stanford universities. His partner on the project, Sean Reardon of Stanford, said that before the pandemic, students from the wealthiest school communities were about five grade levels ahead of those from the poorest in math. By last year, that gap had grown to 5.5 grade levels. “Socioeconomic status makes a difference in almost everything,” said Keith Lankford, the superintendent of Pike Road schools. In the years since the coronavirus emptied schools, that is proving truer than ever. This article looks at two neighboring school districts in Alabama.
Pike Road won the 2022 4A-5A title in girls' golf. Black kid among the team leaders. Not shocked to read about Skegee. Black Belt (soil) counties are almost universally poor. I've taught in two, one in GA. Three, really, if you count the eastern tip.