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Teacher Forced to Resign for Assigning Graphic Novel

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  • Rym has a story about a convenience store clerk. The teacher would do well to follow his example.
  • I can sympathize with the parent if the problem is the content and not the medium. I've not read Eightball, but I'd be less than pleased if a teacher assigned something like Preacher or Lost Girls.
  • I read Maus in high school.
  • I can sympathize with the parent if the problem is the content and not the medium. I've not read Eightball, but I'd be less than pleased if a teacher assigned something like Preacher or Lost Girls.
    I think about this a lot when I borrow books like that from the library. Many of them are placed in the "Young Adults" section. I'll bet if some parents actually read a copy of Transmetropolitan their kid borrowed from the library, they'd get pretty upset.
  • edited October 2007
    I think the parents should have talked with the teacher first, and then allowed the teacher to express why he had chosen that specific comic for a make up summer assigment.
    I personally would have made her read Phoenix "Future".  Cuz I bet if I let then read "Nostalgia," the parents would say "OMG incest!"
    Post edited by Rym on
  • You just can't win. If you assign Ethan Frome, the kids hate you. If you assign EIghtball, the parents hate you.
  • edited October 2007
    If you read the details of the story, it's even sadder. The girl hadn't done her summer reading, and so the teacher, not wanting her to be held back for that reason, grabbed the comic off his shelf and handed it to her because he figured she would be able to ingest it over the weekend. The teacher was putting his effort into helping a kid that couldn't be bothered to read during the summer. It's sad that the parents didn't decide to get involved in their daughter's education until she was handed a comic book.
    Post edited by xenomouse on
  • edited October 2007
    After thinking about this some more, I am pulled. I read A Prayer for Owen Meany and The World According to Garp in high school, and both had very sexual themes, violence, and a great deal of language. Both are in my top 5 books and made me a better person.

    I guess the conversation -- like all censorship debates -- becomes a matter of where you draw the line on what content is appropriate and inappropriate, and who decides. The problem is that I think some censorship is necessary in a compulsory education setting. I just don't know how to quantify any rules for determining how to responsibly do it.
    I think about this a lot when I borrow books like that from the library. Many of them are placed in the "Young Adults" section. I'll bet if some parents actually read a copy ofTransmetropolitantheir kid borrowed from the library, they'd get pretty upset.
    I agree completely. The graphic novels are placed in the kiddie section based on the medium, not the content. Not only does that put some pretty (forgive the pun) graphic sex and violence in front of kids, but it also perpetuates the myth that the books aren't for adults.
    Post edited by Jason on
  • The isn't so much about censorship as it is about the authorities over-reacting. In this case, if the parents had no problem with the book, nothing would have happened. However, the parents did have a problem with the book, and they complained to the administration. The administration forced the teacher to resign and announced the potential for a criminal investigation.



    What should have happened is this: parents have a problem with the book and complain; administration warns teacher to be more careful and to run books by parents first; the end.
  • Maybe the problem was the pictures. The type of parent that would complain might not read an actual book.
  • Maybe the problem was the pictures.
    Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's the case, given that books by "bestselling erotic mystery novelist Janet Evanovich, most of whose books have a hot sex scene within the first few pages" appear on the summer reading list as well.
  • Maybe the problem was the pictures. The type of parent that would complain might not read an actual book.I suspect that's the case. The visual element was more compelling to them than the written word.
  • Maybe the problem was the pictures. The type of parent that would complain might not read an actual book.
    I suspect that's the case. The visual element was more compelling to them than the written word.
    So the teacher could have assigned Tropic of Cancer or Portnoy's Complaint and everything would have been fine?
  • The teacher admitted to giving the student an easy book to read that was not on the summer reading list just so she wouldn't start the year behind.

    Yeah... he should have been fired. Not because of the content of the book, but because he was willing to overlook academic standards in order to push underachieving kids through school.
  • Yeah... he should have been fired. Not because of the content of the book, but because he was willing to overlook academic standards in order to push underachieving kids through school.
    What are you talking about? If that's all he was guilty of, he should have been promoted. It's federal policy to push underachievers through school.
  • No doubt the union will give him an award.
  • edited October 2007
    Yeah... he should have been fired. Not because of the content of the book, but because he was willing to overlook academic standards in order to push underachieving kids through school.
    What are you talking about? If that's all he was guilty of, he should have been promoted. It's federal policy to push underachievers through school.
    Yeah, I'm from Florida, where "No Child Left Behind" pretty much forces teachers to teach to the lowest scoring student instead of some median standard.

    But, back to the issue. I think him giving her this book maybe have been out of line, but he was trying to help her. She should have read something over the summer. If it was a big list, she could have found something she would be interested in.

    What if he had given her something like "Maus"? What would the re-action have been then?
    Post edited by mattytehhax0r on
  • But, back to the issue. I think him giving her this book maybe have been out of line, but he was trying to help her. She should have read something over the summer. If it was a big list, she could have found something she would be interested in.

    What if he had given her something like "Maus"? What would the re-action have been then?It seems pretty obvious that he cared about the student at least a little bit. If he didn't care, he wouldn't have given her anything. I haven't read Maus, but I know what it's about. I wonder if the girl's parents would be the same sort to overreact to the site of a swastika in a comic book, regardless of the context.
  • edited October 2007
    I wonder if the girl's parents would be the same sort to overreact to the site of a swastika in a comic book, regardless of the context.
    I think so, but how would you call a problem with a story of World War II? The swastika's soon in textbooks and documentaries, so I don't think they would say anything. It would be like complaining about The Diary of Anne Frank.
    Post edited by mattytehhax0r on
  • ......
    edited October 2007
    No doubt the union will give him an award.
    They don't think like you do.

    Anyways, I agree that the parents are idiots. Hell, as far as I can tell the comic only hints at the questionable content. In my fourth year of High School, that's about 4 years back, when I was 15 years old, the entire class was forced to read the book "De Grot". In which the first chapter starts on a camping trip with school, so kids about our (class and me) age back then. Halfway through said chapter, two guys, friends, talk about going out to have sex with 2 girls in a different tent. And they go over, zip down their pants and go at it, and then switch, before being kicked out of the tent by the teachers. Written more graphically then what I know about that comic from the article.

    EDIT: The swastika is a (religious?) symbol in India. So the parents would have to read the context in which the swastika is used... which I doubt they canwant to do.
    Post edited by ... on

  • EDIT: The swastika is a (religious?) symbol in India. So the parents would have to read the context in which the swastika is used... which I doubt theycanwant to do.
    Thats the backwards swastika. It's like a symbol of the buddha or something.

  • EDIT: The swastika is a (religious?) symbol in India. So the parents would have to read the context in which the swastika is used... which I doubt theycanwant to do.
    Thats the backwards swastika. It's like a symbol of the buddha or something.
    Yeah, it's a religious symbol.. Wikipedia Link

    Anyways.. The whole thing was totally overblown by the parents... Kinda reminds me of my mother when she goes off on a tangent.. But it makes me wonder.. One of my favorite teachers is considering using manga in his English class to help people get interested, to show them a different culture and medium, and otherwise round his class out. In other words, he wants to use graphic novels to help his class, which is what I'm sure this teacher wanted to do. However, due to some people freaking, he ended up getting hurt for it, an unfair and unjust result. I hope that he can pick up his life and move on...

    =3 He can come to Canada!!
  • The left-facing swastika can be found in both Hindu and Buddhist tradition.
    A "right-facing" Swastika in a decorative Hindu form
    Text under images in the previous linked Wikipedia article. Backwards swastika... right, they apparently use both.

  • Yeah, I'm from Florida, where "No Child Left Behind" pretty much forces teachers to teach to the lowest scoring student instead of some median standard.

    That is my one big complaint about the No Child Left Behind law. All it does is further push the education system into the realm of "test teaching" rather than teaching. The only real test of your education is where you end up when you are out of school.

    Unlike math, which is very easy to test, vocabulary tests are nothing but a trivia contest. How do you properly test for that? If you live in a certain socio-economic area or environmental area you will have a disproportionate knowledge of words that deal with that area. I'm sure any kids growing up in Joe's house would have a high level vocabulary in regards to "lawyer" words while kids growing up in the Scrym house would have a high level of knowledge of techie words. Vocabulary really is a product of where you live.
  • How do you properly test for that?
    Pronounciation, beyond that I have no idea how you can test something as useless as that. If the vocabulary lacks, one will notice that pretty fast in the standard classes if you ask me.
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