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The justification for removing "The Things They Carried" seems particularly weak: "Profanity and sexual references" Removing "profanity and sexual references"

The justification for removing "The Things They Carried" seems particularly weak: "Profanity and sexual references" Removing "profanity and sexual references" from high school curricula does not eliminate them; it only ensures that they will be learned through interactions within the prevailing culture - and likely never examined in detail by most. Placing context around things that are "socially unacceptable" is one of the most important parts of the transition between childhood and adulthood. Why would anyone think it's a good thing to allow that to happen incidentally?

msla 6y ago
> Placing context around things that are "socially unacceptable" is one of the most important parts of the transition between childhood and adulthood. Why would anyone think it's a good thing to allow that to happen incidentally? Because if you ask children to think about misogyny, homophobia, and racism in their fiction, they might apply those lessons to their parents, and We Can't Have That.
- LyndsySimon 6y ago
  Of course. It would be uncomfortable. What's more, it would be the sort of "forced lesson" that I referenced elsewhere. That's exactly the problem that I've identified with my education: the goal shouldn't be "show children that their parents have flaws," but "expose children to material where people challenge the views of authority." The former caused me to approach things in terms of defending my own view of the world, while the latter would have had me examining it. Framing the conversation is important. If you go too far with it, you breed resistance to learning. If you don't go far enough, all you're really risking is that someone might take the "wrong" lesson away from it. Personally, I'd rather have someone who has more fully absorbed the material take away the wrong lesson than someone say the right things about it while never truly examining the work. In that case, at least they will have a broader base of knowledge and experiences to draw from later in life if and when their worldview changes.
- gowld 6y ago
  More likely, someone will make an off-color-- er, non-politically-correct-- comment, which is guaranteed because one side or another will be offended by any comment on a sensitive topic, raising a media firestorm and calls to fire someone.
fatnoah 6y ago
>Profanity and sexual references I'll take a different approach on this. If I had to describe high school in general, that would be one of the first phrases I'd use.

msla 6y ago

> Placing context around things that are "socially unacceptable" is one of the most important parts of the transition between childhood and adulthood. Why would anyone think it's a good thing to allow that to happen incidentally? Because if you ask children to think about misogyny, homophobia, and racism in their fiction, they might apply those lessons to their parents, and We Can't Have That.

LyndsySimon 6y ago
Of course. It would be uncomfortable. What's more, it would be the sort of "forced lesson" that I referenced elsewhere. That's exactly the problem that I've identified with my education: the goal shouldn't be "show children that their parents have flaws," but "expose children to material where people challenge the views of authority." The former caused me to approach things in terms of defending my own view of the world, while the latter would have had me examining it. Framing the conversation is important. If you go too far with it, you breed resistance to learning. If you don't go far enough, all you're really risking is that someone might take the "wrong" lesson away from it. Personally, I'd rather have someone who has more fully absorbed the material take away the wrong lesson than someone say the right things about it while never truly examining the work. In that case, at least they will have a broader base of knowledge and experiences to draw from later in life if and when their worldview changes.
gowld 6y ago
More likely, someone will make an off-color-- er, non-politically-correct-- comment, which is guaranteed because one side or another will be offended by any comment on a sensitive topic, raising a media firestorm and calls to fire someone.

fatnoah 6y ago

>Profanity and sexual references I'll take a different approach on this. If I had to describe high school in general, that would be one of the first phrases I'd use.