Makes me ashamed to be from Johnston County

No, I was not. I was not able to show my daughter or tell her about racism in the manner that this movie showed it. It made me think about it and it made her think about it. It then gave us an opportunity to talk about racism in a manner where hate was not involved. As far as the language...ladies, please walk around your child's school. They have heard language that we never even think about using. When the language was changed on this movie to put it on television it did not portray it as realistic. You are darned right I want my child to understand something being said so that she can walk away from the nut instead of her saying or wondering what was said.

Here we go around and around. I am capable of buying my daughter that or any other book but what about those who cannot afford to or count on a library for their source of reading. Whether it is a public or school library, one should wonder where the censorship stops. Ever thought that some people would rather check a book out of a library rather than purchase it and with gas prices like they are today I don't want to go to Cary everytime one of us wants to read a book...just because the book police have gone through our libraries.

It show a person different sides of life. A neighbor's child had as his favorite movie on his MySpace website Rolling Kansas. My daughter has never seen this movie but I have and I know what it is about. One day while my neighbor and I were talking the website came up and I casually mentioned what his son's favorite movie is...kind of thinking he might find it inappropriate. He told me he bought the movie for the family and they watch it together and laugh. I shut my mouth and we talked about other things. That is their choice not mine to make.

A friend of mine was called at work by the Youth Minister and told that his daughter was not where she was supposed to be but at a party where sex and drugs were. My friend left work and went to the address. He walked into an orgy (in Clayton) with loads of drugs. In walking around he found his naked daughter having sex with multiple partners and under the influence of drugs. He put her over his shoulder and left.

Do I judge either family...I try not to. Both are very Conservative families and we are great friends trying to do the best we can to raise our children. What we do is lean on one another as we go through this process without judging.

Over the summer I broke up a teenage party at a neighbor's house. The neighbors were out of state and their teens decided to have a party and serve alcohol. I called each parent, that I knew, and told them that I had just found their child at so and so's house drinking alcohol and partying. Each thanked me. That was the extent of my responsibility. The teens made a mistake. My daughter was having a spend the night party at the time and those girls had not a clue as to what was going on, except that I had gone out of the house in my short pajamas and was mad.

See, these children, who live all over Johnston County, know more than parents think. We need to lean on one another instead of judging and deciding what is best for the other. Each has their own set of standards and most want the best. How we get to banning books based on one set of parents' standards is beyond me. Everyone has their own set and we need to value that.

Grace

 

I don't think it makes you ignorant and back woods at all. We all want the best for our children and you seem to be right their with the rest of us. It is how we get there that is different.

Don't home school unless you do it for the right reasons. Your children will be just fine in our public school system. All I ask is that our School Board not to jump to conclusions or make decisions without input. My daughter has asked me what some slang words mean that I thought she would not hear until she was a senior. I am not so sheltered as to think she does not see or hear things that I don't really want her to.

Once again, ladies, volunteer at Clayton High for a day or so and I think you will understand that these children know way more than we wish they did. Then when understanding that, talk to your children about real life.

Grac

 

Now, are you saying I don't have good common sense? I am joking as I know it was a figure of speech (I hope).

Grace

 

That's just it Grace, how is your viewpoint that the book should be in the school library any more valid than those that don't?? Or is this another case of you thinking your way is "better." You do have a choice as to whether or not your child reads the book. I'd like the choice as well, if it's in a school library, MY choice is gone. ( BTW the gas excuse is lame at best. )

 

Your choice is not gone. They took the book out of the schools. I think we are on the same track but by saying choice I mean to have the book in the library so that teens who have parents that will allow them to read a certain book will have access to the book, which is on the assigned reading list. Let's not forget that it was on the assigned reading list at the beginning of school.

If we have patience with one another on this we might come up with a solution.

Grace

 

grace you are kinda overdramatizing all this imo. this one book being removed from one school system library is not going to be some kind of green light for tyrrany at every turn. you keep making the jump from the johnston county school library to every public library and bookstore in the county. it's just not the case. nobody is advocating it being removed from anyplace other than the school library. nobody is forcing you to keep this book away from your daughter if you want her to read it. but what YOU keep advocating is forcing those of us who DO NOT want our kids exposed to have them exposed to it anyway.

 

Are you kidding? I can just see a group of teenaged boys all huddled in a corner, reading this book and snickering over the passages Mags quoted. Are you saying they will be under lock and key behind the librarians desk and ONLY the kids whose parents signed some sort of list will be allowed to check it out?? Somehow I don't think that is reality.

 

DB,

Can your daughter just not check it out and leave it for others who might want to? I guess that is what I don't understand. Just because one person/family/child does not like the content of something does everyone else then not have the right to read/view/listen to it, where it was originally located? Yes, a person can blow something out of proportion but sometimes things do go farther than just one school library. This did not happen in one school library it went to more than one and then these two officials wanted to look at every book in every school library in the district. So, yes, these things can snowball and before we know it we have no voice.

Still swimming upstream and glad you are hanging in to discuss the issue.

Grace

 

Did you sign all of the paperwork sent home from the school system at the beginning of the school year without objection to anything? If so, you agreed for this book to be assigned to our students! Start reading the paperwork, get involved, object to the proper authorities, etc and then a difference will be made.

Grace

 

DB,

We have been discussing this for a while now and it seems that no one is giving one inch on where they stand. I will bow out as it just seems as though nothing constructive will occur. I count myself in as one who will not budge. I just don't understand why people want to force beliefs on others. Why not leave it open to the individual parents. Guess I will always be the odd person out.

Have a Happy New Year!
Grace

 

what's sad, grace, is that you don't realize that this is exactly what you are trying to do.

i give up. again. see you at the polls....

 

Here we go again. Typical that you can't answer the question asked. Once again, the only viewpoint you see as valid is your own and when you can't make others swallow it hook line and sinker, off you go pouting.

 

Ready,

Other than being a tax payer, and living in a nation under rule of law, which I believe one board member and the superintendent violated, you really have no dog in this fight. If you home school, you have made your choice as to how best to educate your child. At that point, since your child is not subject to a reading list, nor a student of the school, you really have no place in this argument. I would expect your vocal disapproval for the way this method was handled, unless you're ok with it, because you happened to agree with the result. I would caution against this, as eventually, a decision made in this fashion may go against your support, and you'd have no high ground, at that point, from which to complain.

Mags,

You know that I respect your logic and your passion. Where, I wonder, is the indignation about short circuiting the process for getting books removed? Had the board decided to keep this book in the library, and even disseminate it to middle school level, you and many others would be howling about the lack of due process, and the fact that this decision made by two people didn't represent your view points. Where is the outrage?

Grace,

I don’t worry about your kiddo. She’s intact and not for sale. As for being the smooching police, Nope..not me. I trust her, and know that you do as well.

Parents of kids in school....

As one of you, I have the same fears about the choices my children will make that you have for yours. I try, as best I can, to limit exposure to elements that are inappropriate for them. One is in elementary school, now. Certainly, the things to which she gets exposed at this level are not as adult as what she will face in her future. Yet, by not exposing her to different ideas, and discussing with her biological changes, chances etc, I would be doing her a disservice in her life. I have raised teenagers as well. I have had to do the tough thing and TRUST my kids to do the RIGHT thing. They were exposed to the same things now that these kids in high school are. Without any adverse actions, they made it. No police reports, no arrests, no fights, no pregnancies. Their lives are in full mode now, and I believe that they were equipped to make the right choices. So far, they have made the right choices.

It you have a teenager and haven't talked with them, frankly, about sexual choices and behaviors, you are behind the power curve. If you haven't ever talked with them about illicit drug use (and frequently since) you have missed the chance. I am asked about these things by your kids when I sub. I tell them that I have made what I consider to be the appropriate choices for my and my children. It's easy for me to tell my kids to not do drugs, smoke weed, etc..BECAUSE I never did those things. I don’t know how a parent who has done them is able to talk with kids about it. I'd love to know, so I can understand better.

If you don’t have a clue as to what the dialect and language these kids use, you’d better learn it quickly. The music, the “cultural” icons they have and wish to emulate, the movies they see, and other influences they have surrounding them require constant vigilance by parents who care. I must admit that I see many kids, whose parents, in my mind, just don’t give a darn.
Between the lack of parenting skills by B Spears, hjer 16yr old sister’s pregnancy, which most kids think is cool and that the pregnant belly is the in look, tattoos, and baring tons of skin, I have to ask where were the parents of these kids when these kids needed better guidance.

Believe me, folks, I am no prude. And the fact that I am shocked by the level of dress (and undress) that I see is amazing.

I've been asked many questions from teenagers who really want to know the answers, and are unhappy with the "that's just the way it is." response they apparently hear often.

Given that it's probable that Iraq and Afghanistan will not be solved by June, 2008, I hear questions from the kids who will possibly face it first hand, the new soldiers, sailors, Marines...who ask cogent questions about the wars going on? When will parents discuss this? These kids are 18, if not turning 18 soon, with the right and responsibility to vote, to become adults. And their questions deserve answers.

Among the questions...

Why are we fighting in Iraq?
Why is it I can die in Iraq, but not drink alcohol?
Why can't I hug, kiss my BF/GF in the hallways?
Why don’t the community colleges offer more?
Who decides the classes taught here?
Will I ever use this in real life..(a question from a geometry class....Admittedly, I am no mathemagician...but after having thought about it, told them truthfully yes, when I had to adjust incoming naval gunfire, or artillery fire. It was actually using polar plots and cartesian coordinate geometry, but it WAS using geometry. Solving a quadratic equation, or a pythagorean theroem is still waiting.)

And, finally, some do get it right. I want to compliment those families.

I agree that we have reached an impasse on this thread. We are no closer to achieving a consensus than when we started. I anticipate no further posting on this thread. PM me if you want to continue.

 

WOW!

This is obviously a very touchy subject and you know what it all comes down to the fact that we are all concerned about our children and their children etc. I tried so hard with my two girls. Now I try so hard with my grandson who is 4 and soaks everything in like a sponge.

We can only do our best to protect them and it's up to us and no one else to do that.

Do what ye believeth is the best for your children. Your, our children belong to us and not the school system or anyone else so just like those who fight for religion, we must fight for our values and virtues. That's whats so great about being an American. We can do this. That's all we can do I guess.

 

Well actually, I homeschool two of my four children. My oldest is a ps graduate, the next one is still in ps, and the two youngest are homeschooling. So I have one dog in the fight and three out. Oh yeah, I sent you a PM.

 

I apologize for presuming otherwise, based on the earlier response from R2. And, yes, Emilie, this is truly a passionate subkect as we all are looking out for our children as best we can.

Great New Year to you folks....

Blessings!

Carl