If I buy Brave New World as a result of reading this article, is that ironic? What if it's the Kindle edition? Meta-ironic?
Brave New World banned from High School curriculum
51–60 of 162 posts
Re: Brave New World banned from High School curriculum
#52Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sorry, it's just the opposite: > it seems a Native American student who was required to read the book took issue with the its depiction of native people. The girl's mom, Sarah Sense-Wilson, agreed... The child misunderstood the terminology being used and the parent likely didn't read the book to comprehend the difference. However, on face value we have no way of understanding the full situation. Is this a school with…
Or keep the book and hire competent teachers. And then pay those competent teachers the salary they deserve for training the next generation.
Yes, but that would require people to actually want to pay taxes for the things they want. It would be like paying for competent non-tazer psycho cops.
Re: Brave New World banned from High School curriculum
#53The Enlightenment was premised on the broad idea that people were rational and that, once education became widespread, reason would eventually stamp out superstition and other evils and would cause humanity to want to promote and defend liberty. This thinking broadly underlies the idea that we are continuing to progress as a species and will ultimately learn to solve the problems that historically have beset us. This…
Sadly, it doesn't FEEL like we live in particularly enlightened times... Although, objectively, we are probably simply living in amplified times - more people, more connections, more communication will lead to more progress than at any other time, but also to more situations like this. I think the problem, as is often the case, comes down to incentives. School officials have few incentives to make decisions on the si…
We live in a time where a book being removed from curriculum (not even "banned" outright) at some random Seattle high school is a story we're all here talking about.
That's not bad. Could be a whole lot worse.
Re: Brave New World banned from High School curriculum
#54Earlier quoted context omitted.
There are lots of books that aren't on the reading list. Are they all "banned"?
No; however, they aren't on the reading list for potentially different reasons. This book (I have not read it) was on the reading list, but has now been stripped from the reading list because someone didn't like it and was vocal about this. A very contrived example of a similar vein would be: Cooking with a Microwave isn't on the reading list. 1984 isn't on the reading list because some bureaucrat didn't like how it…
My guess is that the sole objection was the parts that describe the casual, multi-partner sex that's encouraged in the civilized world. The author's attitude towards the practice probably doesn't matter to the people who want this to remain unread by high school students.
Re: Brave New World banned from High School curriculum
#55The Enlightenment was premised on the broad idea that people were rational and that, once education became widespread, reason would eventually stamp out superstition and other evils and would cause humanity to want to promote and defend liberty. This thinking broadly underlies the idea that we are continuing to progress as a species and will ultimately learn to solve the problems that historically have beset us. This…
On your point #2 on the side of reason, you seem to be saying that the references to savages are understandable as a product of their times, which is frankly false.
The references to savages are a timeless indictment of imperial powers like those referenced in the book. The woman in question clearly has not read it, as it is really on her side.
Re: Brave New World banned from High School curriculum
#56Earlier quoted context omitted.
What we really need is some good civil disobedience on the part of teachers. When my highschool schooldistrict banned Huck Finn, my 10th grade english teacher assigned it as an optional assignment with a shitton of bonus credit. He explained why he was willing to do this by pointing out that teachers have an absolutely nuts union. They couldn't do more than give him a slap on the wrist. Now, is Huck Finn that importa…
I'm not sure that's true. Civil Disobedience is a tool to draw attention to a broken system. So in the 1950s and 1960s I don't believe most white Americans realized segregation was a problem (remember segregation was largely gone from the North and West by 1950: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racial_segregation_in_the_Unite... ). So Civil Disobedience was necessary to draw people's attention to the problems still in th…
Is it really "crazy people getting their way" when the crazy person complains, the school says, "oh yeah, it's banned, uh huh", and then everyone reads it anyway? To me, that sounds more like getting the crazy person to STFU as quickly as possible.
Sometimes you have to pretend to throw your principles away until the next shiny object comes along.
Re: Brave New World banned from High School curriculum
#57When I read "Brave New World" just last year again. The terms "savage" and "reservation" never once conjured an image of American Indians. Instead I more or less saw the sort of savages one might see in "sanctuary" in the film "logan's run."
Of course in this world it's much easier to be offended than to tolerate. #legalism and #liability is the death of us.
Re: Brave New World banned from High School curriculum
#58My family moved from China to Canada during my high school years. It was Brave New World (along with Animal Farm) that really opened up my eyes what a Communist world I was raised in.
Yes, Huxley could be cruel on his depicting of the native stereotypes (like most elitists during his days). But besides stereotypes, I think it's equally important to educate kids about ideologies -- and the big social and political systems we live in -- with that in mind few literature titles could come even close to Brave New World.
Re: Brave New World banned from High School curriculum
#59> What Sense-Wilson and her daughter seem to be having trouble grasping is that the "savages" in the book are only called "savages" because the mainstream society which they aren't a part of is so perverted. In reality, Huxley's savages are indeed the heroes… Indeed. The “savage” reads Shakespeare, which no one else in the book does anymore, for example. It’s just like people wanting to ban Huck Finn because it uses…
What we really need is some good civil disobedience on the part of teachers. When my highschool schooldistrict banned Huck Finn, my 10th grade english teacher assigned it as an optional assignment with a shitton of bonus credit. He explained why he was willing to do this by pointing out that teachers have an absolutely nuts union. They couldn't do more than give him a slap on the wrist. Now, is Huck Finn that importa…
They also learned that having a good union makes it difficult to be fired.
Re: Brave New World banned from High School curriculum
#60best comment on the article:
"Brave New World takes place in London... I'm left wondering how many Native American reservations are near London, England."