"The dirtiest book of all is the expurgated book." -- Walt Whitman
Too long in the company of like-minded people and sycophants, Arizona politicians make the mistake of thinking their harebrained conservative ideas should be the law of the land. From the state that brought you numerous concealed gun laws, dragged their feet on an MLK holiday and had two spectacular crooks for governor comes this:
Opt-out for students offended by courses
The proposed law would have had students be able to pick alternative titles if they found something objectionable. This law was thankfully even too far out there for most Republicans and was defeated ... but not by an overwhelming majority as would be the case in any sane state:
- "The Arizona Senate on Thursday refused to give university and community college students a right to alternative coursework if they object to material that they find personally offensive.
The proposal backed by social conservatives drew criticism from several Republican senators who said it could be applied to important works of literature that contain objectionable material but still should be taught." -- Arizona Republic, March 9th, 2006
The very point of college is be challenged and to get out of your "zone". If you only ever read or hear ideas that you already agree with, how are you learning? I fear that laws like these are an outgrowth of the home-school mentality of a growing portion of the Religious Right.
"Take away the right to say "fuck" and you take away the right to say "fuck the government." -- Lenny Bruce
5 comments:
um - teacher - I find "A tale of two cities" offensive because my religon prohibits long texts. I'd prefer to read Go Dogs Go.
btw, you ever read "A Canticle for Liebowitz"? good stuff.
The USA is just too strange.............. [rotflmao].
Eric,
I have not read that ... but after reading the synopsis, it sounds fascinating. Kinda like 1984 meets Brave New World meets Mad Max.
CK,
"The USA is just too strange" -- Some parts are stranger than others. Being a couple of liberals (eric and I) in a sea of conservatism (AZ) adds to the lunacy. :-)
dbd said: "but not by an overwhelming majority as would be the case in any sane state"
This is America. There are no sane states. Only some are less insane than others.
dbd said: "I fear that laws like these are an outgrowth of the home-school mentality of a growing portion of the Religious Right."
Absolutely. Home school your kid, then send them to a small college run by an evangelical denomination. That way, they'll never come into contact with anything or anybody who might challenge your way of thinking. Of course, the kid leaves college totally unprepared for the real world... but hey, a small price to pay, eh?
This is total bullshit. This proves the point that the dominant ideology is so infused in our schools and culture that those who benefit from it will do anything to protect it. I want to pull my fictitious kids out of High School history classes because it's too pro-capitalist and pro-colonialist. They'd look at me like I was nuts... God forbid someone challenge the status quo - that makes them offensive.
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