3. Prose makes several key assumptions about the role and impact of reading literary works in high school. What are they? Some of the key assumptions that Prose makes about the role and impact of reading literary works in high school are that our literary taste and our love for reading is developed in high school, not before, not after. Also, that high school reading lists are developed by adults who had to suffer through the same system as the kids before them, thus developing their literary taste in high school and recycling the same books generation after generation.
You would probably be proud that they’re actually reading something right? Well, more and more books like these are being banned from school libraries every day because parents all around the United States are “challenging” them. Believe it or not, Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is one of the most challenged books in the U.S. today because the ‘N’ word was used too many times. That book was and still is a very popular and well-written
People always say that teenagers need a taste of reality right? Well this book provides it. But many people believe that this book should be banned for that same reason. It is too crude for a school curriculum. Yet I believe that this book, “The Chocolate War” by Robert Cormier, should be kept in schools to be read by teenagers.
This does not mean that parents have no rights to what happens to their child while they are at school but this allows school to guide student behaviors though discipline. This idea is called in loco parentis (pg. 378). This concept was once more important in schools than it is now but it has brought forth it idea that no matter the student, disabled or not, there needs to be a certain level of responsibility put on all students for their behaviors when they are at school. This would be a great chapter of the book for parents to read because it would help them to understand why the school is doing what it is doing.
Readers could argue that Twain’s main point of the novel was to be offensive. But either way, he did just that. Times have changed and that word has no longer become an acceptable word for people to use. Most African American students grew up being taught that it was a horribly offensive word, and to never use it. So with that being said, many students could feel uncomfortable hearing it at school.
Should Huckleberry Finn be banned from high school curriculum? There has been and, most likely, always will be much controversy over The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn being taught in high schools all over America. This book has been under pressure ever since it was published in 1885. To some individuals, the novel is considered one of the best enduring American classics that we have today that is a very important part of our history, and to others it is thought of as a worthless piece of racist trash that only educates children that cheating, lying, stereotyping/discriminating, incorrect grammar and foul language are acceptable behaviors in society. Many people believe that the degrading and disturbing term “nigger” is used unnecessarily and superfluously throughout the novel while others say that it only brings to light the punitive reality of our history.
It can be easily argued that the choices people make in high school essentially shape the human being that they grow up to be. A passion for literature and reading is included in this generalization. In her essay, I Know Why the Cage Bird Cannot Read, Francine Prose writes about how we are supposed to be introduced to major literary works during high school--and, furthermore, learn to evaluate and understand the language used in them and the connections that we make with it--and how this is being inhibited in an alarming number of schools across the United States. If this is truly the case, then we should all be very concerned about the literacy of our nation, because my own high school English education has been a joke at the best of times.
Each day, 100,000 students bring a gun to school, and another 160,000 students cut class because they fear physical harm (National Education Association). Those numbers may seem alarming, and so it is understandable as to why searches would be conducted to try and reduce these numbers. Also the controversy of whether a student’s fourth amendment right is being violated leans toward the administrator’s side. Schools do not need a warrant to be able to search lockers since the lockers technically belong to the school, and as long as there is reasonable suspicion, the searches are legal (Surveillance in Schools) (Constitutional Conflicts). Whether random searching is legal or not, it does not change the fact that students still feel violated of their privacy
The Not So Controversial Elements of Ordinary People Ordinary People by Judith Guest is an intriguing novel that has been banned in one school, and challenged in many others for several controversial topics including language, teen suicide, parental conflicts, sex and graphic descriptions. I don’t feel this novel should have any restrictions or censorship because of its importance and value as a work of literature. This novel indeed does have some potentially offensive material, but its reading level is high school, and I feel that by high school, people reading this book will be mature enough to handle serious topics and controversial material. Ordinary People harbors an important message and theme regarding personal re-growth and forgiveness. Judith Guest’s novel, Ordinary People, follows a high school boy, Conrad, throughout his junior year.
Society, parents, and schools do not teach children the skills of physical, psychological, emotional and verbal self-defense. This is because most adults don't know how to do so. A majority of these people just put bullying aside like it is something that has to happen to everyone at one point. Almost like if you didn’t get bullied than you never really grew up. But is this right, should parents even, principals just blow bullying off like that?