Censorship

1.   Why is it important to include nonfiction as part of the curriculum in the classroom?  What are some nonfiction works that you recall reading as a young adult?  Did what was best about those books match up with the traits described in your notes?

It’s important to include nonfiction as part of the curriculum in the classroom because students will find themselves more interested in wanting to read.  For example, boys will be more attracted to boy theme books that attract their interest.  I honestly don’t remember the books that we read when I was in middle school or high school that were nonfiction.  But I suppose that our teachers took in consideration the traits that were discussed in the notes.

2.   What are the benefits of including ethnic literature as part of the classroom canon?  How should teachers approach it?

I think that it’s beneficial to include ethnic literature as part of the classroom canon because students needs to be aware of the lives of other diversity and better understand a classmate if the ethnic book is related to them.  I think that teachers should pick an example of a situation that the book talks about and then ask the class about it.  Then introduce the book and the purpose for reading it.

3.   From your notes on censorship, what surprised you as you read?  On the Misunderstandings page, make sure you click on the link provided.  This was set up by parents who wanted to censor a book called Rats Saw God.   What is ironic about these parents including the “worst” passages from the book on their site?  What can we do about censorship?—and this is especially important for those of you who plan to teach one day!

The thing that surprised me from the notes of censorship is that parents are trying really hard to protect their kids from reading books that they consider inappropriate when in reality they are pushing them to temptation wanting to read the book and they want to keep their kids pure and innocent when many times they are living a life that it worst from the books.  It’s ironic because they talking about censorship from books but how they can control everything else that their kids will see read or do.  I think that we could be cautious about choosing a book to read for the class because we don’t want to be in a situation where a parent gets upset and then gets every other parent wild up about the book.