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#106 |
Grand Sorcerer
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And back when the books and stories were written the dangers of addiction to drugs like cocaine weren't known like they are now. Even Queen Victoria is said to have used cocaine if memory serves. Not to mention there were few treatments for a lot of ills back then. If a person was in terrible pain from some illness often only a narcotic substance was the only pain killer available. In the movie "The Shootist" for example John Wayne's character is dying of cancer and the Dr. prescribes Laudnum for his pain. One of the main ingredients in Laudnum is Cocaine.
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#107 | |
Grand Sorcerer
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#108 | |
Grand Sorcerer
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#109 | |
Book Geek
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#110 | |
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They're middle school kids. They are old enough to be taught that this is how some people thought in the past, and here's why it's wrong. We don't worry about them becoming Nazis when we show them Nazi propaganda posters. We really need to stop treating kids like they're stupid. You are old enough at 12 to understand cultural context. Maybe not to its complete extent, but well enough that you can understand that ignorance leads to fear/hate, and these people were ignorant. We keep coddle and condescend to childrens' intellect on an ever-greater scale, and it really does them a great disservice. Trying to create a Barney Fun Land bubble around them until they're 20 does not prepare them for reality, and it does not help them develop their critical thinking skills. It does nothing but stunt their intellectual growth. And the fact of the matter is, they're exposed to worse whether you like it or not, and you can't stop them. You might as well intellectually prepare them. |
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#111 |
Chasing Butterflies
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S&M, the issue is not that "Mormon history is unpleasant", the issue is that we don't KNOW if Mormon history includes cold-blooded community-based murders, as this book entails. There's evidence on either side, and in a literary introduction to Sherlock Holmes, teaching the historical controversy is likely to eclipse the literary material.
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#112 |
Wizard
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You may not know if Mormon history includes cold-blooded comunity-based murders but a quick Google (Danites Mormons) gives nearly 21,000 hits including links to historical research done at Brigham Young and this material confirms the Danites, their community links and the murders of opponents of Mormonism... the material is pretty convincing especially considering source and some of the other historical research that comes from other sources... and I thought that the issue was the removal of "Study in Scarlet" from a school reading list... or the ban depending on how you want to view it.
I can understand the removal from 6th graders as teachers are unlikely to have time to deal with the material properly especially with the increasing pressures on teachers to do many more valuable things than educating their charges... ![]() |
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#113 | |
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"There is no accepted answer to that question at this time." Done. They gotta learn that grown-ups are humans that don't know everything sooner or later. Hell, Holmes' imperfection is a great opportunity for that particular lesson. |
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#114 |
Chasing Butterflies
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The book itself is prejudicial -- it portrays a large part of the early Mormon community as gangs, rapists, murderers, and thugs. Teaching the book to children and then side-stepping the obvious questions with "well, we don't know yet one way or the other" will leave children with only one interpretation to fall back on, and they're less likely to remember Sherlock and more likely to remember the "fact" that the early Mormon community was built on rape and murder.
Look, I'm not about banning literature, but I do think that this particular book is probably not the best one to teach when teaching Sherlock Holmes in schools. Even if it *is* historically accurate, there's a very good chance that Doyle got 'lucky' in that regard -- there's no evidence that I know of that he didn't make up a sensational story about a religious group without a shred of evidence and that some of the questions we have now about unsolved murders in Utah might not fit a little better than we earlier thought. There's nothing wrong with an author writing a good story, but that doesn't mean it's the best material to teach to kids in a literature class. Similarly, I would not teach "The Satanic Verses" (which is one of my favorite books of all time) without a careful historical and religious layer over the reading -- the book wasn't written in a vacuum and shouldn't be looked at as such. (Also, Holmes is essentially perfect. Any character flaw is an informed one, since it never gets in his way of being 100% right by the end of the book. Since there is never an element of doubt that he could be wrong, the book's conclusion is even more prejudicial. Who are we to argue with Holmes that Mormons weren't all thugs and murderers? Etc.) Last edited by anamardoll; 08-31-2011 at 07:58 AM. |
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#115 |
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People tend to have knee jerk reactions when they see or hear that a book has been removed from somewhere for any reason.
The fact of the matter is this: the book was NOT banned, it was NOT removed from the school, it WAS simply taken off of a reading list. Books are removed from reading lists all of the time for various reasons (sometimes they are simply not relevant any more or too difficult to relate to) and no one says a word. The kids are perfectly free to read the book if they decide that they want to. If the book has merit and is worth the effort then it will do just fine off of the reading list. Let's face it, most kids hate HAVING to read specific books anyway. I know I always liked books much more when I had the option of reading them rather than being told what to read. Dismantling a book chapter by chapter and discussing what imagery the author was using or what certain paragraphs REALLY meant always annoyed me more than anything. Freedom of speech is a two way street folks, if you want to be free to say or write it then you have to allow that some folks are going to want to not hear or read it. The school board took the path that they felt most comfortable with. It is not the end of the world and it does not mean that the book has suddenly become inaccessible. Last edited by jabberwock_11; 04-10-2012 at 03:15 AM. Reason: spelling correction |
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#116 |
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#117 | |
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I fully intend to read my daughter "Sherlock Holmes" without worrying what she'll think about her Mormon uncle (my brother) and will also read her "Huckleberry Finn" without worrying what she thinks about a little black boy or black girl at school. I'll educate her...treat her like the intelligent person I know her to be. Knowledge is power. Exposure to inappropriate behaviour, when treated properly, can be an extremely powerful tool. |
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