[Vision2020] Unnecessary Editing

[Tom Hansen]

Censorship, in the form of banning books, lives in the Coeur d'Alene 
School District.

>From the Editor's Page of today's (December 2, 2008) Spokesman Review -

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Unnecessary editing
Our View: No need to drop novel from CdA curriculum

December 2, 2008

Samuel Wurzelbacher's book was released this week, barely a month and a 
half after he became famous under the name he shares with the title of his 
literary creation – "Joe the Plumber."

We'll venture a guess that in 60 or 70 years, high school students 
throughout the nation will not be assigned to read "Joe the Plumber – 
Fighting for the American Dream."

That's not a criticism. Few books achieve lasting readership and 
relevance. Few books capture the truths, including the unpleasant ones, 
that define culture and force readers to examine their own humanity in 
depth. Few books become classics.
 
Those that do produce two predictable consequences: 

•Scholars identify them as essential reading for young people who are 
learning about their cultural tradition.

•Parents of some of those children object. Not because of a book's 
literary quality but because of disagreement over how long they should 
preserve their sons' and daughters' innocence about uncomfortable 
realities.

One book familiar to such squabbles is Aldous Huxley's 76-year-old 
novel "Brave New World." In less than two weeks the Coeur d'Alene School 
District is scheduled to decide whether to remove the controversial work 
of fiction from the required reading list for seniors.

Parts of "Brave New World," you see, depict sexual intercourse as useful 
for something more than procreation. Something pleasant, even. Assigning 
such material to 18-year-olds offends some parents – and some students.

The issue in Coeur d'Alene isn't about forcing every last senior to read a 
potentially objectionable book. It's about letting those objections 
deprive all students of that book as a part of their curriculum. Like many 
other school districts, Coeur d'Alene allows youngsters who are offended 
by a required book, such as "Brave New World," to select something else to 
read from a list of alternative titles.

That should be sufficient. 

But if the school board accedes to pressure Dec. 15 and removes Huxley's 
classic from the assigned reading list, students will see their options 
narrowed. Keep that up, and at some point they may be reading "Joe the 
Plumber" after all.

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Seeya at the library, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho
 
"For a lapse Lutheran born-again Buddhist pan-Humanist Universalist 
Unitarian Wiccan Agnostic like myself there's really no reason ever to go 
to work."

- Roy Zimmerman


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