Texas school suspends teacher over “inappropriate” book
Sometimes I read a story in the news and just shake my head, this just happens to be one of those stories. According to a Yahoo! news article, a teacher in Texas has been placed on paid leave for "allegedly distributing harmful material to a minor":
A popular English teacher has been placed on paid leave — and faces possible criminal charges — after a student’s parents complained to police that a ninth-grade class reading list contained a book about a murderer who has sex with his victims’ bodies.
As disturbing as this case is, for an English teacher to be punished for giving a student a book by a well-known and respected author (in this case the book is Child of God by Cormac McCarthy), it’s even more disturbing that this has turned into a criminal matter. What I also find disturbing is that this book was pulled from a list compiled by high school English teachers because of this one complaint. The vast majority of students and their parents think this teacher should be reinstated:
Last week, more than 120 parents and students crowded into a meeting where the school board voted to keep Tierce on paid leave.
The article continues:
"He’s a great teacher and coach and motivates the kids like no one else can," said Chris Garcia, whose daughter was in one of Tierce’s classes. "If you’re trying to protect your kids from things in books, you may as well turn off the TV and video games . You try to protect them as much as you can, but these days kids are just exposed to so much."
Given the sad state of reading in the US, it’s a shame that one of the good English teachers, who can make reading interesting and fun, is being taken out of the classroom for, what I consider, just doing his job. Rather than punishing him, school districts around the country should be looking to hire more teachers like him! How often do you hear a 15-year old high schooler say things like this:
"He was the only one who understood us," said Patrisha Ramirez, 15. "He would joke around. He would make English interesting, for once."
But what about the book’s subject matter? After all, murdering someone and then having sex with their dead body is pretty gruesome – there’s really no way around it. Although that in itself is not nearly enough for a book to be banned from a school. In fact, I’d urge the parents who complained (and then went to the police) to turn on the news and read the newspaper about the stories coming out of Iraq and other places in the world, stories that make this book look tame by comparison, and these are news stories that are real. This book is only a work of fiction.
I’d even go a step further and urge these parents to try and have Shakespeare banned as well. Because during Shakespeare’s time necrophilia (sex with a dead body) appeared to be the popular topic of the many playwrights writing in Britain.
One of the best examples is a play called "The Second Maiden’s Tragedy" by Thomas Middleton written in 1611. As a side note, the authorship of this play has been in dispute and some theorize that Shakespeare himself wrote it (but that’s another post for another day). The main plot of the play is about a Tyrant (and that’s also his name, Tyrant) who has a taste for dead women. I don’t want to give out all the plot details but I’ll just say that in the end the Tyrant crowns his dead lover as queen (and all that that entails).
So there you have it, an example of what most would say is classic literature about necrophilia. I read the "Second Maiden’s Tragedy" in an upper level college course, and it was enough to make us squirm, and this includes a handful of grad students.
In closing I’ll only say that one of the jobs literature has is to expose the human soul, no matter how enlightened or dark and rotten it might be. Literature that is honest does not censor itself for fear of offending over-protective parents, it tells the truth about what humanity is capable of, and as the evening news will show, humanity is capable of many disgusting and hideous acts.
I encourage all students out there, whether you’re in high school or college or just love to read, to pick up a copy of Child of God and read it for yourself. Consider not only the basic plot, but also the deeper meaning behind those things that offend so many. Also, think about the book in a larger societal context and how it might illuminate the human condition, for better or worse.
I haven’t read the book yet, but after reading about the teacher in Texas who got suspended, and faces possible criminal charges, for giving this book to a student, I definitely plan to read it now!
Complaint puts Texas teacher on leave
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Read More: Censorship, Classic Literature, Literary News, Reading
