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badstarhttp://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/georgia/news-article_wxia.aspx?storyid=78859 - no registration to read, but I'm going to put some of the text here- and by some of the text, I mean all of it- it's not a long article...with my own commentary. My commentary is italicized.
Harry Potter has a new foe -- a Gwinnett County parent who wants the popular boy wizard books banned from Gwinnett County school libraries.
On Thursday afternoon, parents and students spoke at a hearing that will ultimately decide whether the books will stay or go.
People who love the books say they are happy that kids are reading the books as much as they are. They say that the books are ultimately about good versus evil. But opponents say that the books with their magic wands and spells are all about evil.
“I’m a true example of how Harry Potter books can open your life to witchcraft,” said Jordan Susch.
Susch says she read the first Harry Potter novel when she was in the fourth grade. Two years later, she says, she and her friends were practicing witchcraft.
“We wanted to know if spells, potions and curses worked. By the seventh grade, I was so depressed, I set a date to kill myself,” Susch said.
Um...red flag here. Harry Potter books do not make kids suicidal. Learning about witchcraft does not make kids suicidal. If someone wants to kill theirself, there is something MUCH more wrong than reading the wrong book. This child needed and possibly still needs professional help and to eventually understand that Harry Potter and witchcraft did not make her feel that way. Something else was/is wrong.
Susch has joined Laura Mallory’s fight to get the novels removed from the Gwinnett County Schools’ shelves.
“I want to protect my kids, children and others from evil,” Mallory said. “Not fill their minds with it.”
It's a series of fiction novels. This is subjective. If you don't want your kids to read it, that's your issue, This is NOT something to force on the rest of the school/district/insert constituency here
Other students spoke in favor of the books, saying that it is a fictional book, and that they don’t confuse fiction with reality.
Yay! Common sense! Critical thinking and the ability to discern fact from fiction!
Fifth grader Jessica Grimes says the Harry Potter books are the very reason she enjoys reading.
“The Harry Potter books have helped me and other kids with our accelerated reading goals. So, really, the books help us rather than hurt us in school,” said Grimes.
Throughout the district, the Harry Potter books are the most popular books in the system. Some fear that if the books are taken away, younger kids could lose interest in reading altogether.
“Did you ever see kids get excited over the opening of a book before Harry Potter?” asked seventh grader Baillie Hill.
Okay...if students are ONLY interested in reading one particular series, there's also something VERY wrong. Something needs to be done about reading education. Harry Potter is barely a speck in the world. You can't just get by for life on 7 books. And there are MANY more interesting books out there.
Thursday’s session was just a hearing. The hearing officer will make a recommendation within five days to the school board. The board has another ten days to determine whether the book will remain in the school system’s libraries or not.
Good grief, I hope they display the same thinking abilities as the 5th graders who say that Harry Potter isn't real.
See the thing is...this issue IS about forcing a religious belief on everyone else. Put more/other book on other topic in the library. Police what your own kids are reading. You're their parent, that's not only your right, it's your JOB. But it's NOT up to you to say that other people's kids can't get those books from the school library.
Harry Potter has a new foe -- a Gwinnett County parent who wants the popular boy wizard books banned from Gwinnett County school libraries.
On Thursday afternoon, parents and students spoke at a hearing that will ultimately decide whether the books will stay or go.
People who love the books say they are happy that kids are reading the books as much as they are. They say that the books are ultimately about good versus evil. But opponents say that the books with their magic wands and spells are all about evil.
“I’m a true example of how Harry Potter books can open your life to witchcraft,” said Jordan Susch.
Susch says she read the first Harry Potter novel when she was in the fourth grade. Two years later, she says, she and her friends were practicing witchcraft.
“We wanted to know if spells, potions and curses worked. By the seventh grade, I was so depressed, I set a date to kill myself,” Susch said.
Um...red flag here. Harry Potter books do not make kids suicidal. Learning about witchcraft does not make kids suicidal. If someone wants to kill theirself, there is something MUCH more wrong than reading the wrong book. This child needed and possibly still needs professional help and to eventually understand that Harry Potter and witchcraft did not make her feel that way. Something else was/is wrong.
Susch has joined Laura Mallory’s fight to get the novels removed from the Gwinnett County Schools’ shelves.
“I want to protect my kids, children and others from evil,” Mallory said. “Not fill their minds with it.”
It's a series of fiction novels. This is subjective. If you don't want your kids to read it, that's your issue, This is NOT something to force on the rest of the school/district/insert constituency here
Other students spoke in favor of the books, saying that it is a fictional book, and that they don’t confuse fiction with reality.
Yay! Common sense! Critical thinking and the ability to discern fact from fiction!
Fifth grader Jessica Grimes says the Harry Potter books are the very reason she enjoys reading.
“The Harry Potter books have helped me and other kids with our accelerated reading goals. So, really, the books help us rather than hurt us in school,” said Grimes.
Throughout the district, the Harry Potter books are the most popular books in the system. Some fear that if the books are taken away, younger kids could lose interest in reading altogether.
“Did you ever see kids get excited over the opening of a book before Harry Potter?” asked seventh grader Baillie Hill.
Okay...if students are ONLY interested in reading one particular series, there's also something VERY wrong. Something needs to be done about reading education. Harry Potter is barely a speck in the world. You can't just get by for life on 7 books. And there are MANY more interesting books out there.
Thursday’s session was just a hearing. The hearing officer will make a recommendation within five days to the school board. The board has another ten days to determine whether the book will remain in the school system’s libraries or not.
Good grief, I hope they display the same thinking abilities as the 5th graders who say that Harry Potter isn't real.
See the thing is...this issue IS about forcing a religious belief on everyone else. Put more/other book on other topic in the library. Police what your own kids are reading. You're their parent, that's not only your right, it's your JOB. But it's NOT up to you to say that other people's kids can't get those books from the school library.
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no subject
Date: 2006-04-21 06:35 pm (UTC)You're saying that witchcraft didn't make her depressed. I might invert the cause here, though: turning to witchcraft can be construed as a symptom of depression. A depressed individual frequently turns to some form of escapism. Magic is (to the outsider who views it without limits) the ultimate in escapes. Suddenly all things are possible, and so easily.... Thus, a sudden interest in witchcraft could make an excellent warning sign of potential mental instability.
Obviously, that's not an absolute statement. Motivations matter. If you come to it through a spiritual path, that's totally different from seeking an escape from your life.
no subject
Date: 2006-04-21 06:43 pm (UTC)you'll have to try harder than that if you think I'm going to see this one as an attack or rattling of cages...
I completely agree with this and was thinking very similar thoughts when I was writing what I did write. I just didn't go into long rants.
The operative word though, is symptom
It makes complete sense...yes, turning to something like magic IS an ultimate escape. From whatever the problem is. What I was saying is that it's not the cause
What you've said fits right in with what I've said.
no subject
Date: 2006-04-21 06:55 pm (UTC)I should probably go back to just telling things as I see them, and those who can't handle it aren't worth keeping around anyway. My problem is that I consider politeness a virtue, and avoiding the giving of offense is part of that. The difficulty is that knowing when to give offense is also part of being polite.
no subject
Date: 2006-04-21 07:05 pm (UTC)i don't know about the other people that you talk to, but i think you know that i'm fairly reasonable...or if i do go off in a fit in a blind moment of emotion, i generally apologize when i've calmed down :-P
anyway, no need to apologize, but since you did i accept :-)
no subject
Date: 2006-04-22 08:33 am (UTC)I've read so many banned books in my life that it would curl my Mom's hair, even if most of them were sanctioned reading in high school (Mark Twain, certain parts of the Bible, some of Will the Bard's plays, Grendel, etc. If you find a banned books list, I've read the top 20 at least once).
Avid readers will eventually grow up and strike out on their own though. It's what I did, much to my parents' mixed delight and dismay.
And frankly, if it weren't for the fact that we each bought our own copy, my daughter and I would be fighting over the copies of the HP books in the house . . .such wonderful myth and imagination! (And from a poor single mom who is now richer than the Queen! Yeeeah!!!)