Highland park school district book ban? (Dallas: home, live, education)

[aggie972]

Not much to add to what TC80 said, except to emphasize her point that this is an embarrassment to the administration of the school. I'm not surprised that a small group of parents is short sighted, but the administration should know better than to indulge their request.

[TurtleCreek80]

Fantastic OP-ED in today's DMN by fellow mid-90's HP grad Elizabeth Silver. Elizabeth's debut novel, The Execution of Noa P Singleton, was a critics' darling this summer and spent weeks on the NYT best-seller list.....the woman knows a thing of two about literature!

http://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/la...hurts-them.ece

As I read her editorial, all I could wonder was if the Elizabeth Silver of HP's classes of 2015-2108 has just been intellectually and creatively stifled, told that certain challenging books are shameful and against the Pleasantville persona of the Park Cities where we don't talk about "certain things."

Whereas Elizabeth's teachers at HP had the opportunity to challenge her and stretch her (shout out to retired AP English III teacher Fred Damiano, whom I both loathed and respected for being so challenging/critical), this group of students' teachers have just snatched books right out of their hands at the request of a small number of narrow-minded parents.

[synchronicity]

Originally Posted by TurtleCreek80

Fantastic OP-ED in today's DMN by fellow mid-90's HP grad Elizabeth Silver. Elizabeth's debut novel, The Execution of Noa P Singleton, was a critics' darling this summer and spent weeks on the NYT best-seller list.....the woman knows a thing of two about literature!

Blocking books doesn

As I read her editorial, all I could wonder was if the Elizabeth Silver of HP's classes of 2015-2108 has just been intellectually and creatively stifled, told that certain challenging books are shameful and against the Pleasantville persona of the Park Cities where we don't talk about "certain things."

Whereas Elizabeth's teachers at HP had the opportunity to challenge her and stretch her (shout out to retired AP English III teacher Fred Damiano, whom I both loathed and respected for being so challenging/critical), this group of students' teachers have just snatched books right out of their hands at the request of a small number of narrow-minded parents.

I'll note that this was brought to my attention by friends on social media, and (unsurprisingly) played into every stereotype out there about Texas, and their comments reflected that. These are people who know nothing about Park Cities or HPISD and its reputation (just as almost nobody on this board knows about "Kenilworth" vs. "Mount Prospect" vs. "Ford Heights", for the most part only people in a given metro area care about the different suburbs and neighborhoods); to them it's just an example of close-minded ignorant people. I wonder if HPISD realizes now that to the overwhelming majority of people outside of the Metroplex (other than college admission officers or the like), this story will their only information about the district. Nice way to get some limited national attention

[Dr. Jake Oil]

I live in the district and have kids at MIS and Armstrong, and think this is stupid. I hate these kind of parents but there's a fair number of them.

[4Movingeast]

Morning Edition had a good interview with Dave Pilkey (Captain Underpants author) today. He also wrote a good piece that ran on the Huffington Post today. It is Banned Books week hence the attention. As an avid reader and a parent of two advanced young readers, I am 100% against banning books. Happy to add that I have read most of the books on the list!

[BigDGeek]

Originally Posted by 4Movingeast

Morning Edition had a good interview with Dave Pilkey (Captain Underpants author) today. He also wrote a good piece that ran on the Huffington Post today. It is Banned Books week hence the attention. As an avid reader and a parent of two advanced young readers, I am 100% against banning books. Happy to add that I have read most of the books on the list!

I heard a story about it on NPR this evening I would hope that those puritan parents would be embarrassed into backing down, but Park Cities people are kinda funny like that. I don't think national attention from NPR will change their minds. Maybe peer pressure. Someone letting out all the air on the tires on their white Lexus crossovers.

[SVTRay]

Originally Posted by Dr. Jake Oil

I live in the district and have kids at MIS and Armstrong, and think this is stupid. I hate these kind of parents but there's a fair number of them.

I'm a fellow parent of an MIS student and agree.

[EDS_]

Originally Posted by synchronicity

I'll note that this was brought to my attention by friends on social media, and (unsurprisingly) played into every stereotype out there about Texas, and their comments reflected that. These are people who know nothing about Park Cities or HPISD and its reputation (just as almost nobody on this board knows about "Kenilworth" vs. "Mount Prospect" vs. "Ford Heights", for the most part only people in a given metro area care about the different suburbs and neighborhoods); to them it's just an example of close-minded ignorant people. I wonder if HPISD realizes now that to the overwhelming majority of people outside of the Metroplex (other than college admission officers or the like), this story will their only information about the district. Nice way to get some limited national attention

An employee printed off a good bit of the "offending" words from some of the books in question. I read them and a number of other pages from several and read a number of reviews. All I can say is this is a classic tempest in a teapot problem. Any kid who has heard a few decent dirty jokes or watched an episode of Saturday Night Live or has seen a decent scary movie has heard worse and seen more and more to the point these are really well written works with important themes and stories.



Secondly, so far as your buddies running down all around here because of this; there is little better than the irony derived from some claiming others are ignorant via long-range stereotyping.

[Souleiado]

Originally Posted by BigDGeek

I heard a story about it on NPR this evening I would hope that those puritan parents would be embarrassed into backing down, but Park Cities people are kinda funny like that. I don't think national attention from NPR will change their minds. Maybe peer pressure. Someone letting out all the air on the tires on their white Lexus crossovers.

Unfortunately , the story just came out right in the middle of the Banned Book Week organized by the ALA , and it has been pushed on the national news platform , not the image we want to portray of Texas!

[EDS_]

Doug Wright says........

Pulitzer Prize-winning Highland Park alum Doug Wright objects to his school’s book banning | Dallas Morning News