YAF Breaks Burbank Blockade Of Academic Freedom, Provides Banned Books To Students
By: Spencer Brown
History is to be learned from, not erased anytime the whims of a leftist mob deem it uncomfortable
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Young America’s Foundation will provide to Burbank students—free of charge—classic books that were banned by the Burbank Unified School District in November. The banned works include To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, The Cay by Theodore Taylor, and Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred Taylor.
In addition to putting the books Burbank schools are attempting to hide directly into students’ hands, YAF is calling on those with the power to do the right thing—the board members of the Burbank Unified School District—to immediately rescind their ban on these books.
“This ban is nothing short of academic censorship and goes against the freedoms and liberties on which our country was founded,” noted Paige Huleis, a YAF activist and student at Burbank High School. “Burbank Unified School District is hindering the ability of students like me to learn, grow, and develop. My peers and I are grateful that YAF and concerned Americans are taking action to right this wrong.”
“These books are classics of American fiction precisely because they address uncomfortable historical truths from our past,” said Rob Raede, who—along with his wife Ellen—are the generous Young America’s Foundation supporters making these books available to Burbank USD students. “We are proud to do what we can to make sure the students of Burbank have access to this great literature, despite the efforts of the book-banning cowards on the school board to deny to their students the lessons contained within.”
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In addition to putting the books Burbank schools are attempting to hide directly into students’ hands, YAF is calling on those with the power to do the right thing—the board members of the Burbank Unified School District—to immediately rescind their ban on these books.
“This ban is nothing short of academic censorship and goes against the freedoms and liberties on which our country was founded,” noted Paige Huleis, a YAF activist and student at Burbank High School. “Burbank Unified School District is hindering the ability of students like me to learn, grow, and develop. My peers and I are grateful that YAF and concerned Americans are taking action to right this wrong.”
This is so right on what the YAF and students did here.
YAF is turning Victorian, rigid narrow-mindedness into a positive, teachable moment for students. Well done!
That's funny coming from a conservative.
I bet all these books could have been found in the local public libraries. It’s not like literature (important or otherwise) stopped being produced one day, it only accumulates as time wears on. I can understand why a school system would be judicious in what they choose to house, and decide not to include on their grounds books with language that has evolved to become unacceptable on their campus. If someone wants to read books full of words like nigger, coon, wetback, etc., their public libraries have them. How do you police that kind of language on your campus while making the conscious decision to include literature that is full of it, when the truth is there is more than enough important literature to fill the void that doesn’t include that kind of language. Teachers should encourage students to embrace their public libraries and discover for themselves what literature their schools don’t promote.
While I do understand your point of using public libraries, you seem to have not understood the premise of the seeded article.
For decades, many of the now-banned books in Burbank were used as reading assignments in schools across the USA. Teachers taught what was formerly "acceptable" and explained why it's no longer acceptable. THAT's why I said "teachable moment" in comment 4.
Ignoring, hiding, and erasing the past means that it will be repeated.
Do you know your seed doesn't really say anything about why the books were "banned". Your link is just a big, walking, talking advertisement for the Young America's Foundation. I got more information from Dismayed's comment at comment 7 than I did from your "seeded content".
Meanwhile reams of important contemporary literature is fighting for the same limited space in a system that needs to be focused on the future more so than the past. It’s not about ignoring, hiding, or erasing. Historical literature will always be available to the public through alternative sources.
I gather from the comments that these books are not banned. However, times thankfully change and there is probably much better reading material with better messages and less offensive to everyone.
I have been an avid reader since I learned to read in first grade. I have read many of the so called classics that were approved by the rabidly religious conservative school board in Northwest Arkansas in the 1860s...uh, 1960s/1970s. Maybe they speak to and/or for some people, but I don't remember finding anything in any of them that helped me deal with the narcissistic, egotistical, sexist, racist, homophobic erotophobes that I live among in the Bible Belt. As a young person, I found better inspiration and understanding of life in reading "Our Bodies, Ourselves" and Cosmopolitan.
It is vital that young people are taught how to understand themselves and others in the contemporary world because this is the world that they are going to have to live in. They need to be given the proper tools to thrive.
The books were NOT banned. They were removed from the curriculum reading list until a review by the board.
There is NO evidence to that in your seed. Link?
Your 4 comment states that the YAF 'created a teachable moment for students' yet AGAIN, there is NO evidence that the YAF is actually TEACHING students "what was formerly "acceptable" and explained why it's no longer acceptable."
They are merely giving the books and their propaganda to kids WITHOUT explaining what they have in common, which BTFW, is NOTHING.
Ya, that's why the whole 'Lost Cause' bullshit is so dangerous.
Anybody who bans books has something to hide. Not left or right, liberal or conservative or what have you, anyone.
That said, I bet that the kids can get them sent to their phones for not much of anything.
They're still available in that school districts libraries.
The issue seems to be that they are assigning those books without teaching the context or the history that has come since then. One point that was made is that the reading list hasn't been updated for over 30 years and nothing on the list comes from the 'black' perspective.
So first, let's correct the record, none of these books were "banned". No child will have any of these books taken from them or not allowed on school grounds and they were not removed from the school library.
"During a virtual meeting on Sept. 9, middle and high school English teachers in the Burbank Unified School District received a bit of surprising news: Until further notice, they would not be allowed to teach some of the books on their curriculum. "
So let's stop with the useless rhetoric of book banning as it simply did not happen. And while I object to those books being removed from a school curriculum as I feel every child at the right age should read them, I also respect each school districts right to determine which books they teach from or assign to students to read. There are many books which would obviously not be appropriate for school districts to assign and hand out in classrooms. Fifty Shades is not "banned" but it's certainly not required reading in public high schools and I think that is a good thing.
This seed and the surrounding comments just seem to be more conservative whining and claiming to be victims. The photo above includes the conservative screed "11 Principles of a Reagan Conservative" and “Why Free Speech is Essential to Our Campus and to Our Country,” even though they was not among the books the Burbank School District removed from their curriculum, they are simply conservative books being included in the dump of books on Burbank students by YAF.
I totally agree with not banning books, but I also disagree with whiny conservative liars claiming their books are being banned when they clearly are not.
I'm quite certain a few of our more conservative members here would have no problem banning the Harry Potter books because of the "witchcraft" in them.
Why would any of the Harry Potter books be banned? I've read them; they're lessons in good triumphing over evil.
You know who here on NT would ban them. I didn't say you, now did I?
While I was living in Ft.Smith, Arkansas, the college encouraged students to dress up for halloween, the only stipulation being they could not dress up like witches or ghosts... Wait, That is what Halloween is about...
Oh, yeah. I live near Little Rock now and I have never ever in my life seen so many people so uptight about Halloween, witches, monsters, and the occult. The churches around here have a War on Halloween and they have eclipsed the Real Halloween with their "trunks or treats" (does that even make any sense?). The kids are encouraged to come as their favorite super hero or biblical character but no witches, devils, or anything that smacks of the occult. And they have real problems with Harry Potter around here
Maybe they didn't want anyone to confuse the ghosts with the other folk in Arkansas who like to wear white sheets...
I totally agree, but you can't get Bible thumpers to even read them to get the message.
You're lucky you live in a reasonable State like Maryland.
No, I do not, and I really don't care.
That is correct.
Time to move on and stop baiting, Trout. Thanks.
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NT members, including me, are not my seed's topic.
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I remember some school boards and parents did ban or condemn Harry Potter books because they actually though it taught or promoted witchcraft. I don't get the mentality that people like that hold.
Tell me about it. And such fears (and objections to various reading materials) are completely unfounded and irrational. Like I said, I don't understand the mentality.
There have been plenty of books banned that have LGBTQ content yet not a peep for YAF about any of those school boards.
That wasn't taunting. Learn the difference
I read an article or a blog one day about it. The piece went through all the symbolism in the book and the various colors used and how it all related to Witchcraft and Demonology
Oh good lord [facepalm]
Maybe the school board "forbid" these books so the kids will get curious about what all the fuss is about and go find those books and read them.
So removing a book from a required reading list is now equated to banning it. Good to know. /s
This is simply a conservative attempt to inject their ideology into public schools and has nothing to do with banning books as no books were banned.
You'll notice their not so subtle attempt in the seeded article from YAF.
So this is just more whiny conservatives crying wolf about nothing. What's sad is that so many here seem incapable of seeing this for what it is and are fooled into believing the conservative lie about books being banned.
How is an explanation of free speech and a copy of the US Constitution a "conservative" attempt to "inject their ideology?
In my K-12 and post-secondary education US history/civics classes, the US Constitution and Bill of Rights were documents ALL Americans embraced and defended.
I didn't find anything in the article that actually banned certain books. If we want to go down that rabbit hole some schools in Montana and numerous other states banned the author Sherman Alexie's book, ''The True Story of a Part-Time Indian'' a coming of age book. It talked about racism, masturbation and gasp, supposedly anti-Christian passages.
Then of course we can travel down to AZ eight years ago when some schools banned not only some books written by Hispanics and Native Americans but stopped teaching ''Hispanic History''...
Yes indeed, a lot of open-minded people.