Banned Books (redux)

An update on the Nitro High School/Pat Conroy kerfuffle. A group of parents, including the two aggrieved parents, met last night in a church building (color me shocked - the library was booked?) to discuss the situation. They don't want the books banned - they just want alternatives made available to their delicate children. As one former Nitro HS parent put it:

Brad Liston also attended the meeting. In 2000, Liston complained that his daughter, also a Nitro student, had to read John Irving’s 'A Prayer for Owen Meany.' Liston argued that the book contains vulgar language, sexual innuendo and lewd behavior.

Liston had said teachers should have provided his daughter with a list of alternative books, the same argument Frazier and Tyree are making now.

Frazier wants a list, not just one book for required reading or one alternative.

'That’s the way it used to be,' she said. 'That way there’s freedom of choice and no one has to be offended.'

What a novel concept - choose your own curriculum! If only I had thought to beg for something other than Of Human Bondage during my AP English class. And why stop there - that required reading of the tax code in law school certainly wasn't any fun.

Why is it that when non-believers object to school prayer or the 10 Commandments being posted in public buildings, we're told that it's only a passing reference and that we should suck it up - "Ceremonial Deism," they call it. Well if we have to put up with that, is it too much to ask that honors high school students put up with a little "Ceremonial Debauchery" now and then?