July 14, 2023 – West Bend, Wi – Recently, a few community members have submitted forms of reconsideration for the books “The 57 Bus” and “The Kite Runner,” as they don’t feel they are age appropriate for students as young as 12 years old to be reading. I agree they are most definitely NOT appropriate. Before anyone asks, yes, I have read both of these books recently.
Many people in support of keeping these books argue that there is a strong message, and it teaches kids about diversity, equality, inclusiveness (DEI), as well as other important life skills and qualities. I’m not sure how teaching vulgar language to kids like… NOTE: CONTENT WARNING – YOU MAY CHOOSE WHETHER TO CONTINUE READING GRAPHIC MATERIAL PROVIDED TO CHILDREN…
…“mother fucker” “bitch” “cunt” and many other vulgarities teaches anything useful in life.
Would you want your child walking around calling other kids those names? What if your child was being called those names?
The book 57 Bus includes many words around gender identity that don’t even exist. Cupio-romantic being one of them. What on earth is that? Not only that, but there are so many mentions of being agender, cisgender, gender queer, no gender.
Where does science support this? I’ll give you a hint, NOWHERE!
Simply put, when someone says “I identify as,” they are really saying “I pretend to be today.” These are all mental health illnesses that deserve to be treated. Allowing children to pretend to be something they aren’t is stealing away from their future as an adult.
The Kite Runner has descriptive scenes of an adult male raping a boy, a child, a minor. I don’t see the educational value in this.
For people who see this letter, and hopefully those that are on the committee going over these books, I ask that you do the right thing and take these books out of the curriculum so they can be replaced by wholesome, traditional books that actually offer educational value.
By allowing these books in the curriculum, the committee is telling kids it’s ok to use vulgar language, act in violent manners, pretend to be something they aren’t, and act in ways society doesn’t accept.
If the committee wants to keep these books, then it would be necessary to change policy as well as what’s written in the student handbook to allow students to use the language mentioned above. Can’t have it both ways. There are millions of books available. These aren’t the only books that can teach about cultural differences.
Bill Schulz
West Bend, WI 53095
Please also note:
COMMENTING
WASHINGTONCOUNTYINSIDER.COM (WCI) COMMENTING RULES OF ETIQUETTE: While open and honest debate is encouraged here, Washington County Insider asks that you comply with the following rules for posting. Those who do not comply will have their posts removed which may result in being banned from commenting.
In an effort to provide a great experience and be welcoming to everyone, Washington County Insider will not publish comments and reserves the right to remove posts on social media/Facebook that doesn’t adhere to the guidelines below.
-
- Are considered likely to provoke, attack, or offend others. This is known as “trolling.” Trollers know when they are trolling, and so do we. *See the definition of “troll” below. If you notice a few consistent blog trolls disappear, you’ll know why.
- Are sexually explicit, abusive, or otherwise objectionable.
- Contains inappropriate or vulgar language that is likely to offend.
-
- Break the law or condone or encourage unlawful activity. This includes breach of copyright, defamation, and contempt of court.
- Advertise products or services for profit.
- Are seen impersonating someone else.
-
- Repeatedly post the same or similar messages (‘spam’)
- Include personal contact details such as telephone numbers and postal or email addresses.
- Include a link or photo that has not been approved by the editor prior to posting.
- Are considered campaigning. See also “trolling” above.
- Are unrelated to the topic.
NOTES:
-
- Just because your comment doesn’t show up right away doesn’t mean you’re being censored. When you post a comment it must first go through our filtering software. If it fails, your comment goes into a queue for manual approval.
- Just because a comment or advertisement is on the site, doesn’t mean WCI endorses it.
- The above rules are not intended to stop criticism or dissenters, but rather to stop those who are incapable of participating in a civilized manner.
*Trolling: a troll is a person who sows discord on the Internet by starting arguments or upsetting people, by posting inflammatory,[1] extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community (such as a newsgroup, forum, chat room, or blog) with the intent of provoking readers into an emotional response[2] or of otherwise disrupting normal, on-topic discussion,[3] often for the troll’s amusement. (source: Wikipedia)