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School Board Bans Homer

Posted: Mon Dec 28, 2020 2:34 pm
by Secret Alias
https://www.wsj.com/articles/even-homer ... 1609095872
Their ethos holds that children shouldn’t have to read stories written in anything other than the present-day vernacular—especially those “in which racism, sexism, ableism, anti-Semitism, and other forms of hate are the norm,” as young-adult novelist Padma Venkatraman writes in School Library Journal. No author is valuable enough to spare, Ms. Venkatraman instructs: “Absolving Shakespeare of responsibility by mentioning that he lived at a time when hate-ridden sentiments prevailed, risks sending a subliminal message that academic excellence outweighs hateful rhetoric.”

Re: School Board Bans Homer

Posted: Tue Dec 29, 2020 3:55 am
by Paul the Uncertain
There seems to be a substantial dispute about the facts of the matter.

A statement by Heather Levine (Lawrence High School teacher who was mentioned in the coverage) denies banning anything on her Twitter feed.

https://twitter.com/MrsHLevine/status/1 ... 8684617730

Re: School Board Bans Homer

Posted: Wed Dec 30, 2020 2:50 am
by Paul the Uncertain
Updating

According to online reporting, on June 4, one Shea Martin (@sheathecholar) tweeted:
I want to remind y'all that this disruption work is a marathon, not a sprint. Be like Odysseus and embrace the long haul to liberation (and then take The Odyssey out of your curriculum because it's trash). #DisruptTexts
To which, Mrs Levine, the teacher in question (@MrsHLevine) replied the same day:
Hahaha - very proud to say we got the Odyssey removed from the curriculum this year!
As noted in my previous post, Mrs Levine has since clarified that she meant only that some units in her school's English curriculum had been removed, among them being one unit that "included" the Odyssey. Thus, there was no ban and nothing happened district-wide. It's just that there is no longer an expectation that something about the Odyssey would be taught in that one school's 'English Language Arts' program.

(Maybe just as well ... None of us think that Homer's English was all that great.)

It is hard not to notice ironies here. Someone who identifies herself as a scholar calls the Odyssey trash even as she offers its hero as a model of effective strategic thought, and an English teacher fails to express herself clearly in a one-sentence factual statement written for publication.

However, it really seems not to be the case that the Odyssey has been banned from the Lawrence Massachusetts school district, nor from its high schools, nor even from this one high school.

On the other hand, we are on notice that book burning is a marathon, not a sprint.

Re: School Board Bans Homer

Posted: Wed Dec 30, 2020 3:07 am
by andrewcriddle
Plato in the Republic wanted to prevent children being taught Homer.

Andrew Criddle

Re: School Board Bans Homer

Posted: Sat Jul 10, 2021 5:57 am
by Lucifer Satanel
Paul the Uncertain wrote: Wed Dec 30, 2020 2:50 am Updating

According to online reporting, on June 4, one Shea Martin (@sheathecholar) tweeted:
I want to remind y'all that this disruption work is a marathon, not a sprint. Be like Odysseus and embrace the long haul to liberation (and then take The Odyssey out of your curriculum because it's trash). #DisruptTexts
To which, Mrs Levine, the teacher in question (@MrsHLevine) replied the same day:
Hahaha - very proud to say we got the Odyssey removed from the curriculum this year!
As noted in my previous post, Mrs Levine has since clarified that she meant only that some units in her school's English curriculum had been removed, among them being one unit that "included" the Odyssey. Thus, there was no ban and nothing happened district-wide. It's just that there is no longer an expectation that something about the Odyssey would be taught in that one school's 'English Language Arts' program.

(Maybe just as well ... None of us think that Homer's English was all that great.)

It is hard not to notice ironies here. Someone who identifies herself as a scholar calls the Odyssey trash even as she offers its hero as a model of effective strategic thought, and an English teacher fails to express herself clearly in a one-sentence factual statement written for publication.

However, it really seems not to be the case that the Odyssey has been banned from the Lawrence Massachusetts school district, nor from its high schools, nor even from this one high school.

On the other hand, we are on notice that book burning is a marathon, not a sprint.
I would be very proud to get stupid teachers like them fired. They'll create students even dumber than themselves and even more totalitarian. To paraphrase a Greek "They want are intellect and our liberty -come and take them!" We're a battle to the death with such people and no quarter should be given to them and it's return with your shield or on it .