Re: Helllllllllllllllllp please!

["Terry DeBarger" <tdebarger@washoe.k12.nv.us>]

Since I moved to high school, I mostly lurk here, but your post has roused me.  I think that many English teachers deal with just this sort of problem, although we prefer to think that it happens in another class somewhere else.  Experience and professionalism are no inoculation; we are all vulnerable.  Look over a list of challenged works: there is little rhyme or reason, as there are so many ways to offend.

But what really gets me is the word 'uplifting.'  It sounds like a code for something else.   Books like "Night" are tremendously uplifting, if viewed from certain perspectives (triumph of the human spirit in the face of horror; the power of love and family to sustain through adversity, etc.), although it obviously is disturbing and tragic and achingly sad as well.  Is the problem that violence is a component of the narratives?  That violence is in some way condoned?  What titles would she prefer?  What is meant by 'uplifting?'  Unfortunately, it falls to you and your administration to decode this.  

I wish you luck.
 
P.S.  Curiously, I can't find her company on the web.  Apparently, possitivity is a stealth industry.

>>> trisha.mackenzie@gmail.com 12/8/2006 8:57 AM >>>
I'm having a crisis of confidence after 16 years.  I'm still standing, but I
have been pummeled the last two weeks regarding reading selections in my 8th
grade classes.  I'm new this year at a very high-achieving school.  Because
I'm new, I'm expected to hold the line a 30 year veteran established until
I've proven myself, I guess.  A parent, who by the way owns/owned a company
called Positive Books for Children, is unpleasantly challenging the
established curriculum -- she's angry that the tone of the books and short
stories so far are "violent" --

We're just coming out of a unit on Poe (Tell Tale Heart, Fall of the House
of Usher, The Black Cat, Annabel Lee, The Raven) -- prior to that Seedfolks
and a Depression era novel that I don't like called Nothing to Fear.  Prior
to that -- Marigolds by Eugenia Collier, Ransom of Red Chief, The Day I Got
Lost, and lots of poetry.

So.

Can I please tap into this group's broad experience, and ask for titles of
short stories and novels that YOU think have a positive, uplifting tone for
that woman -- and for me that have depth, analytical possibilities, and a
multitude of teaching opportunities.  I'm not asking for much, am I?

Oh . . . and we start Elie Wiesel's Night in early February.  That will
thrill her.

Thanking you in advance.

Trisha

.·´*