Re: Helllllllllllllllllp please!

[SommerWind410@aol.com]

I have to keep this eloquent post.  You are so right  on!  And I couldn't 
find the company anywhere, either, so I,  too, absolutely bagged up laughing at 
your last comment.
 
Hang in there, Trish.  Great that you have your principal's  support.  Know 
that we're behind you as well.
 
Cathy :-)
 
 
 
In a message dated 12/11/2006 2:06:02 PM Eastern Standard Time,  
tdebarger@washoe.k12.nv.us writes:

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.