The Crook County School District has temporarily removed a book from classrooms after one parent complained to the school board that the National Book Award winner was "trashy" and "inappropriate.".... Written by Sherman Alexie, "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian," which is based on Alexie's own experiences, follows a boy who leaves the Spokane Indian Reservation to attend an all-white school "where the only other Indian is the school mascot" according to the book jacket description. But Hank Moss, of Prineville, read the book his son was assigned to read and raised objections to the school board earlier this week, according to the Bend Bulletin. Moss, reached today by The Oregonian, said the book includes "a reference about masturbation, and that it's ok and no big deal." He added that he felt it was "inappropriate."
I occasionally like to delude myself into thinking that Oregon is the poster child for tolerance and acceptance. Well, here in the REAL world, Oregonians can be as intolerant, ignorant, and reactionary as anyone out there in rural Dipshittia. I once heard someone describe Pennsylvania as Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, separated by Alabama, and the same principle applies here in Oregon. Outside of Portland and Eugene, most of the rest of the state might as well be Alabama. Actually, Oregon east of the Cascades is, ideologically speaking, really just a suburb of Idaho. Most of the state's population lives in the Portland metropolitan area, but once you begin heading east into rural Clackamas County, you're closer to beautiful downtown Deliverance than San Francisco. People like Hank Moss are, sadly, far more common here than you might think, which means that a whole generation of children is being raised to react rather than think. (And you wonder why I fear for the future of our country?)
Same as it ever was, eh? (And you wonder why 54+ million people voted for Our Glorious and Benevolent Leader © in 2004? Why think when you can simply do as your told?)
Granted, I don't have children, so this is not an issue I've had to wrestle with, but isn't part of the educational process exposing children to ideas? And not just bland, uncontroversial, thoroughly-vetted-for-ideological-and-moral-purity ideas. How can we expect children to go through life if they're not exposed to "objectionable" ideas? Not that the subject of sexuality is or should be considered objectionable; it's part and parcel of the human condition. Moss' objection to a book that contains "a reference about masturbation, and that it's ok and no big deal" is missing the forest for the trees. Masturbation (Uh, doesn't that cause fur to, like, grow on your palms??), like any aspect of sexuality, is something that should be openly discussed with children. Perhaps if we stopped treating sexuality as something to be hidden and ashamed of, our children might actually grow up with a respect for and a greater understanding and grasp of their own sexuality. Instead, ignorami like Moss treat sexuality (the reason humans are still walking this Earth, by the way) as if it's something dirty, nasty, and best discussed in hushed tones behind locked doors.
I haven't read Alexie's book, though I am an admirer of his work. The book is not about "masturbation, and that it's ok and no big deal". Objecting to something like that would make sense, simply because it would no doubt be of dubious literary merit. Until and unless people like Moss stop treating sex as something best left for children to discover for themselves, we will continue to raise children who get their sexual education from television and the Internet. And we will have babies having babies because they haven't been given the tools to effective and intelligently address issues directly relating to their own sexuality.
Then again, it IS difficult to teach children to be open-minded and think for themselves when their parents' minds have long-since slammed shut like a steel trap. Too often, when people like Hank Moss begin to agitate for censorship, school boards cave like the moral and intellectual cowards they're drawn from.
Same as it ever was....
