Oh my gosh! That is horrible!! I can't believe he was fired! I wonder if the union is doing anything about it? And I agree - it really makes me mad when people want to ban things without reading them.
I was forwarded an email about the movie The Golden Compass (which is of course one of my all time favorite books), and it was saying not to let your kids watch it or read it because it was against religion. This was also posted on a chatboard and a lot of the parents based their whole decision off of this one opinion - without having read it! And even though at the bottom there was a differing view, and a much more reasonable one, they just glommed onto the part about it being against religion. And when I tried to say to at least read the book or watch the movie FIRST, and then decide, they didn't want to do that. What ever happened to thinking for yourself?? On Nov 23, 2007 7:37 AM, TLP <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Sadly, this type of thing continues. From a Middle School Lit Group, > > Sebastopol librarian Richie Partington was fired from his library > consultant's position with the Bellevue Union School District in Santa > Rosa California a day after refusing to meet with a principal who had > banned Rodman Philbrick's The Last Book in the Universe from his > school's library without having read it. > > "I politely but firmly made it clear to the District Superintendent > that until the principal actually read the book he had banned, I > didn't see how we could have a conversation about the book. > > Partington had twice read the first chapter of the book aloud to sixth > grade classes at the District's Kawana School the previous week and > "had more than a dozen students begging to read it." When Partington > arrived at the school on the following Monday morning with four copies > of the book, he was informed by the school's library clerk (who also > has never read the book) that she didn't want the book in the library > because it has to do with gangs and that she'd gotten the principal to > forbid its addition to the collection. > > Noting in an email to the Superintendent that "the bigger issue here > is one of arbitrariness due to a lack of a District collection > development policy and District reconsideration policy," Partington > immediately drafted and emailed a proposal for a reconsideration > policy to the Superintendent who responded the same day by mailing out > the termination letter. > > The termination is effective immediately. > > -- > > > What blows me away are people willing to ban books they haven't even > read... > Tena > > _______________________________________________ > The Literacy Workshop ListServ http://www.literacyworkshop.org > > To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to > http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/lit_literacyworkshop.org. > > Search the LIT archives at http://snipurl.com/LITArchive > -- - Heather "The world of books is the most remarkable creation of man. Nothing else that he builds ever lasts. Monuments fall; nations perish; civilizations grow old and die out; new races build others. But in the world of books are volumes that have seen this happen again and again and yet live on. Still young, still as fresh as the day they were written, still telling men's hearts of the hearts of men centuries dead." --Clarence Day "While the rhetoric is highly effective, remarkably little good evidence exists that there's any educational substance behind the accountability and testing movement." —Peter Sacks, Standardized Minds "When our children fail competency tests the schools lose funding. When our missiles fail tests, we increase funding. " —Dennis Kucinich, Democratic Presidential Candidate _______________________________________________ The Literacy Workshop ListServ http://www.literacyworkshop.org To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/lit_literacyworkshop.org. Search the LIT archives at http://snipurl.com/LITArchive
