It’s back to school time, so here’s a quiz.
Can you name these books according to their summaries?
Book People says this book depicts a “ … dystopian future, environmental disasters and declining birthrates have led to a Second American Civil War. The result is the rise of the Republic of Gilead, a totalitarian regime that enforces rigid social roles and enslaves the few remaining fertile women … At once a scathing satire, an ominous warning, and a tour de force of narrative suspense, the book is a modern classic.”
This book, according to study.com, “follows an African American teenager named Celie being raised in rural Georgia in the early 1900s. Through letters written by Celie to God, we follow her struggle with an abusive father, a teenage pregnancy, and abusive marriage. The novel documents triumphs in the face of adversity, particularly the struggle against gender inequality and racism.” The book is a winner of the Pulitzer Prize.
PI Media says this book “Tells the story of a mass shooting at Sterling High School, which takes place in 2007 in New Hampshire. It follows Peter Houghton’s massacre through the grounds of his school after enduring years of brutal bullying by his peers. (The author) takes us through the events leading up to the shooting: seventeen years before, five years before, one year before, the morning of. She shows us Peter’s evolution, from a child who delights over receiving a Superman lunchbox from his mother on the first day of kindergarten, only to have it thrown out of the school-bus window by the bullies … to a teenager at breaking point drawing a red circle around photos of his planned victims in his high school yearbook.
Bookrags says this book “details 13-year-old Lakshmi’s experiences after being sold into sexual slavery by her stepfather to pay growing debts … There, Lakshmi is beaten and drugged into submission after she initially refuses to have sex with any of the customers, at which time she is forced to have sex with men to pay off the cost for which she has been purchased.”
Time’s up. I won’t keep you in suspense.
The books are “The Handmaid’s Tale” by Margaret Atwood, “The Color Purple” by Alice Walker, “Nineteen Minutes” by Jodi Picoult and “Sold” by Patricia McCormick.
According to a Des Moines Register survey of Iowa school districts published in June, these books are among the top 10 titles removed from Iowa school library shelves in an effort to adhere to a new law which prohibits schools from making books available that depict sex.
Republicans who championed the law want us to believe it’s only about books such as the graphic novel “Gender Queer,” which includes illustrations showing a nonbinary person experimenting with sex using a fake penis. Republican leaders and their Moms for Liberty friends are fixated on these pictures. They show them to everyone. That’s weird, considering the book wasn’t written for white, straight middle-aged Christians.
Many books dealing with LGBTQ issues and written by LGBTQ writers have been removed from shelves. The law, which also bars teaching lessons in grade school that include LGBTQ people, tries very hard to reduce the identity of our fellow Iowans to a sex act.
Any explanation claiming this law is about liberty must be shelved under fiction. The law is all about controlling what students can read.
The books being banished depict the dangers of religious fundamentalism, the tragedy of gun violence, the results of racism and the desperate plight of the poor around the world. This is a state that also discourages teachers from addressing racism because it might make white kids feel bad. Connect the dots and you’ll see religious fundamentalism, bigotry and racism.
And that’s the thing. This really isn’t about sex. The vague law is pushing school districts to ban books that don’t express a conservative worldview. It turns out the law is more about removing controversial ideas from the school library than protecting kids from sex.
None of the books listed above should be assigned to grade schoolers. But high school students can handle them, even the dreaded “Gender Queer.” Learning about the real world beyond Iowa has always been a goal of public education in this state. It’s a goal teachers are still seeking to achieve, although now they must do it with Republicans breathing down their necks and under threat of losing their licenses. Don’t think its backers don’t know what they’re doing when they blame schools for overreacting to this nonsense.
Better to play it safe and steer clear of any book that might be targeted by the righteous right and a governor who tells lies about “pornography” in classrooms. She’ll go down in Iowa history beside Gov. William Harding, who is infamous for trying to make it a crime to speak German and other languages during World War I.
It’s also not about parental rights, because the only rights it affords go to zealots. The rest of us, who think book banning is about as un-American as you can get, have seen our rights curtailed.
A court fight over this law is ongoing. But the truth is the courts never had to be involved. This law should never have passed. It was unnecessary, considering parents already could challenge books at the district level. It should be repealed.
This law is an anathema to free speech. It sullies Iowa’s proud public school traditions and sends a message to the nation that our state is hardly a place where freedom flourishes.
Iowa kids will be poorer for the books they can’t read and the lessons they can’t learn. But what they have learned is politicians will sell their rights down the river to solve fake issues and score political victories.
(319) 398-8262; todd.dorman@thegazette.com
www.thegazette.com
Can you name these books according to their summaries?
Book People says this book depicts a “ … dystopian future, environmental disasters and declining birthrates have led to a Second American Civil War. The result is the rise of the Republic of Gilead, a totalitarian regime that enforces rigid social roles and enslaves the few remaining fertile women … At once a scathing satire, an ominous warning, and a tour de force of narrative suspense, the book is a modern classic.”
This book, according to study.com, “follows an African American teenager named Celie being raised in rural Georgia in the early 1900s. Through letters written by Celie to God, we follow her struggle with an abusive father, a teenage pregnancy, and abusive marriage. The novel documents triumphs in the face of adversity, particularly the struggle against gender inequality and racism.” The book is a winner of the Pulitzer Prize.
PI Media says this book “Tells the story of a mass shooting at Sterling High School, which takes place in 2007 in New Hampshire. It follows Peter Houghton’s massacre through the grounds of his school after enduring years of brutal bullying by his peers. (The author) takes us through the events leading up to the shooting: seventeen years before, five years before, one year before, the morning of. She shows us Peter’s evolution, from a child who delights over receiving a Superman lunchbox from his mother on the first day of kindergarten, only to have it thrown out of the school-bus window by the bullies … to a teenager at breaking point drawing a red circle around photos of his planned victims in his high school yearbook.
Bookrags says this book “details 13-year-old Lakshmi’s experiences after being sold into sexual slavery by her stepfather to pay growing debts … There, Lakshmi is beaten and drugged into submission after she initially refuses to have sex with any of the customers, at which time she is forced to have sex with men to pay off the cost for which she has been purchased.”
Time’s up. I won’t keep you in suspense.
The books are “The Handmaid’s Tale” by Margaret Atwood, “The Color Purple” by Alice Walker, “Nineteen Minutes” by Jodi Picoult and “Sold” by Patricia McCormick.
According to a Des Moines Register survey of Iowa school districts published in June, these books are among the top 10 titles removed from Iowa school library shelves in an effort to adhere to a new law which prohibits schools from making books available that depict sex.
Republicans who championed the law want us to believe it’s only about books such as the graphic novel “Gender Queer,” which includes illustrations showing a nonbinary person experimenting with sex using a fake penis. Republican leaders and their Moms for Liberty friends are fixated on these pictures. They show them to everyone. That’s weird, considering the book wasn’t written for white, straight middle-aged Christians.
Many books dealing with LGBTQ issues and written by LGBTQ writers have been removed from shelves. The law, which also bars teaching lessons in grade school that include LGBTQ people, tries very hard to reduce the identity of our fellow Iowans to a sex act.
Any explanation claiming this law is about liberty must be shelved under fiction. The law is all about controlling what students can read.
The books being banished depict the dangers of religious fundamentalism, the tragedy of gun violence, the results of racism and the desperate plight of the poor around the world. This is a state that also discourages teachers from addressing racism because it might make white kids feel bad. Connect the dots and you’ll see religious fundamentalism, bigotry and racism.
And that’s the thing. This really isn’t about sex. The vague law is pushing school districts to ban books that don’t express a conservative worldview. It turns out the law is more about removing controversial ideas from the school library than protecting kids from sex.
None of the books listed above should be assigned to grade schoolers. But high school students can handle them, even the dreaded “Gender Queer.” Learning about the real world beyond Iowa has always been a goal of public education in this state. It’s a goal teachers are still seeking to achieve, although now they must do it with Republicans breathing down their necks and under threat of losing their licenses. Don’t think its backers don’t know what they’re doing when they blame schools for overreacting to this nonsense.
Better to play it safe and steer clear of any book that might be targeted by the righteous right and a governor who tells lies about “pornography” in classrooms. She’ll go down in Iowa history beside Gov. William Harding, who is infamous for trying to make it a crime to speak German and other languages during World War I.
It’s also not about parental rights, because the only rights it affords go to zealots. The rest of us, who think book banning is about as un-American as you can get, have seen our rights curtailed.
A court fight over this law is ongoing. But the truth is the courts never had to be involved. This law should never have passed. It was unnecessary, considering parents already could challenge books at the district level. It should be repealed.
This law is an anathema to free speech. It sullies Iowa’s proud public school traditions and sends a message to the nation that our state is hardly a place where freedom flourishes.
Iowa kids will be poorer for the books they can’t read and the lessons they can’t learn. But what they have learned is politicians will sell their rights down the river to solve fake issues and score political victories.
(319) 398-8262; todd.dorman@thegazette.com
Opinion: Iowa’s school book law is about control, not sex
Any explanation claiming this law is about liberty must be shelved under fiction
www.thegazette.com
