Itâs a piece of literature. What about a story about a pregnant woman if there is a teenage pregnancy in the class. It may cause distress.
Thatâs still not racial prejudice.
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No itâs not but it may cause distress if that is the issue under debate.
The books being debated are books that are not racist but use words of their time.
That has over 13000 likes âŚeek
Distress because of the colour of your skin is the topic under discussion and the fact that a book in 2020 is causing young kids to be uncomfortable in school because they are being told to read or forced to hear the racial slurs that are still causing problems in this day and age.
And you think an English teacher in a junior cert is qualified to deal with the moral issues raised?
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So the distress a black child feels merits a book being removed but the distress a pregnant child feels doesnât? What about the distress a Jewish child might feel reading about the holocaust?
Itâs an English course to study the great works of literature.
If a Jewish kid had to listen to or read Jewish slur words and it caused them distress, I would say yes there is a discussion to be had.
Iâve never heard of pregnant person being racially discriminated against for being pregnant
I never mentioned racism against pregnant people. Is it only racial distress that merits a book being removed?
Someone being upset because they have to read a racial slur that is still being used today, in school, certainly merits a discussion, do you not think so?
Youâre comparing distress about being racially abused and hearing racial slurs in school to being pregnant, as if thatâs a defence of your point
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It absolutely does. Will removing the book aid that discussion?
Iâm comparing distress. There are books that could show teenage pregnancy in a negative light, or people from all manner of family situations or backgrounds. They could cause as much distress to someone from that background.
And pretty much every history book I read in school featured comics from the 1930s and 1940s showing Jewish and Gypsy peoples in a bad light. They have to go too, I take it?
On the junior cert syllabus?
Name one.
History books featuring comics? Did you go to clown college or something
You know newspapers at the time featured political comics heavily yeah?
What about history books that feature details about how your people were considered sub-human and how they were exterminated in their millions?
What have the last 160 posts been about?
She was Truman capotes sidekick and general dogsbody during the âin cold bloodâ era, which ruined him, and yet she went on to write arguably the more definitive work.
The Cay (only one I can remember from my time) featured an orphan and how hard he found coping with life. Could that cause an orphan distress?
So things you think are equal to racial prejudice. Orphans and Pregnancy
Could it cause distress to a child whoâd recently lost their parents? My memory of the book is hazy but I know the child had an awful time after it, frequently bed-wetting and the like.
Address the history book point