Censorship is alive and well

[Leslie]

In this day and age, I find this hard to believe:

Now Playing in New Rochelle, "Book, Interrupted"!
Submitted by Robert Cox on Mon, 12/08/2008 - 09:33.

New Rochelle School District Censors Pages from Girl, Interrupted, Susanna Kaysen's harrowing memoir that inspired Academy Award-Winning Film starring Winona Ryder and Angela Jolie.

Students at New Rochelle School High School are going to find it difficult to complete their next assignment: comparing the film adaptation of "Girl, Interrupted" to the best-selling book. In the book, Kaysen recounts her confinement at a Massachussets mental hospital in the 1960's.

Pages from the middle of the book have been torn out by the school district after having been deemed "inappropriate" by school officials due to sexual content and strong language. Removed is a scene where the rebellious Lisa (played by Angela Jolie in the movie) encourages Susanna (played by Winona Ryder) to circumvent hospital rules against sexual intercourse by engaging in oral sex instead.
(R rated content).

"The material was of a sexual nature that we deemed inappropriate for teachers to present to their students," said English Department Chariperson Leslie Altschul, "since the book has other redeeming features, we took the liberty of bowdlerizing."


Leslie comment: Is this ENGLISH teacher for real? She believes "bowdlerizing" is appropriate?

To read more, go here: http://www.newrochelletalk.com/?q=node/288

I am appalled.

L

[Khabita]

Me, too, and to think this is happening in New Rochelle, NY! A town I thought was pretty modern.

What I can't figure out is: Why would the teacher choose the book in the first place, if she thought it had "inappropriate" passages? And why is anything in the book any less moral or any more inappropriate for teens than the real lives of the two actresses who were in the movie? One has been arrested for shoplifting, and the other is an adulterer! (No, I'm not being judgemental, I'm just thinking from the point of view of a prudish teacher or school administrator.)

How silly this is.

[Mikuto]

The puritanical views of the USA never fail to amaze me, and I was born here. How a country can be more offended by nudity and sex than by horrific violence is just baffling to me.

And that's all I have to say. 

[CS]

Ridiculous!

[Leslie]

Of course, if the students were reading the book on their Kindles, the teachers couldn't rip out the pages...

L

[jmiked]

I’ll bet they don’t censor violence, though.

[Leslie]

I’ll bet they don’t censor violence, though.

I am sure they don't. Like Mikuto said, there are divisions on issues that are totally baffling.

L

[Teninx]

My Catholic high school staged "The Fantasticks" one year, but the show ran a little short. The Brothers of the Sacred Heart who ran the school decided to expunge The Rape Ballet from the libretto.

Oh, by the way....one of those brothers is serving time right now...for rape.

[Atunah]

The puritanical views of the USA never fail to amaze me, and I was born here. How a country can be more offended by nudity and sex than by horrific violence is just baffling to me.

And that's all I have to say. 

I was born and raised in Europe and it is this weird hypocrisy that I find completely baffling and very insincere, no matter how long I live here.
The so called outrage rings shallow to my ears. I am appalled at any censorship of any kind in books. Whats next, burning of books? Fahrenheit 451 indeed.

[chynared21]

Hmmm, censor the book but encourage the kids to watch the movie. Got it.

[Spiritdancer]

Wow...that's unbelievable.  To hand a book to students and assign reading, and then ask for it back to rip pages out...what were they thinking?!  First of all, now you can be sure most of the students will go to a library or book store to see what they are missing, when to most of them it would not have been a big deal in the first place.  Seriously, it would take something far more graphic to grab the attention of high school students.  Second, how does the English department think it will have any validity with the students when they are suddenly shocked and dismayed by the book they asked the students to read?!  I think people drastically underestimate the maturity and intelligence of our high school students.

Sorry, don't mean to rant...this just makes me crazy!  

[chynared21]

I think people drastically underestimate the maturity and intelligence of our high school students.

Sorry, don't mean to rant...this just makes me crazy!  

Not to mention experience. You should hear the stuff that I've heard in the school yard.

[Vegas_Asian]

Not to mention experience. You should hear the stuff that I've heard in the school yard.

I just graduated a year and a half ago...my classmates amazed me with the things they do and the things they'd do on campus too.

[chynared21]

I just graduated a year and a half ago...my classmates amazed me with the things they do and the things they'd do on campus too.

I can imagine. My daughter is only in elementary school....I'm talking about middle school. Yikes!

[cat616]

Shaking my head in disbelief.

[Atunah]

We had to read The Tin drum in school. I was maybe 13, if I can remember correctly, maybe even younger. I think just the thought of anyone reading the Tin drum would implode the head of some of those people.

[stevene9]

Censoring a book in a school is certainly the very best way to get every student to get hold of an uncensored copy and read it. This would be a great ploy if she had a financial interest and was trying to sell books.

Steve

[Teninx]

Your school assigned Gunter Grass to middle-schoolers? Wow!  I loved The Tin Drum, but I read it well into my adulthood....which Oskar would think of as a waste given his opinion of adulthood....

[MonaSW]

Censoring a book in a school is certainly the very best way to get every student to get hold of an uncensored copy and read it.

Oh I sure agree with that! And such censorship is ridiculous. If you don't want your students reading the book in it's entirely, don't assign it.

[Atunah]

Yeah, it was a difficult read to say the least.  We certainly were not sheltered in that way. It was all about the literature.

But I also grew up in a country where I sat in taverns drinking beer legally at 16 and bought crossword puzzles with boobies on the front as a child. Perfectly normal where I grew up. 

America, the land where censors are scared of nekkid boobies but have no issues with someone getting their head blown off in slow mo.

[bosslady402]

My Catholic high school staged "The Fantasticks" one year, but the show ran a little short. The Brothers of the Sacred Heart who ran the school decided to expunge The Rape Ballet from the libretto.

Why did they even choose that play??

The catholic high school around here doesn't just censor books - they made one mother quit her job because they didn't approve of her employer - she was a waitress at Hooters.

glad I went to the public school - you could find all sorts of bodice-rippers on those library shelves! (probably not any more, though, bummer)

[Teninx]

Why did they even choose that play??

An excellent question. "The Fantastiks" can be staged with minimal set design and with only one female character, was suited to an all-male school.


I understand that the rights-holder now allows "The Rape Ballet" to be staged as "The Abduction Ballet". But not then.

[chobitz]

Growing up in Philly at a semi private school we read The Chocolate Wars, Catcher in the Rye, A Seperate Peace and Lord of the Flies 

I remember the bruhaha when they found a copy of Go Ask Alice in the piblic library.

I learned violence is ok with censors especially with boy because 'boys will be boys' Hence the novels we had to read but if sex or drugs was introduced even in a cautionary story like Go Ask Alice the censors went crazy.

So this teacher was offended by oral sex but not the incest or suicide in Girl Interupted? Very odd..

[Wannabe]

Maybe she didn't want the kids to get any ideas. In the school district where I work, an eighth grade girl was caught having oral sex with three different boys in science class! The teacher was in the room but he was otherwise occupied with his computer <hmmmm>.

[chobitz]

We had to read The Tin drum in school. I was maybe 13, if I can remember correctly, maybe even younger. I think just the thought of anyone reading the Tin drum would implode the head of some of those people.

I forget how old I was younger then 12 I know when I saw The Tin Drum. I still get nightmares time to time from some of those scenes.