Elkhorn parents to get say on controversial class
ELKHORN — Parents of Elkhorn High School 11th graders will get permission slips asking whether they want their kids involved in classes that cover controversial subjects as part of an English literature unit.
The Elkhorn School Board decided Monday to add permission slips to the enrollment process after some parents raised concerns a few months ago.
The unit in question studies discrimination using homosexuality as a case study.
The research topic is one of nine students can choose from. Others include black titles, Hispanic titles, Asian American titles, religious freedom titles, Middle Eastern titles, disability titles, family titles and Native American titles.
The class studies socials issues and personal challenges that focus on a variety of literature dealing with discrimination. Students are given the option of choosing a research topic in the spring of their junior year.
Some parents had concerns and asked the school board for the option of letting their children enroll in a specific topic.
According to Cathy Pomaranski, director of instruction for the Elkhorn School District, students and parents also will be informed if the books students choose to read contain explicit language, sexual content or violence.
Pomaranski said the homosexuality unit became particularly controversial after a featured article published in Teaching Tolerance Magazine, a national publication aimed at reducing prejudice in schools.
Sarah Arnold, an English teacher at Elkhorn High School, applied for a grant to purchase more books and her story was featured in the article. Pomaranski said the angle of the article, which highlighted the teacher's experience teaching a unit on homophobia, caused parents to worry that their kids were being forced to learn a topic they might not be comfortable with.
Instead, she added, the topic was supposed to explore multiculturalism in a wide range of areas. While the course itself is a requirement for graduation, that particular unit isn't, Pomaranski added.
Elkhorn High School juniors will begin the unit next week and are expected to return their permission slips about 10 days later, she added.
Students who don't return signed permission slips won't be allowed to take their chosen topics. They would instead read books dealing with the wider topic of discrimination, Pomaranski said.
Apr 29, 2009 at 10:12 a.m.
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"It seems the special interest groups are always given their way inspite of the majority voting it down!" Whoanellie
One of the premises of a democratic and fair people is that the rights of minorities are equally heard and protected in spite of majority opinion which may be in opposition. Without that, there would be no discourse and no honor.
Apr 29, 2009 at 9:56 a.m.
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I agree with levelheaded some. The permission slip was a good idea, that way you have a choice. Unfortunatly in this country the minority usually does rule the majority. Look at same sex marriage in CA. It seems the special interest groups are always given their way inspite of the majority voting it down! Also I feel like the public school is parenting our children. They teach social issues that should be taught at home and I believe we as parents have let them. We do need to start looking differently at the school system. Do your own job parenting and the schools could get to teaching what they should.I realize the economy is bad and sometimes it takes 2 incomes to feed and pay bills but sometimes it's just us wanting to keep up with the Jones's instead of taking time to stay home and parent our children.
Apr 29, 2009 at 9:07 a.m.
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My God, that list is amazing..."Of Mice and Men"...I never knew..
Apr 29, 2009 at 8:52 a.m.
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werpknarly: Your book list is amazing! I've often found that those who would want to ban a book, a classroom lesson, a song, etc. are usually those who haven't even read, learned, or listened to the same. Celebrate Banned Book Week (September 25–October 2, 2010) by READING a book someone has attempted to censor. Celebrate your freedom every day to choose. Honor the freedom to express your opinion even if that opinion is in the minority, unconventional, or unpopular. Stress to others the importance of ensuring the accessability of unorthodox or unpopular viewpoints to all who wish to read, to teach, to share, or to learn. Intellectual freedom can exist only where communities appreciate diversity and tolerance; where communities know that in spite of being "uncomfortable" and initially fearful, more learning and sharing is absolutely vital in a functional democratic nation.
Apr 29, 2009 at 8:36 a.m.
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Do they get a say on evolution too? Why is evolution a "fact" that needs to be studied but toleration is some sort of unimportant opinion?
Apr 29, 2009 at 8:18 a.m.
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werpknarly- were you peeking at my bookshelf when you wrote that list?
Apr 29, 2009 at 7:54 a.m.
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btw prevention...
Christianity neither is, nor ever was a part of the common law.
-Thomas Jefferson, letter to Dr. Thomas Cooper, February 10, 1814
But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no God. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.
-Thomas Jefferson, Notes on Virginia, 1782
Apr 29, 2009 at 7:48 a.m.
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if you want to know whats goning on in your childs life, be involved... and so it goes
Apr 29, 2009 at 7:47 a.m.
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oh no.. the books are coming ! everyone run and hide ! better start a pyre to save our souls and drive back those hiddious things. that ink may stain, just one paper cut could infect their mind... Soon the childern may be thinking. Then where will we be?
Yes i to am a "Child of the Banned"...
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle Annie on My Mind by Nancy Garden As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner Blubber by Judy Blume Brave New World by Aldous Huxley Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson Canterbury Tales by Chaucer Carrie by Stephen King Catch-22 by Joseph Heller Christine by Stephen King Confessions by Jean-Jacques Rousseau Cujo by Stephen King Curses, Hexes, and Spells by Daniel Cohen Daddy's Roommate by Michael Willhoite Day No Pigs Would Die by Robert Peck Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller Decameron by Boccaccio East of Eden by John Steinbeck Fallen Angels by Walter Myers Fanny Hill (Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure) by John Cleland Flowers For Algernon by Daniel Keyes Forever by Judy Blume Grendel by John Champlin Gardner Halloween ABC by Eve Merriam Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling Harry Potter and the Prizoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling Have to Go by Robert Munsch Heather Has Two Mommies by Leslea Newman How to Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou Impressions edited by Jack Booth In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak It's Okay if You Don't Love Me by Norma Klein James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl Lady Chatterley's Lover by D.H. Lawrence Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman Little Red Riding Hood by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm Lord of the Flies by William Golding Love is One of the Choices by Norma Klein Lysistrata by Aristophanes More Scary Stories in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz My Brother Sam Is Dead by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier My House by Nikki Giovanni My Friend Flicka by Mary O'Hara Night Chills by Dean Koontz Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck On My Honor by Marion Dane Bauer One Day in The Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez Ordinary People by Judith Guest Our Bodies, Ourselves by Boston Women's Health Collective Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy Revolting Rhymes by Roald Dahl Scary Stories 3: More Tales to Chill Your Bones by Alvin Schwartz Scary Stories in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz Separate Peace by John Knowles Silas Marner by George Eliot Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain, etc..and so it goes...
Apr 28, 2009 at 9:13 p.m.
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Just like Christianity being taken out even though this country was founded on it!
Apr 28, 2009 at 6:54 p.m.
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I think that the permission slip idea was a good solution to the issue raised. If they don't want their child to study that topic then don't let them. But don't take away that topic because a few people have problems with it. The minority should not rule the majority. I can't believe how many parties the students don't have anymore because some people may be offended. Don't send your kid to school that day if you don't agree with it. They are also discouraging sweets for treats as well. I can understand eating healthy but eating healthy starts at home too. It's not the school's job to parent the kids it's the parents job to do so. More parents should start doing their job.
Apr 28, 2009 at 5:52 p.m.
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I agree with janesvillean, teaching kids to be tolerant of others is important, and unfortunately that is something that religion does not do. By the way, 11th grade?? They are practically adults.
Apr 28, 2009 at 4:21 p.m.
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Well, we certainly wouldn't want any students to accidentally learn tolerance. To be tolerant or intolerant is the prerogative of the family. We must defend ourselves against intolerance against intolerance -- there should be tolerance for intolerance instead.
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