“I think they’re so myopic in their focus and they’re so afraid of what’s implied and having to defend the decision to teach ‘Maus’ as part of the curriculum that it lead to this kind of daffily myopic response,” the author said. (CNN)
I went to a Catholic elementary school run by Polish nuns. Many of the nuns were children or teenagers in Poland during WWII. Some were consigned to labor camps with their families. They told us about the horrors they witnessed. We saw movies of the Nazis using bulldozers to bury the naked bodies of murdered Jews in mass graves. We saw images of Jews in line waiting to go into the “showers,” the gas chambers. There were other movies and images of the Holocaust. I was in the fifth grade.
Our parents either fought in the war, worked for the war effort, or were displaced persons who fled the destruction and deprivations of the post-war era. There were no protests of the graphic images and tales.
Over the past few years, the right and the left have tried to ban books in schools and libraries due to language or other social and cultural issues. “To Kill a Mockingbird” and Mark Twain created controversies over language. Evidently, educators are too lazy or stupid to teach literature contextually. Better to keep young eyes away from language.
The latest atrocity comes from the “enlightened” folks of the McMinn County School Board in Tennessee. They voted 10-0 to ban “Maus,” a Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel by Art Spiegelman from the eighth-grade curriculum. It is the only graphic novel to win the Pulitzer Prize. Their specious reasoning? Profanity, an image of female nudity (A female mouse), and suicide in depicting Jewish victims of the Holocaust. How dumb are these less-ons (Lower than morons)?
“Art Spiegelman, the author of “Maus,” said he was baffled by the decision. “This is disturbing imagery,” he said in an interview on Thursday, which is Holocaust Remembrance Day. “But you know what? It’s disturbing history.” (NYT)
Though the vote was taken two weeks ago, the news story came out on Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Maus is one of the most moving accounts of the Holocaust. It was deeply personal, as it depicted the author’s family’s struggles during and after that horrid era. It is a visual and written masterpiece.
“The values of the county are understood. There is some rough, objectionable language in this book, and knowing that and hearing from many of you and discussing it, two or three of you came by my office to discuss that” (Director of Schools Lee Parkinson/CNBC)
What values is Herr Parkinson talking about? Maybe Herr Parkinson does not realize that eighth-graders are more sophisticated than prior generations. Hell, television, cable, and streaming services have more horror. nudity, and profanity than a mere book, with what the board considers eight “curse” words and a naked mouse.
“Regarding the nudity, Spiegelman said the image in question was a “tiny image” that depicted his mother being found in a bathtub after she cut her wrists. “You have to really, like, want to get your sexual kicks by projecting on it,” he said.” (CNN)
“Board member Tony Allman took issue with how the content would be redacted, and added, “We don’t need to enable or somewhat promote this stuff. It shows people hanging, it shows them killing kids, why does the educational system promote this kind of stuff? It is not wise or healthy,” according to the meeting minutes.” (CNN)
Tony Allman sounds like the proverbial bark chewing back wood’s pecker head. “This stuff?” Sho Nuff.
With the right and the left fighting over what books school children should read, including race, the history of slavery, language, and other cultural issues, I wonder when the book burnings will begin? Who will be the first to burn books, the left or the right? Both are acting like OshKosh B’ gosh inbred Nazis. All they need are armbands and flags.
Both the left and the right are exhibiting the worst fascist tendencies when it comes to educating children. Like the Nazis, they are seeking educational, social, and cultural purity. Instead of teaching literature or history in a modern context, they would instead ban books or curricula. It is more personally comfortable than to admit their intellectual laziness or ignorance.
When will they go after public and school libraries? When will the destruction of public and school libraries start ala Kristallnacht? When will teachers be rounded up for going against the right or left purity models and interred in re-education camps?
The nuns did not spare us from the horrors they witnessed or the history of the Holocaust. Looking back, I realize they wanted to educate us about the past horrors through their personal experiences. They were witnesses of the Holocaust. Later, in college, I learned about the atrocities the Japanese committed during WWII. History is full of horrors going back to ancient times. War itself is horror, no matter how glorious or heroic we deem it to be.
We, as a society, have a duty and obligation to stop any group, right, left, or any other political ideology from banning books. If we do not, history will keep repeating itself.
Here are the minutes from the McMinn County School Board meeting.