Black Hawk Down book banned from US school

[CougarKing]

Associated Press, October 18, 2008:

Raceland, LA — "Black Hawk Down", a book about a failed U.S. Special Forces mission, was banned by Central LaFourche High School after a parent complained about the author’s use of profanity.

Jared Foreman, an English teacher at the school, had assigned the book to his 10th grade students.

The book, by Mark Bowden, was pulled from the classroom Oct. 3 — the 15th anniversary of the book’s events and the end of the 27th annual Banned Book Week.

Foreman says profanity in the book is used sparsely and is not easily found in the text.

Education officials say pulling the book lines up with a school policy on cursing.

As if 14 year olds (approximate average age of a US 10th grader) haven't heard anyone curse before?

 

[dangerboy]

It is pretty sad as a 14 year old can watch a PG-13 movie which has swearing in it but can not read a book with minimal swearing in it.

 

[JimMorrison19]

Yeah haha, censorship for the epic loss!

I wonder how many times any of these kids have watched Anchorman with the commentary...?

 

[axeman]

I've wondered about their flaunted freedome of speech and expresion as long as you dont offend me attitude.  I wonder if someone will pull a freedom of speech bill and tried to enforce it at the school .

 

[MarkS33]

This is outright sad and pathetic. It was an amazing book, and the movie was just as good. If everything is in complyance, then why remove it? That makes no sence!! People should know about this kind of stuff and what happened. Failure happens. And we learn the best lessons from failure.

I sure hope people bring up a freedom of speech bill with this. I find it absurd that people can not even read of thier own history because of a little prophanity!!

 

[OldSolduer]

The profanity issue sounds like a good excuse to pull the book on other grounds.

 

[ex-Sup]

Do you have any idea what I hear on a daily basis in the hallway? I don't even bother most of the time (unless it's something really inappropriate)...it's a unwinnable battle. I try to tell them that it becomes part of their vocabulary and they do it without even noticing (which they do).
Anyway, it boils down to one parent's issue. I think know that 14/15 year olds are mature enough to handle some profanity. Burying your head in the sand and trying to stop everything isn't the solution. Teaching your kids what is appropriate and what isn't is the answer.
BTW, I'm sure this kid probably swears just as much as the rest.
**Editted for spelling

 

[Greymatters]

There are many classic novels out there that have a fair level of foul language, not to mention sex, racism, violence, war and immoral practices:  Oedipus, Macbeth, To Kill a Mockingbird, Of Mice and Men, All Quiet on the Western Front, Lord of the Flies...

Sounds to me more like an excuse for academics to get a 'military' novel off the reading list...

 

[Jed]

I wonder if this same school pulled well known non military books like "Catcher in the Rye" that had risky issues and I believe foul language in it?

 

[BernDawg]

Yup Catcher in the Rye has the F word in it twice.  It was on my High School reading list but nearly wasn't.

 

[Armymedic]

This is the southern US. Nothing that comes out of that region IRT education surprises me. There are counties in the SE US whom still teach intelligent design and prohibit the teaching of evolution in science class because the evolution theory contradicts the bible.

 

[vonGarvin]

Times change, but books will always face obscure scrutiny for a variety of reasons.  Consider "Huck Finn".  It was originally scrutinised because the boys had the gall to talk back and be layabouts.  Now it is scrutinised for very different reasons:

What do dey stan’ for?  I’s gwyne to tell you.  When I got all wore out wid work, en wid de callin’ for you, en went to sleep, my heart wuz mos’ broke bekase you wuz los, en I didn’ k’yer no mo what become er me en de raf’.  En when I wake up en fine you back agin’, all safe en soun’, de tears come en I could a got down on my knees en kiss you’ foot I’s so thankful. En all you wuz thinking ‘bout wuz how you could make a fool uv ole Jim wid a lie.

That's right, the "R" word (racism)

No surprise if a school "forbids" a book because of profanity.

 

[vonGarvin]

This is the southern US. Nothing that comes out of that region IRT education surprises me. There are counties in the SE US whom still teach intelligent design and prohibit the teaching of evolution in science class because the evolution theory contradicts the bible.

Oh my, where to begin?  Shall I first criticise your grouping of the Southern US as a group of illiterates?  Or shall I criticise your apparent fear of Christians?  Or shall I just stick to your blatant mis-use of the word "whom".  First of all, "whom" refers to people, not things (such as counties).  Second, the grammatical case is nominative, which means you should have at least written "who".

Let us not forget that it was once a scientific opinion that the earth revolved around the sun and also that it was physically impossible for bumblebees to fly. 

Actually, I think I'll stick to criticising your criticism of the southeastern US.

 

[KingKikapu]

Epic fail.

 

[brihard]

Oh my, where to begin?  Shall I first criticise your grouping of the Southern US as a group of illiterates?  Or shall I criticise your apparent fear of Christians?  Or shall I just stick to your blatant mis-use of the word "whom".  First of all, "whom" refers to people, not things (such as counties).  Second, the grammatical case is nominative, which means you should have at least written "who".

Let us not forget that it was once a scientific opinion that the earth revolved around the sun and also that it was physically impossible for bumblebees to fly. 

Actually, I think I'll stick to criticising your criticism of the southeastern US.

Are you seriously trying to draw a comparison between geocentrism and the theory of evolution in terms of scientific validity?

Science is a couple of centuries advanced since the universe traveled around the earth, and evolutionary theory is greatly advanced since the work of Darwin. Soemthing that has not been disproven after all the scrutiny that it's been subject to generally has at least some merit to it.

Prairie Dog correctly points out that the Southern U.S. is more prone than most other regions to have traditional social/religious values and mores inflicted on educational curriculums to the detriment of the curriculums in question. Yes, it was a generalization, but it was not an entirely unfair one.

 

[cameron]

The profanity issue sounds like a good excuse to pull the book on other grounds.

My thoughts exactly.

 

[OldSolduer]

I'm sometimes shocked at the level of naivety in some areas of society. I can't beleive that some of our so called "enlightened" folks (teachersm, politicians, judges etc) seem to subscribe to the theory that there are "No bad people" . I'm off topic here, sorry.
Where are the civil libertarians? What has the ACLU said about this? I can imagine the hue and cry from the ACLU if one of Germaine Greer's books were pulled.
Am I on track here?