Last week, Nashville school board member Amy Frogge wrote about her misgivings about Nashville Prep, a charter school with high test scores. She criticized its harsh discipline and its use of a book that contained words and situations that most people would consider inappropriate for children in seventh grade. Her article was called: WARNING! THE CONTENT OF THIS POST IS NOT APPROPRIATE FOR CHILDREN!
Many comments responded to her article. This one came from a teacher in England:
“If a teacher did this in the UK, they would be sacked. No Union could support the use of such a book with 12 year-old children. The planning trail for the use of this book should be scrutinised and the person, or persons responsible, must be held to account – it is a form of child abuse and would be totally unacceptable throughout the United Kingdom. As a Foster Carer, I am amazed to read this. As a teacher, I am disgusted that it is a required text in a US Charter School. As an individual, it is a sign of how awful Education is becoming in the USA, the supposed leader of the free world. The Discipline strategies described here would see you charged with assault in the United Kingdom. What I have read beggars belief.
“Something is seriously wrong.”
“Oliver Kingsley,
Vice President,
Liverpool Division of the National Union of Teachers, United Kingdom”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Awesome reply. Gee maybe we aren’t as good as they try to make us think and maybe the UK is not as bad as they try to make us think.
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Wise words from the Mother Country.
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Doesn’t everyone know that even Deasy would have anyone teaching this material in seventh grade being investigated from birth on in LAUSD.
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Good point.
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Chicago tried to ban Persepolis. What about this book, City of Thieves? There is a line where the graphic sexual nature is just there for entertainment, like a Harlequin novel for men, but that is usually the line at what gets banned from schools.
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Seriously, why have child abuse charges not been filed? The discipline conditions are an atrocity straight out of the dark ages.
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This is a sadistic school, and any parent who leaves their child there needs to have her head examined! I would take my child out; and if I couldn’t get my child changed to another school, I’d homeschool. I would the go to The Tennessean newspaper and as many TV stations as I could. I would retain a lawyer to get my child into another school and to look into criminal or legal charges. I can believe this school has not been shut down.
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The Tennessean publishes many pro-charter articles. There is clearly money involved. For every pro-public school, pro- teacher union article/editorial posted, there are 3 pro-charter articles posted. This leads me to believe that The Tennessean has a financial interest in promoting charters. There are some very rich folks in Nashville who support charters. These same folks profit from charters. Some (gasp) are related to the mayor.
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Believe me if I could remove my child from this school I would have done it alresdy. However, there are circumstances that make me not be able to just pull my child out, something I will not speak of publically. I won’t let this go away. I was raised to stand up even if there are thousands against you. I portraying David in this and the school is portraying Goliath. Just remember who won that battle!
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No Union could support the use of such a book with 12 year-old children. The planning trail for the use of this book should be scrutinised and the person, or persons responsible, must be held to account – it is a form of child abuse and would be totally unacceptable throughout the United Kingdom.
Hmmm . . . The operative phrase here is, “No union.”
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It’s not child abuse. It’s a great book for adults that was NOT the best choice for a class novel. That said, I have it in my middle school library, and some of my students enjoy reading adult books, such as City of Thieves, The Things They Carried, Unbroken, and currently, The Martian by Andy Weir. We need to be careful about getting on the book banning band wagon.
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Steven, it is one thing to make books available to students and another thing to require them. Students may be able to read adult books, but in middle school, they are not really ready for them. Let them read books that are appropriate for them developmentally. I have both taught and raised middle schoolers. They are not ready for adult literature. By the way, I have survived an attempted book banning. Why should a middle schooler read about the experiences of a Vietnam soldier? Better to wait until they are 17-18 years old.
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As you said, making the books available is one thing, but to assign a book that sounds like a serious, mature look at difficult subject is another thing altogether. I don’t think that 12 year old students on the whole are going to be ready emotionally to really appreciate and learn from this book.
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I think it’s the choice for the child and the parent to make. Some middle school children are ready to read adult books and should be offered access. Children at this age are often very interested in tough subjects, such as Vietnam, the Holocaust, racism and Jim Crow, Hiroshima, etc. We need to respect them.
That said, in this case, for a class assignment, in public schools teachers will always offer an optional book if the parents object. I also can’t believe this school violated copyright by photocopying it! Still, don’t underestimate middle school children.
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If a parent wishes their child to read this book or any other book that is not my business, however forcing the book City of Thieves to be read aloud in class with no other option is not right. I was informed my child parcipates or get a zero. I never said ban the book. They could have easily given another option, but they refused. Ravi Gupta from the school who is the one that stated I wanted the book banned and censored, yet he illegally copied the book committing copyright infringement and his school.censored it. Like I said other opt I ns should have been presented that were more age appropriate. I think his Yale law degree failed him.
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I would pause before staking out the position that assigning inappropriate reading to 7th graders is child abuse.
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