Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise: Which having no guide, overseer, or ruler, Provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest. ~Proverbs 6:6-8
To clarify for those that may be confused, there was an actual vote on Tuesday night regarding whether or not to remove the book Beloved from the GPS secondary book list. Many parents sent emails to the board the last year and a half regarding the book complaining of pornographic references, bestiality, gang rape and the gruesome murder of an infant. The vote went 3-2 against removing it. Daryl Colvin and I voted for removal; Julie Smith, Jill Humpherys and Lily Tram voted against removing the book from the list.
In response to the allegations of Julie Smith; At no time did I mention getting rid of AP courses and the meeting is online for anyone to view. I did reference that testing drives curriculum choices after the Superintendent said it was on the AP test. I said this is one of the main reasons so many oppose common core. They already understand that the uniform standardized testing will drive curriculum choices as seen with the book Beloved. Other districts have grappled with this issue and have voted to remove Beloved. Below are some examples;
From this article, "According to the American Library Association Beloved is challenged so often that it ranks in at number 7 on the top 100 most-challenged classics of all time. It comes in at number 45 for the years 1990-99, and at number 26 for 2000-2009." http://bannedbooks.world.edu/2012/01/22/banned-books-awareness-beloved/
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