Teacher in trouble for reading Ender's Game - Page 6
Forum Index > General Forum |
FeUerFlieGe
United States1193 Posts
| ||
MrMotionPicture
United States4327 Posts
| ||
DreamChaser
1649 Posts
| ||
Fortis-Et-Fidus
United States119 Posts
| ||
Golgotha
Korea (South)8418 Posts
| ||
blade55555
United States17423 Posts
On March 16 2012 08:49 AnachronisticAnarchy wrote: What kind of wussy-ass 14 year old whines about this? Worse yet, what helicopter parent wants to deprive (yes, deprive) their kid of an excellent book like this? lol my thoughts exactly... Man just dumb -_-. | ||
TheWestWind
Canada87 Posts
On March 16 2012 08:57 qqK wrote: That's exactly why it's a good book to be read in school, as the teacher can discuss the element of violence with his class. I read "Fabian" by Erich Kästner in school. The protagonist sure shouldnt be a role model for anyone, yet he is something worthy to discuss for students. Oh. I suppose I just realized I hadn't weighed in on that part of the story. The idea of banning books is just prima facie ludicrous. The teacher should be able to read and discuss any book they want. I don't know if Ender's Game is good or bad from the perspective of generating discussion, but I think the reaction was unethical from the part of the school administration. | ||
SiN]
United States540 Posts
| ||
jinorazi
Korea (South)4948 Posts
educate, not neglect knowledge. shit like "philosophy? they're only children!" pisses the fack out of me. | ||
Krowser
Canada788 Posts
In 12th grade we had to read bullshit Quebecquer historical novels like Bonheur d'occasion (The boring story of a poor family that never catches a break) and ''Une journée dans la vie d'Emmanuel.'' That book is about the fucked up story of a family who's children have sex with each other to keep warm during the cold Canadian winters. What the fuck!? I thought so! And I had to write an essay on it too. | ||
UndoneJin
United States438 Posts
| ||
red_b
United States1267 Posts
the comments on the story are hilarious, btw. | ||
Endymion
United States3701 Posts
On March 16 2012 08:41 TheWestWind wrote: Sorry my friends, but if you read this book in your early or mid adolescence, your critical capacity to understand the kind of violence porn that it really is was not fully functional, especially if you are identifying strongly with Ender. Which is the way the character was designed after all. Did you know Ender's Game is required reading for US Marine Corps and Officers, as an exercise in how to justify violence? Additionally, OSC has many personal views that many on this forum would find disgusting, including advocating the use of violence against consenting homosexual adults and denying evolution and climate change. Not to be surprised though, nerds love their Ender's Game. starship troopers is also required reading (at least for US military academies, idk about the marines), and it has a staunch anti-war message.. Idk how you see ender's game trying to justify violence, it vilifies the military bureaucracy for what they do to Ender. If anything it's also an anti-war novel imo (although it's really far-fetched in nearly every single aspect, so it's not a stable anti-war novel or stable pro-violence novel..) | ||
Lexpar
1813 Posts
On March 16 2012 07:19 Monsen wrote: Congratulations america. User was warned for this post Well spoken Chancellor. On topic: enders game is one of the most kid friendly and exciting sci-fi novels out there. It's so incredibly tame: imagine if that teacher had read them a "classic" (more pornography than anything) like Huckleberry Fin or The Great Gatsby. They'd ship that teacher of to Gitmo for poisoning the youth. | ||
lubu42
United States314 Posts
| ||
NationInArms
United States1553 Posts
According to commonsensemedia.org, which claims it is has in-house staff and a team of reviewers who are experts in children's media, technology, health and policy matters, "this book was not originally intended for children. The violence is, at times, quite brutal, as kids kill other kids, though unintentionally, and the main character is admired for his ruthlessly efficient violence, though he himself is disturbed by it." The website also advises parents to be aware of violence, sex and language, but states that the content is appropriate for children 12 years or older. The student who gave a statement to the school is 14. | ||
Thereisnosaurus
Australia1822 Posts
Did you know Ender's Game is required reading for US Marine Corps and Officers, as an exercise in how to justify violence? Additionally, OSC has many personal views that many on this forum would find disgusting, including advocating the use of violence against consenting homosexual adults and denying evolution and climate change. EG is required reading because it at once demonstrates how far military training and indoctrination can go, and the consequences of that (the ending of ender's game is that he goes further than anyone wanted or anticipated. If you train a perfect weapon it will do a lot more than you bargained for) I'm pretty sure that's why the book is required reading, not to find ways of justifying violence, the army never needs that, but to caution officers about trying to go too far in the course of duty. The whole point of ender's game was that all the justifications of the military were ultimately false. Inevitable and necessary by their perspective, but wrong. The three sequels are entirely wrapped up in the consequences of that faulty justification and narrow perspective, even to the point where the conclusion to the quartet treats a character embodying that justification as childish and the main cast pretty much take his toys away from him and send him to the corner. I don't think you can get any clearer than that in the 'thou shalt not commit genocide lightly' department. OSC's more extreme personal views were a) formed sometime after he wrote the 3 enders books and b) are of no consequence because while his books do contain a lot of religious rhetoric, they also contain a lot of counter-religious rhetoric and the ultimate hero of the books is driven by a purely secular, non-judgemental code of ethics. Much of the discussion in the books is how valid such a set of morals is and ultimately it is resolved to be good. I don't think he ever goes so far as to say that Ender's code is 'better' than the catholic sparring partners he faces, but he definitely points out areas where religion fails and secular morality is more valid. He has demonstrated he is capable of understanding his personal views as *personal* and exploring beyond them, as most good scifi writers do. I'm not trying to defend his views, just that unlike some authors who use there work purely as propaganda, OSC's enderverse stuff is exploratory science fiction which gives its subject matter fair hearing. It is thus entirely suitable for people who don't share his views, and for kids (well, teens for the later books). Might I ask if you have read the books? or are you just avoiding them on the same basis that people avoid harry potter because JK Rowling doesn't acknowledge christ as her personal saviour and obviously is trying to sell witchcraft as good practice. | ||
Lexpar
1813 Posts
On March 16 2012 09:27 Thereisnosaurus wrote: my guess? the whole mess is over the 'buggers'. Kid probably comes from some incredibly homophobic houshold where bugger is in the same order as motherfucker on the pornolinguistic scale. The article mentions that the books have swearwords in them, this is the only 'swearword' in ender's game. It's also the only thing I can think of that has any sexual connotations at all, let along pornographic. No one uses the word "bugger" in America. It's associated more with bugs than sex here. | ||
Anachromy
United States194 Posts
| ||
emc
United States3088 Posts
On March 16 2012 09:26 NationInArms wrote: Ender's Game was my favorite book in Junior High School. I read both series, the one about Ender and the one about...er, Bean? The books really developed my imagination. I love this part of the article: I guess this would make sense, was the teacher at a religious school? but it says the teacher was kicked out because it was pornographic, not violent. hrm, I think the principle really overreacted here. | ||
| ||