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The Huron Expositor, 1978-05-11, Page 271 THE HURON WI OSI,TQR, MAY 18, 1978 To: ote•editgt: Principal objects to county's book decision • We of "good taste", can take comfort in the decision the Executive of' the Huron County-' 'Council to lend itssupport to the banning of "dirty books" in senior•high school classes. In . such a motion to Coimeil, the , Bayfield Reeve said:."ft Was the .feeling of the ExeCtitiVe Committee there should be a return - to . good• taste in literature." Those' of us who. are disturbed over the &eft ne in all the Arts - , have now' found the-champion we need. Thel'e are far too feW today who have a..• familiarity with. and . understanding' of,' literature-'-sufficient to qualify them for the right to determine what others should read. ThiS• is most appropriately illustrated in the deep insight displayed in the Deputy-Reeve's• onseryatiori. It is: difficult to • escape.. the cleverly. concealed wisdom in his. statement: "I think it's the. next thing to pereography and I can't really tell the difference," Such enlightened 'declarations emphasize the eminent qualifications of the Council and do suggest that we may not have been giving it the credit it deserves. How fortunate the residents ,of •Huree County are! Their elected Council representa- tives have not 'interpreted their misdate so narrewly as to be concerned only with political. • government and administration. matters. With remarkable insjght they have recognized that the electors voted them into office' in order 'to 'have them deal with educational • matters, honk banning, censorship and "a return to geed taste in literature." This perception', of course, makes the residents doubly fortunatd: they in turn • cant expect only good, taste in all of Cpuneil's reports and public utterances. No.seeior-high school students need fear any objectionable . material in Council's communications. We do comtnend Council for its stand: but we wonder if it has gone far enough. We would like to think that it will extend the scope 'of its concern beyond the three novels the members want banned. Although John Steinbeck has von the Nobel Price Mt literature, this is no reason not to he grossly offended by his Of Mice and Men. Such a perverse suggestion sends a shudder through all decent people. Examples of objectionable passages too numerous to mention can he found in much of the Xrld's literature; in Shakespeare. Dickens. the Greek tragedies an even as sonic have pointed out in unexpurgated versions of the Holy Bible itself', Children's classics alone arc full of much questinnable material. It's obviously not in good taste to have hundreds of you n g nubile Man. He' got himself written up in a Tampa nee spaper-a whole one page spread. He emit on radio and talked, about his old records. He s kited „Ili foils home and played the old time favourites. • He could talk with the old people. about ?mew machines too. Collecting old music boxes, jukeboxes and phonograph machines were naturals for his record collecting. "nu- needed another room in that old house to store them. • Several weeks ago I went to Florida and saw Harry once again. He's into Mustang cars ,fight now .he's collecting , Ford Mustangs- tint age I96.5 and 1906- -the first two years die company made them. "1 w ish I had a harmful of them," Harry said, "Just you wail. Ten yeas from now they'll sell like hotcakes. Mustangs are better than money in the bank." llainy has live Mustangs alread,•.*.He's buying them up and parking them on his front fawn in 'Pampa. Not. that Charlotte likes her Please find enclosed a letter te, the Huron county Council concerning the mutton Connell passed regarding certain• boob used in" the Huron secondary schools., I'd be pleased if you , Would provide space for these comments. Your sincerely, J.L.Wooden Principal South Huron District High School,Exeter Huron County Council, Gode.rich, Ontario. Gentlemen: I cannot allow your.L.mbtion concerning books used in the Huroti-Munty' Educational System to go, by Without comment. The stiggestion that pornography and .obScenity • . form part of the English curriculum in Heron COunty is simply beyond the imagination 'of any reasonable person'. The suggestion that' pornography forms part of the curriculum demonstrates a complete absence of trust in the school system and detnonstrates.a serious lack of knowledge of what goes on in the classrooms of Huron County. Most of yOu I'm sure are fair minded people and would not act. unfairly. My only -celleistSion„is that you have been grossly' misdirected by methods that are fundamentally dishonest. . • The method used by certain groups to persuade people that particular books arc • unacceptable , lifts- phrases, words, and descriptions from the context of the work in question. Having done this the. conclusion.'is then offered. that such works arc immoral or obscene. This' approach is, to say the least, -grossly unfair in-ethical terms It is -disimnest • since it distorts theWeil' in question and is totally. meaninglesS in educational terms. . Using the. same approach I. have provided ' some quotatioriS*Itom'welf known books. The . quotations arc lifted from context and could be used to argue that the work in. question is too .,..„-senseous for use in schools: The quotations ,are shown below: "he shall lie all night between my breasts" "thy two breasts are like two young roses that are twins" "my beioVed put in his hand...and,my bowels were moved for him" • ' "I opened to my beloved; but my beloved had withdraWn hiniSelf" "The joint's cirthy thighic arc like icwells „ "thy navel •is like a round goblet" • . "my breasts are like towers*" -"and his concubine played the whore,against. • him" "give me. a wife, that I may go in unto her" "they have committed adultery' with their neighbors wives'''. "I lay yesternight witlitny father, let us make him drink wine this night alSoand you- go in • and lie with him": say the -least-these arc quite sensuons comments.'Some people might be offended. I am enclosing a letter from a coileague wItich ' does the 'same thing with Shakespeare. In other: words it should be .clear that by men My brother-in-law Harry loves to collect thins er I go to Florida n. I acquainted •'th the hott= t collectables. Collecting is seri less, you knew. It's risky. You put down your money and take your chances-your chances on what people are going to nostalgia for thirty years on down the road. The idea is to make. our choice, go out and collect a cupboardfull, and make a mint--if you live that long. Whoever would have guessed people haniker after those Mickey Mouse watehe's, superman comic books, Shirley Temple pitchers and Crown canning jars -these thirty years later? Who would imagine these arc the eollectables peple would put on their shelves and dust forever after? When I first met Harry-and that's been over fifteen years now, he was into house collecting--old house collecting, Not that he'd drag them home and put them on his front lawn. He'll buy, them, fix them up and sell -them. removing material from context warps and distorts any work beyond meaning and common sense, . TotalCreations It ought to be axiomatic that books, essays, poems or any literary. work be considered as total creations. Each piece' of work on all English cease is chosen for specific reasons., The work may be an example of a type of literature; it may - be chosen to illustrate , period in thelliStory of litera..ture; or it may' be selected because it represents some aspect of American, 'Canadian, or BritishIiterature. More. and more a piece of literature is chosen because of the social, religious, or philoso- phical issues raised. Some English courses . maybe developed around certain themes or a course may be totally devoted"to Canadian, Victorian or modern writing, Some courses may be totally classical and the works therein studied because they repreSent the lasting literattfre.of our culture. In 'addition to these kind of criteria the teachers are looking. for works that are approp'riate' for the grade level and the. intellectual level of the students involved. Book's are chosen very carefully considering all. of the concerns and factors involved. Teachers consider the' intellectual, Moral„. emotional, and aesthetic stages the students' ' developMent. Obviously, works chesen for tion 7 academic. grade 9 level students will be quite different from works studied by academically capable young adults in 'grade' 13. At South Huron the English programme includes twenty-four different, co urs es as w..ell-as three nrseS in th oaf artsre- or drama. TheFie comics provide .over 1200 student credits for pupils whose ability levels range .from the intellect-wally-handicapped--to very superior levels of ability. To put this, iq other terms the english programme provides for pupils with reading skills which range from grade, three or four to University levels. In order to provide for such a 'range the English 'Depattment selects over 125 books for use in • the tvaribus. courses. Tire • same situation applies to the ether county secondary schools. qudstion are words appropriate to the scene, to•the characters and to the development of the characters and the issues. Clearly, the words and passages serve the ahthoes purpose. It would be wrong. however, to ' conclude that such words and descriptions are dwelt upon by the teachers and it would be equally wrong 'to conclude that students -are corrupted by seeing such Worck _ or descriptions on the printed page. When one reads the works in question the words or, passages which upset some people don't leap from the page and form an impression that this is a Major aspect of the book. The reader is caught up in the total book and finds such words and passages to be quite normal and. natural in the setting. It is only when one selects phrases or descriptions from a piece of literature, se is then down in isolation on a single page, totally out of context, that they seem to be offensive, This is what, has been chine" with three books used in •'English courses, not only in Huron County but in many Ontario schools. The three books, viz., Margaret Lawrence's "The Diviners". Salinger'S "Catcher in the Rye". and Steinbeck's "Of Mice and Men", need no defence. They stand in defence of themselves. Salinger's "Catcher in the }lye" has been successfully used in high schools for 10 to 15 years with grade 11 and 12 general level students. It has been used because it speaks to 'the experiences and thoughts of young people.. It may be argued that it is not "excellence" in literature but we cannot "bring excellence too soon" or bring too much classicval lit rature too soon. In dealing with yours pee e and their education in literature we move in stages. One stage is the individual or personal stage. Some non-clas- sical, but, nevertheless; well written books are used because these books-appeal-to the high school student who has difficulty identifying with anything beyond their personal stage. This is why "Catcher in the Rye" is used. Some books deal with issues that young -Oe-OP-leAr_e_ready...M.grapple wish_scrthaossuos are raised by Steinbeck and handled id such a way that high school siedents-can...,.deal with them.. Margaret _Lawrence's book •"The• Diviners" is used only a t the grade 13 level and only in an advaoced course taken by students with a high aptitude for the study of litera. tu're. The issues raised by Lawrence do require, a degree of maturity but yOung, bright' adults 'in secondary school are ready to .deal with these issues. The construction of this novel requires a degree of academic ability and maturity that is present, only in good grade 13 stthients thus, the book 'would not be used below this level. Not all students are ready for li terature that is classical and universal. Hence it becomes necessary to use welt written 'but, neverthe- lesS, non-classical material. It is also . important to use contemporary works dealing with contemporary issues. To sum up, two of the three books in question have been used in gehoolsfor Years. Indeed, a friend who attended a rigid and rigorous convent school used these same two books. The third book, "The Diviners': has been , used for two or three yearsliecause it is one of the best novels written in 'Canada - in recent years and because it looks at contemporary issues in the Canadian context. The motion passed by Council not only insults the Board, the Teachers and the students of Huron County but also insults three award winning and outstanding novelists, Your motion insults a world renowned Nobel prize winner in literature and a winner of the Governor, General's prize for , literature in 'Canada. -- However, I'm sure that'you did not intend to do this. As American writer Kurt Vonnegut ' says" , "We are most destructive, God knows, when' we are most mistaken about what is really going on. It is my experience that human beings invariably want to be honest. If they none the less stray ...it is possibly because they haven't understood what is really going on." I suspect that your motion was a result of not knowing what is really going on. I further suspect that if all of your members read the b-ooks: in " questloff and-considered whatil have_ said here you would reconsidera motion that. is seriously destructive, totally negative and insulting. Young pole in' the schools are ready to confrcint and discuss issues. I'm sure that some Of them would be pleased to aecompany me to meet with, you if you would care to 'discuss the .matter further. atte I apologize for. the length of this letter but the instsioun. eis serious and deserves your serious Thank you. Yours sincerely, J.L.Wooderi Principal. girls, with unwashed, feet, trying on the same - glass slipper! or to have young girls falling in love with frogs and turning them into princes! or to have a young prince taking advantage of a young girl Who has been sleeping for a hundred years! or to have a young girl living with seven dwarfs! We- think the County Couneil , should be encouraged to ban any 'literature it considers in poor taste, The Council is right of course in its underlying assumptioe that senior high school students should be protected against the realities of life. Much of reality is not good ,`enough.We wish -tic invite- • all-concerned' taste, We do not think though that hook banning is We wish to itfer our support to the Council.. citizens to join us in a crusade to burn dirty books. Two books bar-h-ques-will take place: one in.-the public square 'in Baytield and the other in the Goderich square. (It's better. te pollute •the atmosphere than the .minds` of senior high school students). County residents are asked to bring to either square, any books-. ." that might possibly be considered to bo/O f questionable taste: juries will be there; hopefully Council metrber•s Will sit on iheM; arty hooks judged not to be in ',good taste will bd consigned to the fire. The top 'prize, for the l'artrre-the-gi cates t II Wit bei unto4 will be, participation.on a county panel .which • wall - secretly screen, for ..questionabe passages, all of.the Ministry ef 8ducation s Educational T.V. programs. .On the other hand, howei7ei; anyone who submits no book deemed warthy L ef burning, will he running the risk of being banned for at least one. year from attending any meetings of Council,' We .are extending,a special invitation to the Huron-Bruce M.P.P, to attend.-Many senior high 'students havd been "shocked and offended." to read 'portions' of Hansard. Several, after listening to tapes of the "qtiestion and answer" period in the House have said about sonic 'portions': "Of all the crap they have ever heard, that has to he it, and they can tell you that if that is the sort of material that their parents had to-listen to, they would take away their radios and T.V. set s." There. is a desperate situation' in Huron County. Hopefully, citizens in and out of the, county will join us in our 'crusade to promote good taste in literature, In Huron County. there are still Dragons 'and Windmills, We salute you, Knights of the County Council. Ken Lawton Grand Bend, Ontario 106 Pines Parkway Tel. 238-8979 lae n coming up in Mustangs-nor the money that's chaining from their savings, money she's helped make, But Harry's insistent. Front yard junk yard or no. A ' Mustang is the thing to have in your future, evenif it is banked in the front yard. Ivegot to watch myself: Now that I'm back hone. I find myself eyeing every Mustang on the road. A classic car. A collector's item. A air of the future. Maybe 1 need a few. But hold on there. I tell myself, This is Canada. Rust and salt kill our cars. Mustang's may he Harry's future but is it mine? And then I h aVC • to remember something else about Harry. He's a collector. And collecting is a disease. It's fatal, More often it's collecting that counts, not what you're collecting. Collecting is more important than the collectables. For Ham it may be Mustangs today, but what's up tomorrmi? Only my next trip to Florida ill till. or4ethilV co say by Susan White Mother's day first Mother's Day on which I Having just,,,gene ..,through the could qualify as a honoree I can't help making a few ,observations.. I hope all, you mothers out there were treated. royally. One special day for us is very nice (who's going to look a gift horse in the mouth?) 'but loving kindness and appreciation from a family all year long would- be even better. Most mothers treasure a hand made gift or card and like the idea that the kids and dad arc thinking a ; bit more about what mother means on that special day. Rut it's the day to day, year in year out consideration and. respect for ,mother that really matters. 1, don't.. think there' are any mothers, and now that one I understand this better, who wouldn't appreciaite family mem- bers shating the at home work load.;.not as a favour to poor old' • overworked ma but because a family has to share responsibility and co-operate.. — The days of mother the drudge, at. everybody's beck' and call.` catering " -to • eVeryoise's-.-- , pre= ferences but her. own are over. The days of Motif& existing solely-. for her family and never con , sidering herself are drawing to a close. Mothers are no longer being made to.feel'guilty that they have other . interests as well as the family. Mothers., are.. probably accomplishing more, both..,elf the homefront. and outside it. than they ever have in history. - As far as I'm concerned, it's a great time to' be 'a mother. We have a lot of influence both inside the family and out of it. We are getting some support for the tough job of mothering lrom family and- society. Sugar. and Spice by Bill Smiley Let's skip April • plain-enjoy .• grass greening . and flowers • November. They're either the other' months have some is no-slouch i0 this. country, when certainly no bargain around here. don't know about that •-; November it comes to cruelty - but April is character. except aforesaid something to' make you look forward with . anticipation, backward with relief, 0e-to -just blooming. June is the First heat wave,... lilac scent, -mosquitoes, glory, hot dog's, swimming. "April is the cruellest month." I. and summer just ahead. July and camping, • bas sball, trips, August are sumer in all its Poet. r T... S. _Eliot. ,once It'S a sort' of -zilch- month. All May is wig. and fishing and • back laWn: This year I watched ' the front' lawn, where some • days of • Winter.-- The home--_... • all m anner of junk on front and ...wThielt showed up. int he dear dark . their yellow plastic .yvrappes on Maker's 'heart sinks. plain embarrassed • as the snow picked • tip 'by tlmt sane monster over the place, each solidly frozen with the garbage ,in February, hurled into three-pound lumps all. imperceptibly • melts , revealing during a blizzars,, chewed up and with 4 growing dismay, the into the ice, salt and sand. surfacing of four daily papers, in turkey kid had thrown them'when said area. Male homeowners are just. A stackof newspapers. put out was four feet of snow on • summer theatre, family reunions,' A also a tough month on teachers. If the sun is shining,' cottaging. September is a glorious month, however feebly, students gasp 'usually. Warm, enough, wildly, pretend they're dying of everybody getting back into the heat, throw all the ' classroom groove, new schoolmates, new windows wide to the 40 degree interests, new friends, new follies breeze that spells bronchial , pneumonia to the less hotblooded pedant, to commit oneself to. October is great; sharp • air, . fresh produc. golden sun, For university students about football, magnificent foliage, to graduate, April is hellish. Final Thanksgiving weekend. exams loom like the Furies of old, Let's skip, ruddy November. and all the procrastination begins ' But December is exciting with. to catch up. And these days, 90 per cent of them are quite Fresh snow, Christmas with all its convinced they w'on't get. a job, on ramifications, holidays coining up, families getting together. graduation. January and February are This year, April was worse than usual, with,, thousand windbags bnital -but challenging.. We're expelling their contents into the right into the curling and skiing. the daily 'battle to stay alive, and air about an upcoming election. Suddenly, all sorts :of people who the knowledge that. once we're couldn't care less wh eth er you got -over the hump, about Feb. 20, the ingrown toenails or fell into a worsts lies behind. cess--pout.' began showing great Ev-en -totten 'Mara has ITS friendliness and sincerity, a compensations: Easter, worst of genuine concern about your point the winter is over. Match break. of view and how you would vote. and only one or two more And I think the month of April snowstorms to survive. is pretty well brought to its climax Then comes ruddy April. by the income tax return. due on There's nothing to do out of the last day of that miserable. doors. Curling and skiing are month. I always feel 'that I've finished, and it's too early to golf been beaten. raped. and left' and fishing. Nothing to do outside except catch a cold in that frigid naked by the side of the road, wind blowing off the ice in the when that ordeal is over. bay, It doesn't cheer me up Much to look around and see all the people It's a dirty• month. There's salt and sand and mud on the streets, diddling :the unemployment to be tracked into the house. It's a insurance, all the for nt et pain in the aim for housewives. students, now fairly affluent, who That .lousy yellow. sun peers never paid back their student loans. insolently through the windows. illet!iinating dirty panes, Smeared Looking back. all I can say is wallpaper, spots on the rug, that April is Awt'ttl. Thank stains on the chairs, and well- `tr ttndne's for May. Nat to mention fingered woodwork, noise of Pearly, Rein,. and Mabel. Isn't it the-dety„.c#4hts:eltassroom ..r'itise .the__ standards 'Of the students? Lift them ups nof drag them . down? There should be no question of whether or • not . this „book is suitable • literature fot elasreom study. It' an apple is rotten clean through, it is tossed into.the garbage. In the • .same way a rotten book should •be tossed into the garbage. If it hook is even .doubtful in value, there is no need to study it, with so much fine and uplifting literature at hand. A School Board that would permit seeh a , book as, "The Diviners" in the classroom. .should be dismissed and replaced by sers:Tble , decent members, the same way as a teacher ' .with an unsatisfa etdry Character is dismissed: • In My estimatien, it . is,. not even a well-written. book - poorly m•ganized. When this -controversy began. I first read a feWlincs..saying it made me feel sick and that I could not bear to read it. But then I said• that would force myself to skim it. just to sec .)1. there is anything to recommend it for study. I found nothing, absolutely nothing. • A reaction Clearly, then, it is not surprising that two or three books might produce a reaction from some people who may find some of the language or descriptions offensive. But the author has chosen that language or those descriptions for a purpose. 'The purpose is hot to titillate or be offensive or obscene. the author,has produced a work which must be judged-in it, totality-The vi ot cis-orpassages in Reader objects.to The Diviners _.17.eac Ina s are trained_ to skim every book that enters the Library and to be very selective and careful about what is placed ons,the shelves so as to develop the young minds in the cleanest and purest and most intelligent way possible. believe all Childroe arc born -With a..-high sense of right and wrong and they are disappointed when older people do not live up .• tp their ideals. •- NOTE —1 realize that we are not dealing • with children but rather teen-agers, who may_ I'M \Any wise and grown-up, However many, probably most of them, 'will still retain the bight sense of decency with which they were ..horn.' I discussed this with so ne teachers, when I was in Winnipeg last Nyee . One teacher said that she was very lib•era io het' views -and thougheeveryone should be allowed to choose for themselves but she said. "This is very differene-ft is forcing them to read the book and not . only to read it but to study it." Jessie Barnard R.R.#4, Seaforth We welcome signed letters to the editor Expositor Asks is on page 20 this week by Kali Schues-ife my thing was his e got tire s . •ag..,,p, 0 r . ng I I ; She had .enough of paint brush and tile 'cement. One day Chailotte said to him. "Harry. this is it, No more. I've painted the last wall in the last, old house of yours." That put an end to Harry's house dollecting. The next time I saw Harry he'd traded in . houses for record collecting. Not those long playing 33 and a but 'those speedy 45's and 78's-these scratchy and squeaky old timers that sing themeh es. out of wind-up Victrola music .boxeS. Harry checked out every junk store in the country.- He visited every, , Goodwill alit! Salvation Army store in the territory. He advertised in newspapers and he looked in every velative's attic. He got enough records* to fill up a roomful. He owned so many records he had to Clear out two rooms of one of his fixed-up hdtriets,--so-he ebuld set up his record display.' He catalogued, inventoried and stacked records.. ' Hart's' tl himself the name . Record Will book burnings in Goderich squire be next? reader asks Harry the great collector I- Psychologists and medical ex- perts are discovering what some wise women always knew; the good mothering of (eveti if it's done by father) children iserucial to their future. A poll by 'a national magazine discovered that more than three quarters of Canadians' feel eloSe to their mothers, ,visit them often and in many cases would have mother come and live with them if she were alone. The magazine was a bit sur- prised by the poll results. We don't talk much about our mothers. Few famous people give ma credit or mention in inter- views. Gossip columns talk about divorce or scandal, not mother- hood. But .we say about our mothers and our relationship with them is tremendously revealing. Maybe' it's rooted in the actual physical process of giving birth. WhAever the ati,5e. for most of us our mother is absolutely crucial to who weare. Have a. chat with' your. mother abciiit 'her mother .so.ined4„...1t.ean give. you_a real sense of sharing something important. It's a bit of post-mother's day licence really.'Now that I'm one, I want to make sure mothers and motherhood are not taken lightly. But we aren't are we? • *•.** * My daughter Gabrielle can't read all the Mother's Day ads yet but she did manage tes.get me .a Mother's Day gift, She 'went over her dad'S 'head and sent -her grandfather shopping. Grandpa .White came , up with a box of • chocolates Sunday for three mothers--his, his sons' and hiS granddaughter-'s---a very thoughtful thing to'do.