Some Florida Schools Are Removing All Books

[Garret]

https://www.newyorker.com/news/lette...heir-libraries

The title should be (but may not show as): "Some Florida Schools Are Removing All Books"

I am not comfortable posting the whole article, as it's (obviously) copyrighted, but a quote:

In late January, at Greenland Pines Elementary, kids attended a party for an annual event called Celebrate Literacy Week, Florida! There was an escape room and food trucks. Brian Covey, an entrepreneur in his late thirties, came to pick up his daughter, who’s in second grade, and his son, who’s in fifth. His kids looked confused. “Did you hear what happened at school today?” his daughter asked. “They took all the books out of the classrooms.” Covey asked which books. “All the books,” she said. Covey’s son had been reading “Measuring Up,” a coming-of-age story about an immigrant to the United States from Taiwan. Students who read from a list of pre-selected books, including this one, were rewarded with an ice-cream party. “They even took that book,” Covey said.

Covey went into the school classrooms to see what his children were talking about and found bookshelves papered over to hide the books. (He also went to another local school and later uploaded a video to Twitter showing that its shelves were bare.) “This has never been an issue before,” Covey told me, noting that he’d grown up in the same public-school system, in Duval County, which includes Jacksonville. “But I read books about the consequences of this kind of thing when I was in school.” He was thinking of “Fahrenheit 451” and “1984,” he said. His kids, he added, seemed confused about what would make a book inappropriate for school. “The only way I could get them to understand was to ask what happens if a book in the library or classroom had the F-word in it a bunch of times,” he told me. “My son said, ‘We’d bring it to the teacher or the librarian.’ ” Covey couldn’t think of any books at their library that he would keep from them. (Communications officials for the public schools in Duval County insisted that some approved books remained available to students, including those on the list that Covey’s son was reading from.)

Much more in the link, but you have to have a subscription to read it.

[dutchpp]

I'm sure that will improve the education of the children
Do these people know that someone tried this already in 1933 in Berlin, Germany.
It wasn't very successful.

[Paul Pless]

jesus

[CWSmith]

That's insanity. Time to move. If they like skiing, tell them to come to New Hampshire. I can recommend a great many very good public schools.

[hawkeye54]

Are the 'Little Free Libraries' still in existence in Florida ? Can the kids read books without local government supervision ?

[Dave Gray]

First step: constant propaganda
Second step: remove all sources of critical thinking

[Nicholas Carey]

Do you remember Canada's "Freedumb Convoy", with all the truckers clogging the streets of Ottowa for a few weeks, a couple years back?

Perhaps it's time for a new Freedom Convoy, of "big free libraries", Bookmobiles, coming to save Florida's children from their elders.

[AlanMc]

this smells like the "don't say gay bill" propaganda. i'll wait til the real story comes out.

[Garret]

this smells like the "don't say gay bill" propaganda. i'll wait til the real story comes out.

And that bill was also disgusting. I realize YMMV.

[Garret]

Obviously, it's now up to parents to get their kids books to read. While parents who will are a good thing, there will be many who won't & a bunch of indoctrinated little Reps who don't know about slavery or the Holocaust, etc will grow up to be uninformed citizens.

[McMike]

No problems here, everything is fine.

[McMike]

this smells like the "don't say gay bill" propaganda. i'll wait til the real story comes out.

I think we should stop children from being indoctrinated by religion.

[hawkeye54]

jesus

Closer to 'Jesus wept', methinks ! ! ! !

[rbgarr]

Typically whoever promoted such efforts is unaware of the internet where every book you can ever want is available. And children's performance both academically and socially suffered enough during the pandemic that this only adds to the difficulty schools have regarding their readjustment.

[CWSmith]

Typically whoever promoted such efforts is unaware of the internet where every book you can ever want is available. And children's performance both academically and socially suffered enough during the pandemic that this only adds to the difficulty schools have regarding their readjustment.

I think that one of the great shames of my generation is that the internet had the potential to become the greatest repository of knowledge the world has ever seen, but instead it gives us the lies and destructive power of social media.

[David G]

I'm sure that will improve the education of the children
Do these people know that someone tried this already in 1933 in Berlin, Germany.
It wasn't very successful.

There's a meme floating around that says: Florida today is like Germany in the 1920's... but with theme parks and alligators.

[dutchpp]

There's a meme floating around that says: Florida today is like Germany in the 1920's... but with theme parks and alligators.

Yes, I just realized that 90 years later the German people are still affected by the stupid things the Nazi regime did ( see for instance the instinctive hesitance to supply arms to Ukraine).
I do hope that the sane part of the US population finds a way to ban people like this from public influence, to prevent this long term effect.

[elf]

Typically whoever promoted such efforts is unaware of the internet where every book you can ever want is available. And children's performance both academically and socially suffered enough during the pandemic that this only adds to the difficulty schools have regarding their readjustment.

You don't know you want a book until someone plants the need for the information in it in your purview.

Every book in the world may be available but 90% of the people whose world would be enriched by the content of a few of them aren't looking.

It's like Fox News. It looks, walks, talks and quacks like the News, and so it meets the need and there's no reason to look further.

[Garret]

For sure books are available on the internet. What if the kids don't have internet at home? What if the parents never read & therefore don't encourage the kids to? How many kids have been encouraged by a teacher & then went on to do good/great things? How can teachers teach without books?

[Brian Palmer]

this smells like the "don't say gay bill" propaganda. i'll wait til the real story comes out.

What more do you need?

https://www.google.com/search?q=flor...&ie=UTF-8#ip=1

[David W Pratt]

No books, no need to read. Think of the saving to the education budget if they don't have to teach reading anymore.

[hawkeye54]

They had already ditched 'cursive' from the curriculum, naturally 'reading' was not far behind ! ! !

[birlinn]

Surely they will not remove Trump's "The art of the Steal, sorry, Deal"?

[John Smith]

Seems some see books as more of a danger than guns. Heaven forbid some youngster might read about Huck Finn or Tom Sawyer. but guns are no problem.

For those who claim to believe in freedom of speech, banning books is banning speech. Either they don't realize this, or they just want to ban speech but not admit it.

[LeeG]

What more do you need?

https://www.google.com/search?q=flor...&ie=UTF-8#ip=1

He needs Tucker Carlson to point the way.

[John Smith]

Wonder if "Moby Dick" has been banned? Does the color of the whale matter? If it were a black whale might it be more likely to be banned?

[dutchpp]

A serious question, do children have constitutional rights?

[Ted Hoppe]

Do the parents of the school and community of Duval county have any blame in this? This is a classic case of disconnected boards and lazy a$$ community.

Bubble heads are elected when few else gives a flying f. Considering how many retired school teachers there are there - none ran for office... Being a good teacher means you are never done teaching.; it is in fact a calling not just a profession.

[John Smith]

Do the parents of the school and community of Duval county have any blame in this? This is a classic case of disconnected boards and lazy a$$ community.

Bubble heads are elected when few else gives a flying f. Considering how many retired school teachers there are there - none ran for office... Being a good teacher means you are never done teaching.; it is in fact a calling not just a profession.

Yes, but: those teachers might be putting their lives at risk in this climate.

[Jim Bow]

The books were removed or covered out of the fear of DeSantis. His coven passed a law that all school books must be “vetted” before being presented to the students. School districts are existing in fear of being censured or losing finance. Supposedly, a professional of some sort will “vet” each of the thousands of books in a school. A single complaint from one parent can have a book removed.

[Ted Hoppe]

Yes, but: those teachers might be putting their lives at risk in this climate.

So what. If we can not stand up for our beliefs - we are nothing. Being scared is fine, being afraid of your community is a comment of where you live and the choices you make. The quest for being enlightened and enlightening others is the responsibility of those who have be so fortunate to have received and used their shared knowledge. It is the debt we pay forward for what we were gifted by others so hard earned.

[AlanMc]

what are we saying here?.... should there be no restrictions on books in school libraries? should no one be approving what kids read?

[Garret]

what are we saying here?.... should there be no restrictions on books in school libraries? should no one be approving what kids read?

Gosh - ya think someone might've already done that? Problem is they might say something about slavery or racism & traumatize poor little Johnny White Boy. Better that he never learns about either according to Desantis & the other evil-doers.

[AlanMc]

i'm guessing all of you highly opinionated people haven't read any of these books people are complaining about.

[CWSmith]

Gosh - ya think someone might've already done that? Problem is they might say something about slavery or racism & traumatize poor little Johnny White Boy. Better that he never learns about either according to Desantis & the other evil-doers.

DeSantis removes the books and then there is one less LOUD voice to correct his misinformation. He is silencing the voices that will correct him.