GBHS Anti-Censorship

Early October 2022, a group of parents released an inflammatory spreadsheet containing commentary on every supplemental material in the English curriculum— and an indication whether it should be banned. In this initial document, there was an overarching implication that our highly qualified teachers were unfit to choose curriculum. More egregious, the notion that our teachers are vying to indoctrinate students.Due to student and parent advocacy, all supplemental materials for the GBHS English curriculum were approved by the Site Council on 10/12/22, despite opposition by some parents.This reactionary effort to prevent works by marginalized authors in our English curriculum continues, as it does nationwide. It is essential that we, as students, engage critically with disputed literature, and assert our confidence in our educator's ability to choose appropriate materials.

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censorship is bad

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Today's Challenged Work - 1/14/23

Nikki Rosa
BY NIKKI GIOVANNIchildhood remembrances are always a drag
if you’re Black
you always remember things like living in Woodlawn
with no inside toilet
and if you become famous or something
they never talk about how happy you were to have
your mother
all to yourself and
how good the water felt when you got your bath
from one of those
big tubs that folk in chicago barbecue in
and somehow when you talk about home
it never gets across how much you
understood their feelings
as the whole family attended meetings about Hollydale
and even though you remember
your biographers never understand
your father’s pain as he sells his stock
and another dream goes
And though you’re poor it isn’t poverty that
concerns you
and though they fought a lot
it isn’t your father’s drinking that makes any difference
but only that everybody is together and you
and your sister have happy birthdays and very good
Christmases
and I really hope no white person ever has cause
to write about me
because they never understand
Black love is Black wealth and they’ll
probably talk about my hard childhood
and never understand that
all the while I was quite happyBanning Rationale:"The poem explores the speaker's memories of growing up in a predominantly Black suburb of Cincinnati,
taking care to emphasize happy moments with family and the strong sense of community that the speaker felt.
"childhood remembrances are always a drag if you’re Black you always remember things like living in Woodlawn with no inside toilet" & "and I really hope no white person ever has cause
to write about me" This feels divisive. I feel as if African Americans can talk about loving their community without the divisiveness."

This poem isn't just about loving her community, it's about how white people fundamentally misunderstand her view on her community. Giovanni maintains that she was happy despite the hardships in her childhood, but the wealthier white establishment, the people who will be writing her biographies, don't understand how she could be happy in spite of her poverty.Is this poem divisive, or is it meant to evoke empathy? Is it meant to enflame tensions, or to illustrate an oft-misunderstood period in the authors life?

Today's Challenged Work - 1/12/23

Holy Sonnet 10
BY JOHN DONNE (1571-1631)Death, be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadful, for thou are not so;
For those whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow
Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me.
From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be,
Much pleasure; then from thee much more must flow,
And soonest our best men with thee do go,
Rest of their bones, and soul's delivery.
Thou'art slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men,
And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell,
And poppy'or charms can make us sleep as well
And better than thy stroke; why swell'st thou then?
One short sleep past, we wake eternally,
And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die.Banning Rationale: T/W - "A look at death through the lense of faith; as something not to be feared. Could be a problem for a suicidal teen to be reading that death is not to be fear and something greater is coming after death."

If only a single poem by John Donne could soothe the essentially human fear of death and what comes after.This minimizes and distorts the reality of teenage suicide. John Donne doesn't kill kids. Stressors and systemic issues do.Additionally, this interpretation isn't sound. Donne clearly isn't some sort of Death advocate. He's coming to terms with the inevitability of death, and reassuring himself that heaven will come afterwards. He's not unafraid of death, or he wouldn't have written 18 other masterful poems about his fears for what was coming next. Religious as he was, and he was, Donne still couldn't be certain. None of us can. And none of us will be convinced by a single poem. As well written as this poem is, Donne has not single-handedly solved fear of mortality. He was contemplating death until he died. To imply that suicidal teenagers will be put over the edge by John Donne discussing heaven is grossly minimizing what causes teenage suicide.Please contact a trusted adult if you or someone you know is at risk of suicide.