Tuesday, June 5, 2007

OMG, I HAVE to rant about this

This will not be good, so if you are looking for an upbeat post.... keep going down the page and ignore this entire entry lol. Let me just put this out there for all of you who do not know about the Florida School Board and their idiocies. This was an article I found tonight regarding their newest "How stupid can we look" adventures of the Florida School Board. I will paraphrase but you can find the entire link to this story HERE:

This article was written my Laura Wides-Munoz an Associated Press Writer. Let me just say that while the story was written intelligently she did leave out the fact that the book they are discussing is geared toward children ages 4-8. Keep that in mind as you read this. (I had to Google the book to find out what age group this book was intended for)

MIAMI - A children's book about life in Cuba has parents and school board members demanding its removal from district libraries even though it only features wholesome topics. To many in this heavily Cuban-American community, "Vamos a Cuba" ("A Visit to Cuba") is extremely offensive because it lacks any criticism of the country's dictator Fidel Castro or his communist government.

That's why the Miami-Dade County School District will ask a federal appeals court Wednesday for permission to remove all 49 copies of the book from its libraries.

Board members voted last year to remove it after a parent who spent time as political prisoner in Cuba complained that the book failed to accurately depict life there. A federal judge later ruled that the board's opposition to the book was political and that it should add books of different perspectives to its collections instead of removing the offending titles
.


OK now, can you see where my problem lies? Just in case you don't I will explain it to you. They are complaining because the book does not tell 4-8 year olds about the murders and horrible living in Cuba. They do not detail the horrible circumstances in which some people are made to live (most of the people there) OK DO WE TELL our children the truth about Columbus? Do we tell them that Columbus was a murdering madman who rapped women? Better yet when we depict the "Founding" of America do we tell them what we did to the Indian Tribes? When they do find out about Indians scalping people, do we explain TO OUR 4 - 8 YEAR OLDS that it was the FRENCH and the BRITISH who taught them how to scalp people and that it was required as proof that they had killed the people the French and the British sent them to kill in the first place? Do we explain the syphilis or the small pox or that we were the ones who gave them "Firewater"?? No, I don't think so. These children are 4 - 8 years old. They don't need to know about all of this. At these ages they should be enjoying the wonder of far off places, there will be time enough for the true horrors later. Now were this a book geared toward High School students I would say that some of the sugar coating should have already been removed. Chidlren should not have to wait to get to College to know the truth regarding history - especially since so many don't get that far. I could very well go on and on, but I think you get my drift.

Sigh, Alex is chuckling at me because I just couldn't put off ranting about this and he has put in Night at the Museum which really makes me laugh. Think he is trying to calm me down? LOL Have a good one!

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