Don't sign the permission slip to let your child take AP English if you don't want him/her reading the books!!!! Read the books yourself before taking out excerpts and claiming that the book as a whole is basically porno on paper... Lazy parents annoy the heck out of me

I like how they point out that someone has "Tea party ties" like they're part of Al Queda or some terrorist group. Get real. To the Democratic club's comment complaining about "extremist censorship", do you let you kids watch porn? No, porn is probably not the same as this book, but censorship is censorship, and sometimes it's the parents' responsibility to censor what their kids are exposed to.

Tim, parents do have the opportunity to censor what their kids read--this class is not required by any means and parents have the opportunity to opt their child out of reading texts they don't view as appropriate. Also, some of the books you list as appropriate definitely have controversial content--for example, rape in To Kill a Mockingbird and language and depiction of African Americans in Gone With the Wind (and I have to beg to differ with you on naming Gone With the Wind as a classic, it's a pretty silly story).

Not talking about changing history. And no mention of an actual history book was mentioned. Historical FICTION does not equal history.

We all grew up reading the classics. They don't make change us, they enhance the understanding of the era that the books were written in. I don't agree with the changes people want to make to Tom Sawyer nor do I agree with hiding these books.

The kids see more in the movies and that is much more blatant!

Is this a case of parents lacking trust in the judgment and ability of their children's teachers? There will always be disagreement regarding the directions children take as they are educated for adult life, which is an objective of that education. The choices they will make based on their knowledge and experience, unless parental desire is for absolute imitation, reflect their ability to apply critical thinking to decision-making. The study of literature, which includes the writings of far more controversial authors than those in question here, supports the creation and growth of those skills, within an environment of thoughtful discussion and exchange of ideas. If parents do not trust the teachers to manage this, the problem of censorship presents itself in many more areas than this AP literature classroom.

It is clear to me that this is a case of parental laziness or worse, politically-motivated strong-arming.

Had Mr. and Mrs. Dame spent a half-hour reading reviews of the books on Amazon.com, they might have had a better idea of the "mature content" included in Mrs. Miller's curricula and made alternate arrangements.

Furthermore, once they found out (from their daughter) that the content was objectionable to them, they elected to use their political connections to circumvent the "chain of command."

There's a lesson here: Be lazy, then everyone will suffer the consequences, not you.

I as well. Welcome to Plymouth.

Wow! My daughter just transferred to this school district, I was already having doubts...thanks for confirming my fears. I would like my daughter to be able to think for herself when she grows up.

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