Hey Kids, “Don’t do drugs, and here’s how to lie about it.”
Mar 28th, 2012 by Randy Toman
Defined as “the courses offered by an educational institution”, curriculum seems to be the last priority of the current EASD school board and the current administration under Mrs. McGinley.
At the March 27th regular school board meeting some concerned citizens staged a public reading from one of the most vulgar, politically biased, non-fiction books approved for our children by the McGinley administration. Excerpts form the book were identified by page number, prefaced for context, and then simply read word for word as printed. Audible sneers and whisperings against our public reading could be heard from the group sitting directly behind me. Muffled laughter came from the side of the room were a good sized group of high school students sat. Mocking sighs could also be heard from several different areas around the room while our presentation continued. And the school directors sat silently with no comment at all about the vulgar content of this book, its use in the curriculum, or their personal thoughts on the matter. Only Mrs. Matthews, a former teacher, expressed her proud approval of this book in previous communications with a concerned citizen. Mrs. Leonard –Ellison, present through a telephone patch, at least suggested this book go to the Education Committee for further discussion and review. However, by the end of the meeting it still wasn’t clear if the board will take action on this disgusting work of non-fiction or if they will just continue to silently approve and hope the situation goes away so they don’t have to take a position on it publicly either way.
The book Nickel and Dime was brought up for review two years ago by Eric Adams, a 1988 graduate of Easton Area High School, but the board never scheduled a vote on the book after a review was conducted per school district policy #109. The school board changed dramatically through the last election but even the new board has not put this on the agenda for a vote still to this day. The board is so focused on financial issues, building matters, and personnel concerns that it seems to have forgotten the main reason we send our kids to school; Education.
Curriculum issues like this should be the priority of every school board established to manage the local public educational system for our children. One by one other school districts in our area and in other states across the country are removing this book for a variety of different reasons ranging from its biased political ideology, its vulgar content, its pure socialistic view points, and its graphic and braggadocios admissions of illegal drug use and detailed instruction on beating, or cheating, a pre-employment drug test. For Easton this book is a far cry from meeting the standards set forth for selecting materials as described in policy #109.
The issue most concerning to me is the illegal drug related passages. The Easton Area School District proudly posts “DRUG FREE SCHOOL ZONE” signs near every school district building. We have on-sight police presence in some of the schools to help combat crime and illegal activity and to help create a safe environment for our children. Gang activity in our schools is closely watched and stopped as soon as it is identified. Because of the close relationship between the illegal drug culture and gang activity, this fact cannot be separated or marginalized in this discussion. Meanwhile Mrs. McGinley’s administration has condoned the smuggling of explicit illegal drug use instruction directly into our classrooms and into the hands of our children by approving of the book Nickel and Dime as part of the curriculum.
Arguing to keep the book, one student stood up at the March 27th meeting and reminded everyone in attendance that, “we have Google and we (his generation) can easily get this information on the internet anyway”. While that is true, instruction on illegal drug use absolutely should not be handed out to our children by their teachers with the blessing of Mrs. McGinley’s administration, while our elected school board simply looks the other way. It is a gross contradiction for the Easton Area School District to allow curriculum material which contains detailed instruction on the use of illegal drugs and related chemical buffers while at the same time claiming to enforce a “DRUG FREE SCHOOL ZONE” policy.
It is the duty of our elected school board to hold accountable the administrators tasked with the selection of curriculum materials for our children. The school directors are in place to represent the citizens’ interests in the highest quality education possible for our children’s education. It is their duty to make sure that the selections made meet the strict criteria set forth in policy #109, even though the “weeding” process (or book burning as some like to call it) is delegated to un-elected administrators.
Selecting material that tells our children it’s ok to be dishonest, use illegal drugs, and then teaches them how to cheat on a pre-employment drug test starkly contradicts the standards outlined in policy #109 and sends a strong message in opposition to the very principles which we hope to promote in guiding our children to become honest and upstanding citizens. With the use of this book we are basically telling our children, “Don’t do drugs, and here’s how to lie about it”.
It is my sincere hope that our public reading of the vulgar language and illegal drug activity contained in this book will weigh heavily on the minds of those elected school directors entrusted with our children’s’ education and that they will act swiftly and decisively to overturn Mrs. McGinley’s recommendation to continue the use of Nickel and Dime.
Ronnie DelBacco
Concerned Citizen
We should leave the responsibility of deciding what is right and wrong to our children, every book from The Grapes of Wrath Mein Kampf to the Richard Nixon Memoires is a little piece of art produced from our society, our humanity. A teenager (if raised properly) should not have any ambition to run out and do drugs just because now he/she knows how to pass a urine test, they should know about such activities and understand them as a product of our current civilization. Once we start censoring or banning our books we lose a special liberty and responsibility, then we are no better than Nazi Germany or Communist Russia. Nixon brought dance to his college, which was a radical step for his small town school, others thought it would corrupt the youth, but over censoring only makes them vulnerable, and sends them out to the world like a deer in the headlights, with a lack in critical thinking.
Sara,
Thanks for your comment.
Please know that NO ONE has suggested banning any books, including Nickel & Dimed.
Each curriculum has a finite amount of room for educational materials. The process described in EASD policy #109 is called “weeding”.
That simply means that they choose from hundreds and hundreds of books, hopefully picking the highest quality materials for each curriculum. They select one book over another. They don’t ban or burn the book they did not select…they simply choose another over it.
That is what we are suggesting with this book. Choose a higher quality selection than N&D. Consider these questions:
Why hasn’t anyone suggested that the district administrators are “book burners” since they ‘removed’ a book to make room for this one?
What book was removed to make room for this one?
This book is being used in an 11th grade AP English class, so why have they chosen such a low-level reading selection (written at about a 9th grade level) for the smartest kids in the school?
We would never allow a book in the schools which describes who to make a bomb, why is it OK to allow one which describes how to beat a drug test. Surely, by your argument, these same kids would never go build a bomb with those instructions yet we choose to “weed out” those types of materials. Why then is that type of “book burning/banning” acceptable?
Simply put, this book promotes illegal drug use and related activities and therefore contradicts school district policy forbidding the same. For that reason alone it should be removed, regardless of it’s poorly written, vulgar, politically charged, socialist agendas.
Well, the thing is first of all a bomb is an obviously over dramatized comparison, not to mention I’m sure kids would be looking at the internet for that information rather than a book. Now in all honesty I haven’t read the book, but I hate seeing books being knocked because of promoting another government system, being that things like Socialism do exist (that’s right, get your gasps out of the way now and you are participating in a socialist inspired program if you have Medicare anyway), and it’s important for people to understand various perspectives despite whether they agree with them or not. For example, when my children are teenagers, I will personally buy them a copy of The Catcher in the Rye.
Now you might be right, perhaps the book is trash, but it seems to be being attacked for objectionable reasons. I will find out more next week, I just ordered myself a copy and will promptly read it upon its arrival, and deliver a more informed opinion then.
Sara,
Non-fiction book with braggadocios claims of illegal drug use and instruction on how to cover it up. It directly contradicts the EASD DRUG FREE SCHOOL ZONE policies. That’s my main gripe with N&D.
As you read your copy you’ll start to notice within the first 2 or 3 pages her strong personal opinion presented as fact. She calls this “chemically fascist America”.
Catcher in the Rye is not an apples to apples comparison. To your point about the internet, kids could also learn the drug instruction there as well. That is not the point at all, see paragraph #1.
My children also are encouraged by me to read things for themselves, but we don’t need to dumb down the educational system to enlighten our kids. There are better selections which can teach them the history and current status of other government systems without the vulgarity of N&D. Our daughters do not need to read about a maid’s “annal accessibility” to learn about low paying jobs. It is less than quality as described by policy #109 and should be replaced with a higher quality selection…which wouldn’t be hard given how low the bar has been dropped.
Sara, thanks for your discussion. I encourage you to continue to “question everything” as Thomas Jefferson told us. My only other advise, should you decide to not “ban” it from your children, is to read to them from the Bible. There is plenty of controversy, redemption, and salvation in there from which we can learn some great life lessons. (PS- I’m not recommending it for classroom use)
Sara,
You might consider a logical contradiction in your reasoning. Note that you say:
“We should leave the responsibility of deciding what is right and wrong to our children…”
and then a short while later say:
“A teenager (if raised properly) should not…”
My question to you is how on one hand do we “raise them properly”, and on the other hand leave it up to them to decide what is right ans what is wrong?
Furthermore, I would suggest that letting anyone of any age simple “decide” what is right and what is wrong in at the heart of most of our problems.
Sara,
Hmmm…you say want to encourage “critical thinking” in our children. But what if the use of this book is doing just the opposite? What if this book is used to indoctrinate our children? Wouldn’t it be safer to use a book that wasn’t about a current political issue (in AP ENGLISH CLASS of all places)? Even a political book from a different era (and a better written one, I might add) would be a safer choice.
I think Ronnie is being generous when he says the book is at a 9th grade level, a 5th or 6th grade level is more accurate. And this book is being MARKETED to high schools across the US by the author who is a self-proclaimed political activist. There’s something sinister in that and it makes me think twice about how this book is really being used in the classroom.
Just asking…what if? We can’t really be sure, can we?
Mary,
Nice observation, and yes we can be sure. The author is a self proclaimed socialist. Google her and look at her history. She makes no bones about how she views America…and it isn’t favorable.
Aside from the vulgarity with which she writes, the more alarming issue IS the indoctrination factor. Kids get a kick out of the “potty” humor and completely miss the more sinister implications of her thoughts.
Reagan was right on target calling the USSR the Evil Empire.
People like Erenreich are no different today. Evil, masked in poor literature.
Sara,
I come here not to argue but to discuss and sharpen my thinking on these issues.
Please respond, this is an interesting discussion.
That’s what many countries thought about Catcher in the Rye, and even Alice in Wonderland…. Again I am going to have to read the book first… A big conspiracy to indoctrinate our children to socialism still seems a bit extreme to me, that would imply that all of those teachers are hidden socialists… And socialism is still something that should be understood from both sides, just as totaltarianism and monarchy.
“Evil?” Rape is evil, child abuse is evil, but literature from another political stance?? I’ve read the GIANT book of Nixon’s memoires, and I don’t think he would have gone as far as to say that. Again, I will have to read the book when it comes in the mail any day now, which I am looking forward to seeing what all of the hub bub is about.
Sara,
You might consider a logical contradiction in your reasoning. Note that you say:
“We should leave the responsibility of deciding what is right and wrong to our children…”
and then a short while later say:
“A teenager (if raised properly) should not…”
My question to you is how on one hand do we “raise them properly”, and on the other hand leave it up to them to decide what is right ans what is wrong?
Furthermore, I would suggest that letting anyone of any age simple “decide” what is right and what is wrong in at the heart of most of our problems.