Who sets a value for a school?

School board elections generally don’t get a lot of people fired up. The keyword here is generally.


With the candidates filed for the April election, several candidates are on the ballot for Districtc125, which is Adlai Stevenson High School.

Based on recent media account of the discussions at D125 meetings, the upcoming school board elections may not only be “interesting” – it may be imperative for residents who embrace the right of choice and have faith in curriculum decisions made by the school.

Stevenson High School is not perfect – not school or district is. However, the school has traditionally had a good reputation. It’s had some bumps, like when it messed up its journalism program a couple of years ago.

It seems, however, the district is coming under fire because of the books it has available for students to read.

At recent issue is the listing of “The Flamingo Rising,” on the summer reading list has some parents upset because after all, there is a sexual encounter detailed in the book.

Shocking.

One parent, according to the Daily Herald, said he wants the Board to protect what he called the “traditional values” of the community.

Excuse me?

Can someone define traditional values?

According to the report, the resident, John Dreyer “also objected to ‘The Casual Carpool,’ a short story that his youngest son recently was assigned in class. He was critical of a lesbian character's desire to find a sperm donor so she could have a baby.

OK, a show of hands out there – how many people have ever enjoyed every book they read? Probably none. There is going to be something in every book that bothers us.

Dreyer and any other parent who takes offense to sex, gays, lesbians in literature need to do a couple of things.

First of all, employ the school opt out policy. Most school districts have them. A simple solution is to, quite simply, if something is being read, shown, listened to in a class, the student – and parent – have the option to ask the teacher for another assignment. They can opt out, get it?

Secondly, take a look at your cable service, student’s iPod, the daily newspaper or even the public library. You’ll find more sexual content and violence there than you will at Stevenson High School – or any high school for that matter.

Thirdly, why is it that sex bothers you? Where were you when your student read “To Kill A Mockingbird,” or “The Adventures of Huck Finn” or perhaps “House on Mango Street” or “The Women of Brewster Place”?

All the aforementioned books deal with rape, violence and racism. But wait, those books are about minorities, so what do you expect about “those people?”

If Dreyer, or any of the other parents are upset because books like “The Flamingo Rising,” or stories such as “The Casual Carpool,” because it offends their religious beliefs or the doctrines of their house of worship – that’s their prerogative.

The concept of separation of church and state was brought to light by Thomas Jefferson in 1802. The concept hasn’t changed.

For any one parent – or group of parents – to want to impart their religious beliefs or personal morals and values on an entire secular school is off base, especially when alternatives are available.

Stevenson High School, and nearly all other public high schools in the area need to continue to offer a wide variety of literature to their students not to offer shock value to their students, but to give them the opportunity to understand and analyze all types of literature.

Our students today need to be well rounded in their viewpoints and learn how to defend their points of views.

For parents who take exception to what is available in the schools, their options are simple – send their students to private schools or, as noted before, practice the alternatives available to them.

And while they’re at it, they may want to follow the suggestion of a friend of mine who says they may want to remove a book from their personal bookshelves that includes violence, sex and prostitution.

The Bible.