Teacher Suspended For Reading Ender's Game To Students

[ElNono]

"Forbes reports that a middle school teacher in South Carolina has been placed on administrative leave for reading sci-fi classic Ender's Game to his students (http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2012/03/19/south-carolina-teacher-suspended-for-reading-enders-game-to-middle-school-students/). According to blogger Tod Kelly, '[A parent] reported him to the school district complained that the book was pornographic; that same parent also asked the local police to file criminal charges against the teacher (http://ordinary-gentlemen.com/blog/2012/03/19/portlandia-enders-game-and-why-i-prefer-living-in-a-nation-over-a-confederacy/). As of today, the police have not yet decided whether or not to file charges (which is probably a good sign that they won't). The school district, however, appears to agree with the parent, is considering firing the teacher and will be eliminating the book from the school.'"

[Viva Las Espuelas]

Ok..............................................

[ElNono]

Good novel if you like sci-fi and haven't read it, tbh

[TeyshaBlue]

smh

[Viva Las Espuelas]

Good novel if you like sci-fi and haven't read it, tbh

Ahhhhhhhh...................................
Soooooooo that's why you posted the story?
A good novel?

[ElNono]

Ahhhhhhhh...................................
Soooooooo that's why you posted the story?
A good novel?

I posted the story because I'm familiar with the novel and I think it's quite absurd to classify it as pornography...

[Drachen]

I'm sorry, I am not familiar with it. Not much of a Sci-fi person (though I really like the foundation series by isaac asimov and the amber chronicles).

[Winehole23]

I posted the story because I'm familiar with the novel and I think it's quite absurd to classify it as pornography...I don't recall any pornographic details from Ender's Game...were there any?

[hater]

I posted the story because I'm familiar with the novel and I think it's quite absurd to classify it as pornography...

how can you be so sure if you didn't read it?

btw, for those of you who'd like some detailed alien rape, sodomy, body modification and torture of space traveling catholic priests you need to read The Sparrow.

[TeyshaBlue]

I don't recall any pornographic details from Ender's Game...were there any?

Not that I can recall.....

[Spurminator]

I don't recall any pornographic details from Ender's Game...were there any?

We read it in school too. I don't remember anything sexual at all.

[Winehole23]

there's a bit of strong language. does that count as porn in SC?

[Wild Cobra]

there's a bit of strong language. does that count as porn in SC?

Maybe it's the name of the enemy...

Buggers...

Today, with harassment laws, etc, being based on the perception of the one claiming victim hood, maybe someone couldn't get Buggery out of their head.

[FuzzyLumpkins]

"Forbes reports that a middle school teacher in South Carolina has been placed on administrative leave for reading sci-fi classic Ender's Game to his students (http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2012/03/19/south-carolina-teacher-suspended-for-reading-enders-game-to-middle-school-students/). According to blogger Tod Kelly, '[A parent] reported him to the school district complained that the book was pornographic; that same parent also asked the local police to file criminal charges against the teacher (http://ordinary-gentlemen.com/blog/2012/03/19/portlandia-enders-game-and-why-i-prefer-living-in-a-nation-over-a-confederacy/). As of today, the police have not yet decided whether or not to file charges (which is probably a good sign that they won't). The school district, however, appears to agree with the parent, is considering firing the teacher and will be eliminating the book from the school.'"

Good old south carolina.

[RandomGuy]

I don't recall any pornographic details from Ender's Game...were there any?

Card himself addresses it.


... July 19, 2004

Ender's Game banned because of "sexuality"? Ha. There's no sexuality in the book, period. Unless somebody thinks that showering naked is "sexual."

The reason Ender's Game was first banned is because it was placed on a "hit list" of "evil books" by a Baptist group many years ago, and it was placed on that list for no other reason than that I'm a Mormon, and therefore no children should be reading a book by me. I've run into Baptist anti-Mormon efforts many times - like the time the editor of a Christian magazine was forced to eliminate me as a columnist on religious matters and the negative coverage generated on my first screenplay, which came back notated as "blatant Mormon propaganda," even though there was nothing remotely Mormon in it.

The original official excuse for EG being on a hit list was because it cultivated 'anti-adult attitudes.' Whenever I see that excuse as the reason, I know the source is the Baptist list. Which makes it hilarious that it was banned once in Utah, because of the efforts of a Mormon who had picked up the Baptist list and didn't realize that one way to get on that list was just to BE a Mormon!

Later, EG was banned from some libraries because the N word was used in a scene where Ender was making an ANTI-racist point to a racist character (such is the stupidity of censors!). So at my urging, my publisher allowed me to rewrite the scene to eliminate the offending word. But since some people were fully committed to banning EG, they simply chose other words to be offended by.

Since Ender's Game is actually quite inoffensive in itself, there is invariably a hidden agenda in the efforts to ban the book, usually tied to the fact that I'm a Mormon. Nowadays, most efforts to boycott or ban books of mine stem from the fact that the Mormon Church openly opposes gay marriage and continues to regard voluntary homosexual behavior as sinful, and I have openly defended my Church's position.

But since I never use my books to preach my religion or advance my political agenda, it's always a real stretch to find excuses to ban my books. Ultimately, the motive almost always seems to come down to wanting to punish me for actually being an orthodox and vocal Latter-day Saint.


http://www.hatrack.com/research/questions/q0122.shtml



I think that is probably it more than anything else.

I would note:


Meanwhile, the US Marine Corps assigns Ender's Game as homework in its academy because they think it teaches valuable lessons about leadership and teamwork (source).
http://www.shmoop.com/enders-game/

("source" is USMC 2009 professional reading guide)
http://www.mcu.usmc.mil/lejeune_leadership/LLI%20Documnets/25%20Sep%2009%20Reading%20List%20by%20Grade.pdf

[LnGrrrR]

Card is lying when he says he doesn't use his books to push his political beliefs (read the reviews for Empire) but Ender's Game is a classic. I'd like to know what that mom thought was pornographic. Poor kid being raised by an ignorant mother.

[RandomGuy]

He also did, a while back, an interesting bit called the "Secular Humanist Revival".

Can't find it, but it was interesting. I think OSC might take back some of that as he has gotten a dose of his own religion it seems.

[RandomGuy]

Card is lying when he says he doesn't use his books to push his political beliefs (read the reviews for Empire) but Ender's Game is a classic. I'd like to know what that mom thought was pornographic. Poor kid being raised by an ignorant mother.


Worse: far more often than not, Empire seems too much like neo-conservative propaganda. Fox News, Bill O'Reilly and the never-named Republican President who was elected in 2000 are without exception depicted as being "the good guys", while the villainous Progressive Restoration movement is obviously supposed to be radical liberal extremists led by a thinly-veiled caricature of leftist bugaboo George Soros. In addition, Empire notes quite a lot of disapproval of the Democrat presidential candidate, who is always referred to as a female... hmmm wonder who that could be

http://theknightshift.blogspot.com/2006/12/review-of-empire-by-orson-scott-card.html


In Empire, which speculates on a possible new American civil war divided along right-wing and left-wing battle lines, Orson Scott Card wants you to know, above all else, that he's a moderate. He's a centrist through and through, who holds no truck with the "ridiculous" and "inconsistent ideologies" put forth by extremists on both sides. "Instead of having an ever-adapting civilization-wide consensus reality," Card writes, in an afterword that manages to sound both sincere and sanctimonious, "we have become a nation of insane people able to see the madness only in the other side."

So why am I not buying it? Maybe it's something to do with the fact that until now, Card has never been shy about espousing conservative views. Maybe it's to do with the fact that the baddies in Empire are all left-wingers.

...

Whoops, there I go, getting political. How dare I? Because anything in a book is fair game for a critique, that's why, and both Card's story and afterword bring his politics to the fore. I'm at least honest enough to fess up to having biases. I doubt anyone doesn't. What annoys me is not that Card has his, but that he smugly pretends to be above it all. Yes, it's true our nation is ideologically divided, and the ones making the most noise are the extremists. But for Card to pretend that he hasn't got a horse in the race is far more dishonest and worthy of critical rebuke than any of the gross distortions he makes of liberal views. (Newsflash to Scott: Nazi Germany was not an atheist state.) And no, I don't think Card's distorting right-wing views in the same way, as I know he has right-wing biases as much as he chooses to deny it. If Card had simply owned up to his own biases, I needn't have written these last two paragraphs.

...


http://www.sfreviews.net/empire_osc.html

[ElNono]

how can you be so sure if you didn't read it?


I posted the story because I'm familiar with the novel and I think it's quite absurd to classify it as pornography...

smh

Yes, I read it. That's why I'm familiar with it and thought it was an interesting story.

[TeyshaBlue]

Card is lying when he says he doesn't use his books to push his political beliefs (read the reviews for Empire) but Ender's Game is a classic. I'd like to know what that mom thought was pornographic. Poor kid being raised by an ignorant mother.

I actually read Empire...dude makes Tom Clancy look like a bleeding-heart liberal.:lol

[ploto]

When it comes to books, I have learned that people have no logic. A Christian bookstore where I lived refused to sell Jimmy Carter's books because he was a Democrat.

I also had a parent recently going on and on on Facebook against the school forcing her child to read The Hunter Games. No matter how many parents told her it was on a list from which the kids could choose one book to read, she would not believe them and was trying to cause all kinds of trouble for the teacher.

[LnGrrrR]

I actually read Empire...dude makes Tom Clancy look like a bleeding-heart liberal.:lol

:lol Yeah, it's not horrible as long as you imagine it occurs on some alternate reality Earth where all liberals are cowards and psychopaths.

<------ expecting DarrinS and WC to immediately purchase it off Amazon

[Wild Cobra]

:lol Yeah, it's not horrible as long as you imagine it occurs on some alternate reality Earth where all liberals are cowards and psychopaths.

<------ expecting DarrinS and WC to immediately purchase it off Amazon
No...

If I buy it, I'll purchase it from a local Bookstore, like liberal leaning Powell's (http://www.powells.com/).

[LnGrrrR]

No...

If I buy it, I'll purchase it from a local Bookstore, like liberal leaning Powell's (http://www.powells.com/).

Rock on. I try to support local stores as well. That said, I was just poking fun :) I really don't think Empire is worth the read.

[TeyshaBlue]

It's not. It's a pretty bad work IMO. Characters are caricatures and the dialogue is unbelievably corny. Bleh.

[RandomGuy]

It's not. It's a pretty bad work IMO. Characters are caricatures and the dialogue is unbelievably corny. Bleh.

That's what the reviews said. Glad I missed it.


You should try the Honor Harrington series. It is the only sci-fi series I have kept up with.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honor_Harrington


Weber is a fun author. Oddly enough the peacenik liberals are villians in one of the books too. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Weber

One of my favorites is 1634, about a small town in America that suddenly finds itself, through a freak accident, back in 1634 Europe. The speculation about what modern American ideas and ideals does to Europe of the time is fascinating.

Very military-ish sci-fi about wars tends to be what I seem to like, with the occasional fastasy sword/magic novel thrown in.

Probably why I liked Enders Game in the first place.

[TeyshaBlue]

That's what the reviews said. Glad I missed it.


You should try the Honor Harrington series. It is the only sci-fi series I have kept up with.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honor_Harrington


Weber is a fun author. Oddly enough the peacenik liberals are villians in one of the books too. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Weber

One of my favorites is 1634, about a small town in America that suddenly finds itself, through a freak accident, back in 1634 Europe. The speculation about what modern American ideas and ideals does to Europe of the time is fascinating.

Very military-ish sci-fi about wars tends to be what I seem to like, with the occasional fastasy sword/magic novel thrown in.

Probably why I liked Enders Game in the first place.

I love Weber. I've read all of the Harrington books....as well as the Dahak series, the Starfire series, the Bolo books...now I'm buried in the Safehold series.
That 1634 book was written with Eric Flynt. I've been eyeing that for awhile. I'll give it a spin.:toast

[leemajors]

That's what the reviews said. Glad I missed it.


You should try the Honor Harrington series. It is the only sci-fi series I have kept up with.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honor_Harrington


Weber is a fun author. Oddly enough the peacenik liberals are villians in one of the books too. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Weber

One of my favorites is 1634, about a small town in America that suddenly finds itself, through a freak accident, back in 1634 Europe. The speculation about what modern American ideas and ideals does to Europe of the time is fascinating.

Very military-ish sci-fi about wars tends to be what I seem to like, with the occasional fastasy sword/magic novel thrown in.

Probably why I liked Enders Game in the first place.

http://www.cosmosmagazine.com/files/imagecache/review/files/ThePlotAgainstAmerica.jpg

Excellent book, you may like it.

[Spurminator]

http://www.cosmosmagazine.com/files/imagecache/review/files/ThePlotAgainstAmerica.jpg

Excellent book, you may like it.


I've had this on my shelf for two years and haven't opened it yet. Thanks for the reminder.

[Wild Cobra]

Rock on. I try to support local stores as well. That said, I was just poking fun :) I really don't think Empire is worth the read.
Yes, I know.

With this controversy, I may have to get it just to see.

[Facts]

Yes, I know.

With this controversy, I may have to get it just to see.

Pine tree responses to increased CO2 are highly dependent on the concentration of nitrogen in the soil.

[Wild Cobra]

Pine tree responses to increased CO2 are highly dependent on the concentration of nitrogen in the soil.
The growth will be no better than the weakest variable allows for.

[LnGrrrR]

Yes, I know.

With this controversy, I may have to get it just to see.

I'd highly suggest just rereading Starship Troopers instead. (I can't imagine you haven't read it at least once. :)