A letter from a parent, recieved privately;
Sometimes it is stunning what passes off in our schools as “education”. I recently became aware that Timothy Findley’s, “The Wars”, was being read in a grade 12 class in Saskatoon.
I was appalled that “The Wars” was being offered to children in grade school because it contains scenes and imagery that are homo-erotic and pornographic.
Let’s keep in mind that the average grade 12 student is below the age of 18, or has just recently turned 18. She comes from a variety of socio/religious backgrounds. She is Baptist, atheist, agnostic, Catholic, Hindu, Muslim, Mormon, Mennonite, secular progressive, socialist, conservative, and many shades of other belief systems. Sexuality, and above all, explicit sexual description (pornography), could be an affront to her, not to mention that she is likely not even an adult.
In this case, the novel was offered without any thematic input on the part of the teacher … no discussion, no balance, no exchange of ideas … nothing. No letter was sent home requesting parental permission in the reading of the novel. I don’t even think that the novel is approved by Saskatchewan Learning.
As far as the “teacher” goes, he is a Che Guevara wearing, Bush-bashing, Conservative-bashing, “progressive”. His walls are festooned with leftist posters and his choices, whether from approved materials or not, are always leftwing. He’s one of those slick leftist “academics” who can turn a grammar lesson into a subtle hit on Stephen Harper.
Here then, is what this self-proclaimed evangelist for the “progressive” cause gave children under the age of 18 to read:
The Wars
By Timothy Findley
Pearson Penguin Canada Incorporated 2005
Page 36 to 41 (Robert and the Prostitute)
“Isn’t there nothing special you’d like?” she (the prostitute) said, “I mean – here we are and everything.” She turned around and leaned against the washstand, playing with her sash, threatening to reveal herself.
(…)
“Don’t ya wanta touch me?” said Ella.
(…)
“You’re a nice hot lookin’ boy,” she said; “an’ we shouldn’t just be sittin’ here. Why don’t you let me …?” And she put her hands inside his pants. Right inside – past his drawers. No one else had ever touched him there before.
(…)
“Oh,” said Ella. But she was kind about it. She went on smiling – and kissed him at the corner of his lips. When she withdrew her hand, she kept it in a fist and crossed to the washstand. Then she picked up the towel and told him to stand.
“You take them off,” she said, nodding at his trousers; “an’ I’ll clean you up.”
Robert had ejaculated (in his pants while) coming up the stairs.
Robert and the Prostitute Look Through a Peep Hole
There were certainly two naked people (in the next room) – but all he could see at first was backs and arms and legs. Whoever it was who was there was standing in the middle of the floor hitting whoever else was there – striking out with all their force.
(…)
The pummeling had stopped and, at first, he could not locate the people in the room. Then he heard them. Breathing. They were Breathing in tandem – just like two people running side by side.
(…)
One was lying on his back with his back arched off the mattress while the other sat astride his groin exactly like a rider. The one who played the horse was bucking – lifting his torso high off the bed, lifting the weight of the rider with his shoulders and his knees – and bucking … the rider was using a long silk scarf as reins and the horse was biting into the other end with his teeth. The only sound was the sound of breathing and of bedsprings. The rider held the reins in one hand and, using a soldier’s stiff-peaked cap, beat the horse on the thighs – one side and then the other. And the two – both horse and rider – were staring into one another’s eyes with an intensity unlike any other Robert had ever seen in a human face.
Page 174 ~ Robert is Raped by other soldiers:
He struggled with such impressive violence that all his assailants fell upon him at once – still without a sound – and holding his legs and arms out wide, they jerked him off his feet.
(…)
then he was lowered onto his back and held there by someone who was lying beneath him. His legs were forced apart so far he thought they were going to be broken. Mouths began to suck at his privates. Hand and fingers probed and poked at every part of his body. Someone struck him in the face.
Robert began to pass out. He could feel himself being lifted into the air again and turned around and made to lie on his face with one man still underneath him and now with another on top. All he could feel was the shape of the man who entered him and the terrible strength of the force with which it was done.
What you have just read is pornography; it may be considered “soft” by some, but in any context it is simply porn. What it adds to the story is at best dubious. It’s accuracy in depicting the experiences of soldiers is beyond dubious. And, what it could possibly add to the education of children is simply nothing.
What is relevant though, is that a teacher in a Saskatoon school saw fit to feed this garbage to children; a teacher who uses a public school classroom as his personal “progressive” soapbox to indoctrinate and propagandize children in “progressive” truth.
He should be “progressive” fired.
How about ‘Tarred and feathered and rode out of town on a rail’? We’ll consider employment status later. Eric.
I read The Wars in grade 12, mostly I found it confusing. The passages you cite were almost entirely uneccessary to the story. Not your typical war novel.
Good luck firing a progressive in any educational system in Canada. G.r.i.e.v.a.n.c.e
I agree: confusing and not particularly good.
Someone should get a quote from Justin Trudeau on his fellow teacher before he can retract it.
I wouldn’t mind so much if by that time they’d already gotten through, oh, a greater portion of the western canon.
You know, some of the shorter, lighter stuff like Herodotus, a little Jane Austen… (You know actual literature, and history.) but you know, somehow that this is the culmination of the education system.
God help us.
This is hardly new…In grade 10, my boyfriend was given Myra Breckenridge to read for independant study. Talk about homo-erotic pornography…
you mean people who are 17/18 shouldn’t be reading ‘grown up’ books yet.
Its topics like this that make us conservatives look silly sometimes.
The teaching in our schools is obscene, even when it does not include porn reading. The porn is of the least concern to me now, as my kids are ordered to censor their creations to eliminate any signs of violence, and that’s pretty difficult and causes them a lot of stress.
Duffman writes: “you mean people who are 17/18 shouldn’t be reading ‘grown up’ books yet.”
One can question how “grown up” Findlay’s works really are, but one must ask if they represent the best choices through which to introduce young people to literature. Of greater concern, however, is how the material is presented and how responses to it are received. A teacher crusading against “homophobia” is just as capable of indoctrinatory and close-minded teaching as was the anti-semitic James Keegstra. The major difference, of course, is that when Keegstra’s practices were reported, he was fired and charged with “hate crimes”.
So what happens to the student who stands up and says that the book is crap? Will s/he get an A because they defended their opinion,or will they be suspended for not “going with the system”?
THAT is the big question.
“Famous Last Words” and “Not Wanted On the Voyage” are far better Findley novels than “The Wars,” and of course it goes without saying that our Guevara bedecked progressive chose “The Wars” because it conformed to what are the usual ideological assumptions of his trade; but that out of the way, I wish somebody had thrown someone like Findley at me when I was in high school. We got things like Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird” instead, and of course all you had to do to win Teacher’s approval was write a few hundred words about what a bad thing racism was and how appalled you were by it. If you had the cheek to go on to say that it was a dull political tract masquerading as a novel, they weren’t interested in hearing that, or even aware that such a consideration mattered. Sure, I imagine all our buddy here expects these kids to do is write a few similar hand-wringing or outraged words about war, and it may be doubted whether he’s aware that literature or any other art form is-or bloody well ought to be- more than an exotic form of propaganda, but that’s fine: one or two of his students may just go on to pick up “Famous Last Words” if they ever see it, and Findley has a hell of a lot more in him than Harper Lee ever did.
As for the pornography/homosexuality angle; well, that’s part of human life, too, and most of these kids will deal with it just fine, the same as most geezers my age did. Deal.
This novel was part of our curriculum back when I was in grade 12 in Alberta, back in 85/86. I thought it was a total piece of crap back then, and upon rereading the passages above my opinion hasn’t changed.
My God, hasn’t there been anything worthwhile written in the last 20 years, that kids are still being subjected to this fecal matter in novel form?
How about reading Balzac, Steinbeck, Tolstoy, Faulkner, Dostoyevsky, Remarque, Mann, Ibsen and many others from classical literature. If they want some real sex stuff, how about the Bible or Ovid.
Maybe not, would be too hard for the teacher’s brain, what if the students ask some questions.
Having only gone to school in the former degenerative socialist paradise of central Europe, don’t know what the students read in this country.
Well, I don’t think the cited passages are pornographic – and most students of that age are quite able to read ‘dollar-books’ from the Romance section, the Real Crime section, etc that are far more explicit, to the level that one could legitimately define their agenda, not as narrative, but as pornographic.
Findlay’s book(s) focus, not on the sexuality, which as others have pointed out, is peripheral, but on the relationships, something that the letter-writer ignored.
Maybe not as good as Austen and others, but quite possibly this was a course on Canadian Literature and the paucity of that area, in my view, is clear.
The deadliest curriculum in this school, I think, would be the irrational leftist views of the teacher – something far more difficult for the student to define, to rebut, to oppose – and one which he/she absorbs simply by osmosis. That’s what is being taught, and that is far more dangerous than a book by Findlay.
For those trying to keep track –
An 18 year old who commits a violent crime is a “kid”.
Our government sends “our children” to fight their wars.
But when your 16 year old is instructed to read soft porn by their teacher, they become “adults”.
(And “Not Wanted On The Voyage” stands out in my mind as one of the worst 5 books I’ve ever wasted time on.)
And something similar from Chicago involving Brokeback Mountain:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,271935,00.html
(via Hot Air)
Teaching Canadian (read – “dismal” or “navel gazing” or “pretentious”) books at all in school is not living up to the legal standard of care expected of teachers – that of a prudent parent.
17-18 year olds can handle some sex in their reading – how about the Song of Solomon or Lady Chatterley’s Lover? Not sad, deviant little Timothy Findley. Blecchh.
Breathtaking, isn’t it?
The Ten Commandments and the Lord’s Prayer banned in the public system, ‘wouldn’t want to offend anyone, would we?, but this kind of bumff is perfectly fine for high school students…
This kind of thing is happening everywhere. So-called lefty progressives, being on the cutting edge, are let off the hook, partly because too many parents are wimps and won’t complain to the teacher, the school, or the board, while those of us who DO object are labelled as “fundamentalists,” “Bible thumpers,” “overly protective parents,” etc.
I was called every name in the book when I objected to “grab bags” of contraceptives being handed out in the grade seven class at our local public school. The grab bags featured an IUD, the Pill, a diaphragm, spermicidal foam, and coloured and flavoured condoms. Every kid left school that day knowing about “another kind of sex,” mentioned by the public health nurse when one of the students asked why the cherry- and lime-flavoured condoms smelled and looked the way they did. One of the students knew about oral sex and so explained to the other 12-year-olds what it was…
The only way to put a stop to this chilling exploitation of our children is for parents to a) be much more vigilant about what’s going on in their children’s classrooms, and not assume that “education” is what it was when we were young, and b) to shout bloody murder when it happens, to write letters to the school, the board, and the media, to let the school/board know that this kind of thing is totally unacceptable. If parents don’t do this, and in large enough numbers, “progressives” will continue to get away with this unconscionable sexing-up of our kids.
Huge problem, though: Too many parents are so occupied and preoccupied with their own lives that they ignore what’s going on in their children’s classrooms. As a stay-at-home parent, shunned as I was by two-income families, the education establishment, the government, the feminists, and the media, I had the time and inclination to do battle when kids were, IMO, assaulted by the info being handed out, and legitimized, by the public health nurse.
It was a really tough time and I was, as I mentioned, called every name in the book and had so-called friends drop me like a hot cake, but the school never again brought grab bags back into the classrooms of this school. ‘Minor victory, but one worth fighting.
If parents will not advocate for their children when they know they’re being exploited, for fear of what others will say or for fear of reprisals against their children (then you pull your child out of the system for awhile; I’ve done that too) this kind of thing will continue to happen.
A system that bans prayer and Scripture reading but allows the reading of explicit sex scenes in CanLit is the sorry state of public education these days. Unless a significant number of taxpayers object (you don’t have to be a parent), this exploitation of our children is going to continue. Far too many Canadians, unfortunately, are either too busy to monitor what’s going on in their kids’ school, let alone object to some of the curriculum, or are too wimpy to say or do anything.
Either way, we have a crisis situation for far too many of our children. If adults won’t be adults, as is increasingly happening in our lib/left juvenile-forever, Peter Pan society, we can expect to see more of this kind of child exploitation.
“As far as the “teacher” goes, he is a Che Guevara wearing, Bush-bashing, Conservative-bashing, “progressive”. His walls are festooned with leftist posters and his choices, whether from approved materials or not, are always leftwing. He’s one of those slick leftist “academics” who can turn a grammar lesson into a subtle hit on Stephen Harper.”
Sounds like he’s also a trolling gay/bi looking to explain the subtleties of Findley’s “masterpiece” to curious students after hours, at his “pad”.
Experienced this crap,in college, back in the 60’s.
High school teachers who think the are runing undergrad seminars……
What is interesting is what “public educators” feel is their “responsibility” and what is the parent’s.
In years past I recall getting all manner of “permission” slips to ask if the school could put my kid in what they deemed “hazards”..these included trips away from school…bio/chem hazards in science class….body contact sports…driver training etc.
However, never once have I been consulted about what “high risk” info they put into their young minds…the natural assumption here is that “public educators” have laid claim to total authority over your child’s mind…at least on school property and under duress of expusion or a social services which hunt should you have objections.
All I can take away from these seeming contradictory “concerns” for my child’s well being is that his physical safety brings legal liabilities to the school if he is injured doing something we have not authorized, however his mind can be put at risk or even abused at the will of the state…or their educators…who have no legal liabilities for crippling a young mind.
Perhaps it’s time educational activites bore the same legal liabilities that physical activities do from parental legal remedy against public institutional irresponsibility.
i was reading about a parent in the us who has a law suit against a teacher a school and the board for showing brokeback mountain, the parent had a 12 year old in the class who was traumatized by exposure to the homosexual sex scene. maybe a law suit would be in order here.
My oldest son displeased his teacher of grade 9 English by giving an honest review of Whoa! Mitchell’s Who Has Seen The Wind; this was 15 years ago and I have held no expectation that matters in the classrooms have improved since.
Kate’s point that our society has an unbalanced view of our teens’ maturity has a corollary: if we are to grant adulthood to our late teenagers (as was done in the 19th Century), then as a society, we have to provide every guidance possible to make certain they get there unscathed. Maturity does not occur in a vacuum. A student given The Wars should be provided with the context of its author’s views and actions outside of his published works, so that he might have a chance at placing it somewhere in his developing hierarchy of morals. For a teacher to simply dump something like this on an unprepared kid who hasn’t a clue that a sense of morality – and adherence to it – is the most fundamental component of happiness, is at best professional negligence.
I read Chaucer and Jean val Jean in grade 12….yes, it was a long time ago, but the choices were much better back then.
I hope that the parent complains to the Board of Education in Saskatoon.
Welcome to Saskabush. Parents and taxpayers pay the bills, with little help from the province, yet have little or no say on the system and it’s operation. Democracy, socialist style, you pay the bills, we’ll tell you how it will be done. Teachers are by and large pretty good, however, there are those who have wild leftist and wingo political views who have no place in the system. This guy is one, but, good luck getting rid of him, simply will not happen here in Sask.
Schools are supposed to be open places of learning and instruction, we are presently a long way from that. My son in Grade 9, after watching Gore’s movie, questioned the teacher, in class, about the ice age, forests and lush tropical environs on the prairies, dinosaurs, trees in the Arctic. They had cars then??
The supportive and discussion response of the teacher was, I don’t want to hear another thing from you about this, this is true, it is happening, and be quiet. Time for everyone to wake up and take back the system, it’s longoverdue. Better yet,make access to private and charter schools widely available, everywhere. Funding on a per student basis follows the student, public, private, or charter, the public system would be toast in short order.
He should be “progressive” fired.
Or maybe just visit the same restaurants as Graeme Bell.
I agree with poster Bolshevik — the real crime is reading a mediocre novel like this instead of one of the great classics. The only reason it’s served up to students (I was one) is because it is “Canadian content.”
But as far as the sexual content goes, who the hell cares? Enough with the Puritanism already; it’s just plain embarrassing.
Hmm. Contrast this with my southern Ontario not-at-all-long-ago high school education where we weren’t allowed to read Othello in the twelfth grade “because it deals with interracial love.”
“Lady Chatterley’s Lover? Not sad, deviant little Timothy Findley. Blecchh.”
D.H. Lawrence is an excellent suggestion. Point is, there is a pantheon of writers who deal with this stuff, who are more challenging than tittilating. I think Finn’s obsessions are showing.
I explained to my childs teacher that if he ever has to sit thru brokeback or is required to read garbage like the wars he would be talking to me in the parking lot later. A little more of a hands on approach will stop this stuff.
“17-18 year olds can handle some sex in their reading – how about the Song of Solomon or Lady Chatterley’s Lover? Not sad, deviant little Timothy Findley. Blecchh.”
they can get whatever they want via the internet. reading would be a bonus. Im not saying the schools should encourage it. but people would be dilusional to think they havent seen far worse than they can read.
My children attend a High School in Saskatoon, which is comprised of many “progressive” educators. My kids talk of all the socialist propaganda they must endure, presented under the guise of learning.
For example, they’ve watched Farenheit 911, anti-capitalism, pro-Oka, pro Louis Riel and anti- everything right-of-center movies. The kids are taught that this material is factual and must regurgitate it on exams in order to pass the class. No counter viewpoint is offered by these teachers.
My kids question the teacher but, the rest of the students believe whatever the teacher says is completely factual. In fact, one of my children was ridiculed by the “believers” for daring to call the teacher on his politics.
The teacher did not have to defend himself because he had the rest of the students indoctrinated and they stuck up for him through bullying.
So, in high school we already have children learning and adopting Socialist behaviors….whining, bullying and protest.
But, what can one expect. Sask. is NDP country!
We’d have to expunge a lot of books from our curriculum if this is the standard.
Aren’t you always railing against the nanny state? Take a look in the mirror, it’s people like you that have built it up brick by brick.
“they can get whatever they want via the internet. reading would be a bonus. Im not saying the schools should encourage it. but people would be dilusional to think they havent seen far worse than they can read.”
If a teacher shared this stuff with under 18 kids outside of school, they’d be charged … it would be illegal. It is soft porn. If these written passages were in movie form … they’d never be shown in school. For every kid who does internet porn, there is one who doesn’t, for every sexually active kid, there is one who is not … this is about maintaining standards in education and demonstrating respect to all who attend.
And in that light, it is way over the line for grade school … save it for college.
Try reading “Tanguy”. I read this book in grade 12 french. Basically a lurid and depressing story about a boy who nearly starved to death and is repeatedly sodomized in WW2 camps and becomes a prostitute when he gets out.
I think that, as quite a few posters have said, that there are two key issues.
The most important one in my view, is the socialist agenda of unscientific garbage that the predominately leftist educational system is embedding in our children, under the guise of education. It isn’t education; it’s propaganda; it’s the antithesis of education because it is dogma against which you are not permitted to speak a word. Witness the response of the teacher to the student’s legitimate questions about ‘global warming’; it’s indoctrination.
How is this type of indoctrination that is going on in our schools any different from that in the communist countries, and in the Islamic countries? In all cases, it closes the mind to questions and to further exploration. You are prevented by the teacher, and by the evilness of peer pressure and bullying, from using your reason and questioning dogma.
This goes on in the pre-university and at the university level. This is the problem with our education system – and it’s very serious.
As a university professor – all I ever saw in 98% of the classes of my fellow academics, was the promulgation of the socialist dogma. This was done via the selection of books and articles, the classes – and the questions on the exams and essay topics all followed the same scheme. Indoctrination into the socialist left dogma.
By the time they are voting age, their minds are closed to reason, logic, facts.
The second issue is the paucity of value of the literature offered – our educational and cultural systems insist that Canadian literature, overall, has great merit. I’m one of the dumber ones, I’m afraid, and I can’t agree.
Jose: What books would have to removed? Start naming them … instead of making generalized statements that can’t be backed up by fact.
“For those trying to keep track –
An 18 year old who commits a violent crime is a “kid”.”
No, an 18 yr. old who commits any crime is considered an adult under the eyes of the law. If the knuckle-draggers in the Conservative Party had their way, a 12 yr. old would be considered an adult under the law.
The letter writer says the teacher is “a Che Guevara wearing, Bush-bashing, Conservative-bashing, “progressive”. His walls are festooned with leftist posters…..” How does he/she know this? The terminology employed (secular progressive) reveals this person as one whose world view is determined, at least in part, by watching Bill O’Rielly and Fox Noise. The letter is nothing more than the usual banal, unsubstantiated, rightwing blather.
Here’s one for you;
Family of girl, 12, sues after ‘Brokeback’ shown in class
http://www.suntimes.com/news/education/383097,CST-NWS-broke13.article
ET: Well said.
This novel by Timothy Findley contains soft porn scenes. It would be interesting to hear the educators resoning behind the choice of this novel as a learning tool?
I agree with Sex-Ed in schools. However, pornography has no place in the curriculum. This topic is better left to parents.
I’m of the opinion that school should be where you learn the classics.
The classroom should also be apolitical and any teacher who preaches from left or right should be fired.
So much for en locus parentis. I’m not sure some commenters here understand the concept … that the teacher becomes the parent of each and every child in that classroom … that’s every child, from the ultra liberal to the ultra conservative.
I can’t imagine how reading The Wars in any way falls within that responsibility … some of you seem to be getting confused here between the home, the street, and school. The highest standards are … not should, but “are”, put on our schools through the statutes that govern them simply because of en locus parentis. Teachers are a parent to all, not just one class of kids. Somewhere, somehow, that concept has become forgotten and corrupted and teachers are representing only one world view.
Aside from the fact that some scenes in this novel are disturbing and pornographic, for me this novel just isn’t in the canon of Canadian “must reads”. Sure sexuality is part of life, but luckily rape and prostitution aren’t. It’s a curious choice at best, from whatever wing you hail.
My brother-in-law was attending a private college, and was assigned to a literature course. The person-running-the-class (no more respectful names applicable) was a militant lesbian and everything that the class was assigned was lesbian oriented, to the pornographic level. They were were warned that if they didn’t follow her line in their assignments, they would fail.
He and many others complained and demanded a transfer to another class, and she was eventually fired. Of course, unions were not involved.
My Grade 7 English teacher (in the middle ’70s), a new grad, tried to make poetry more “now”. She chose “Paint It Black” for discussion and study. She never described it as “an obsessed and depressed loser crying after a whore”, but as a young man who’s girlfriend is a prostitute. We were very uncomfortable with it.
one eyed curious; I would wish that you had two eyes and genuine curiosity; your post shows a paucity of vision and no curiosity.
Stop insulting people. Immediately. Don’t use derogatory terms like ‘knuckle dragging’ etc. Stop it. Stick to the issues – and only the issues. Support your claims with facts.
What do you mean by a ‘twelve year old would be considered adult under the law’. Explain factually.
Please explain what you mean by ‘secular progressive terminology’. Be specific in your definition and examples.
Please provide proof that, as you claim, the poster’s views are ‘determined by Bill O’Reilly and Fox News’. [Again, kindly stop the derogatory adjectives; stick to the facts without inserting false tactics of argumentation].
Please provide proof that the poster doesn’t know the political views of the teacher.
Now, you have provided us with a general conclusion; that ‘right wing’ views are ‘banal’ and ‘unsubstantiated’. Please provide proof.
Otherwise, I can only come to the conclusion that YOUR post is banal and unsubstantiated left wing blather. How can I come to that conclusion?
You haven’t provided any substantiation for your claims. None. That’s why I’ve asked for evidence.
Your argument is banal, ie, common, ordinary, non-original. All you are doing is using ad hominem terms, insulting posters.
Left wing? Ahh, that’s an indirect conclusion about you derived from your hostility to conservatives.
So – how about some proof, rather than banal, unsubstantiated leftwing blather?
Of greater concern, however, is how the material is presented and how responses to it are received.
Roseberry had it right, at the beginning of this thread.
The education system has systematically removed religion from the classroom, and in its place promotes an opposing and insidious political ideology, without check or balance.
As ET said, this inculcation is not education. It does not allow opposing views, or debate. If you disagree, you fail. (Which is typical of a fraudulent ideology. ie Islam)
That’s what’s wrong with this story – the so-called ‘teacher’ in question prostylizing freely to the students about his perversion.
“Aren’t you always railing against the nanny state? Take a look in the mirror, it’s people like you that have built it up brick by brick.”
Expectedly and once again, the idiot Jose gets it wrong. Nanny state = socialism.
“The terminology employed (secular progressive) reveals this person as one whose world view is determined, at least in part, by watching Bill O’Rielly and Fox Noise. The letter is nothing more than the usual banal, unsubstantiated, rightwing blather.”
– one eyed curious.
The classrooms in our country indoctrinate. Without opposing views presented, nor accepted.
The television set is another matter.
Leftards are ill equipped for reasonable debate. Proof the education system has failed.
What books would have to removed? Start naming them … instead of making generalized statements that can’t be backed up by fact.
Freedomtoread dot ca has a list of 100+ challenged books, available under “Censorship in Canada.” It’s an incomplete list, but it’s a start.
It would be interesting to hear the educators resoning behind the choice of this novel as a learning tool?
They might point out that Timothy Findley was, whether you agree or not, one of Canada’s more prolific and internationally admired writers; that The Wars is an acclaimed, GG Award-winning novel; and that the text is, in fact, approved by Sask Learning.
Arguing that the book (or any book) should be bumped from school curricula because it lacks literary merit is entirely valid. Characterizing the saucy bits (quoted out of context) as “soft porn” and socialist propaganda promulgated onto the malleable minds of our innocent youth by a morally debased education system is personal puritanism masquerading as social conservatism.
Very nice irwin, lets call people with an opposing view point to yours mentally handicapped. Then claim that only people like you can have a reasonable debate. A little hypocritical don’t you think?