Saskatchewan Education: Pornography and All

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.