How America Is Different From Canada (maybe)...No. 2468.

OptionalExtemismSouthOfTheMason-Dixon
LineVille


Earlier today we noted how, when it comes to our political culture and a women's freedom to choose, Canada is still quite different from the United States.

And I sure as heckfire hope that the following, as reported by Christine Hauser in the NYTimes,  is not something that is occurring in Canuckistan.

Or even North Dakota...

A public school board in Mississippi said this week that it would give students the option of reading the classic novel “To Kill a Mockingbird” — but only with a parent’s permission — weeks after it removed the book from the required curriculum for eighth graders.

In a letter dated Oct. 23, Scott Powell, the junior high school principal in Biloxi, Miss., informed parents that students could study the book in classrooms again starting on Monday.

“As has been stated before, ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’ is not a required read for 8th Grade ELA (English Language Arts) students,” Mr. Powell wrote, according to a report in The Sun Herald newspaper.

“However, 8th Grade ELA teachers will offer the opportunity for interested students to participate in an in-depth book study of the novel during regularly scheduled classes as well as the optional after school sessions,” Mr. Powell said...


Gosh.

Somehow I don't think that the extremists' real problem with the book is the character development of Boo Radley.

To wit:

...Kenny Holloway, the vice president of the Biloxi (Mississippi) School Board, later told The Sun Herald that the book was still available in the library, but that the eighth-grade curriculum would use another book because some of the language “makes people uncomfortable.”..


Regardless, just like in proMedia punditry circles north and south of all North American borders, it turns out that the real reason that this kind of codswallopanarianism continues to flourish is because the acquiescent reflexive responses of good liberals who immediately cave to soft, cozy 'optional' extremism:

...Arne Duncan, the former secretary of education in the Obama administration, and others on Twitter, welcomed the reinstatement. “Good news!” he tweeted...


Sheesh.


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