More on the Athletic Shorts challenge.

I was wrong--the book is being challenged from the racism angle:

"Telephone Man," the story that sparked the controversy, is about a borderline autistic boy who mimics his father's racist views and refers to blacks and ethnic groups in derogatory terms. The story ends with a black student saving the boy from being beat up by a Chinese karate gang.

"It's gritty, there's no doubt about that," Crutcher said. "We sit around and talk about No Child Left Behind, and all the kids that are left behind get X-ed out because we don't want to hear about their lives."

Hazel Lewis, president of the local branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, called the story "trash" and said Bouwhuis should be fired.

"It's terrible," she said. "She should be more sensitive than to bring that into a seventh- and eighth-grade classroom. College students can handle stuff like that, but not our babies."

Yes, because kids never hear things like that in the school hallway--or in the real world.  And as we all know, it's a bad idea to talk about this stuff in a classroom setting.

Chris Crutcher has posted a response on his website--it's well worth reading.  (It's okay to have secret boyfriends even after you're married, right?)

You don’t hide a word like that.  You expose it.  You tell the truth about it.  Unlike the people who are challenging the story, I have confidence in our children’s intellectual ability to understand that.

Swoon.

Comments

[Sarah]

"...our babies."

Excuse me, did I read that right? 7th and 8th graders are as far from being babies as you could get. Heck - they scare me!

*mutter, mutter, mutter*

[C.C.]

Once again, Sarah beat me to it.