Gold Lantern, the head of our Underground Railroad educational department received this letter from an anonymous teacher in the RCSD.? I read it and asked GL if I could answer it.? Below, you will find the letter from ?Concerned Teacher??and my response below that.
Mack Rights
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There is so much violence, sex, depression, anti-Christianity, and hopelessness in High School English Literature. Some example are:
Of Mice and Men, Death of a Salesman, The Crucible, Boy Soldiers, Othello, Romeo and Juliet, The Pearl?.need I say more?? There is little uplifting hope for students whose own lives are often difficult.
Also one should note that Arthur Miller, the writer of Death of a Salesman and The Crucible, was suspected of being a Communist, and definitely had ties with Communists in the 1950s. Hmmm?.makes one wonder about the bias!
There is one good book that is sometimes read, called The Pact, about three city boys who vow to change their circumstances and become doctors. There are great, hopeful biographies like that of Booker T. Washington. And there is other literature that is not a downer!!!
While the nation looks at violence in video games and movies, let?s not forget the schools themselves! Very often a teacher will show the movie that goes with the book, making things more graphic.
Sincerely,
A concerned teacher
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I think you?re wrong, and here?s why. America shares borders, language and culture, as Michael Savage loves to say. Culture comes from the literature that every citizen reads and shares, and, of course, it comes from the Bible. The communists understand this better than anyone. They try to kill off culture by diluting it with crap and nonsense.? ?Crap? is a technical term for post-modern art and literature.
However, the fabric of society is woven with the threads of literature that we all share. Without an understanding of the books that our forefathers all read, including the King James Bible- because they didn?t have TV- children grow up completely unattached to their forefathers. Even in the early days of TV, it was better. There were only 3 networks and very little room for cultural subversion- think The Rifleman, Bonanza, I love Lucy, The Honeymooners, Mary Tyler Moore Show (There might have been a little here- telling a woman she can make it on her own- hat was definitely subversion when the show was first on TV), My Three Sons, The Waltons, and the list goes on- everybody watched these shows and shared the culture. Now we have hundreds of networks and too much subversion.
So let me speak on the pieces of literature that you don?t like. First, let me say, literature is a representation of life, and for most, life sucks and then you die. Life isn?t fair. Those who live life successfully have accepted that fact and are good at dealing with it.? We conservatives excel at that. Liberals are stuck in a phase of adolescence and unable to move on until everything seems fair. It?s not fair, it never was, and it never will be. They need to move on.
Of Mice and Men: I love Steinbeck. By the way, he was a communist during a period of history when it was fashionable to be a communist- the Great Depression. The depression era was the heyday of communism, before we knew of all the slaughters we?d learn about later and before we knew that the communists would ultimately make the Nazis look like pikers in their appetite for death, destruction and dismay. In any case, his books are rippling with communist preachings, but there?s no better writer in history who can illustrate the Great Depression with words. Why?s that important? Because we?ve all had it too easy, and we need to know that it wasn?t always as easy as it is now.? As well, we need to get ready for when it is hard. Now, I believe the slow guy with the mouse was named Lenny. Lenny was slow and only had George as a friend. Life?s tough for slow people, especially when the economy sucks. It?s about sympathy for the little guy.? At the same time, it?s also about sympathy for those who, like George, have to come to the decision that they will have to do something horrific that might hurt some a little so that others won?t do worse. Sure, it?s got the feel of Old Yeller, but that is something children need to know about- life was a lot tougher in the past. As far as Steinbeck?s The Pearl, I say, ?Read Steinbeck.? I?d prefer they check out The Grapes of Wrath, Cannery Row, The Winter of Our Discontent, or East of Eden, but it doesn?t matter. It?s all good.
Death of a Salesman. Arthur Miller was a communist, but this is a story about how life isn?t fair- as a communist would see it. But the failure of Willy Loman?s plan to help his friend Biff also teaches us that sometimes, there are no shortcuts- an opposite lesson from what the communists preach when luring young minds into their fold. Again, kid, life sucks, so be glad you aren?t Willy Loman.
The Crucible is also by communist Arthur Miller. First, it reminds us of how great America was when we could sit around on a Saturday night and enjoy a good witch burning. Now, with the multi-cultural movement, we rarely ever burn witches, and as a result, kids are trying witchcraft and selling their souls for sprite magic. This book was also an allegory for the ?communist witch hunts of the McCarthy era.? In other words, liberals fashion themselves as witches persecuted for their ungodly doings. Sounds good to me. I love it when liberals are honest. At least children will understand where the term ?witch hunt comes from.?? There?s two ways of looking at this book.? The liberals sympathize with the witches.? I enjoy the witch burnings- that?s entertainment.
I never read or heard of Boy Soldiers and can?t figure out who wrote it. So I have no comment.
Othello. This is Shakespeare. Everybody needs to read and love Shakespeare. He?s the greatest writer, and so much of our culture is derived from his poetry. While these two stories are sad, that?s because they?re tragedies. Children learn about the tragic hero who has a tragic flaw that determines his tragic destiny. It teaches children not to have the tragic flaw that is illustrated in that specific tragedy. By the way, Othello was a black tragic hero. Why shouldn?t children read about a black general from the 1600?s? Are they only supposed to believe that all blacks were slaves back then? Wouldn?t that belief only serve to make slavery seem less horrific?- Yes. If children are taught that a black man could also be a general back then, then that makes the fact that so many were slaves even more horrendous.
Romeo and Juliet. This is a profound play. Not only is it one that younger students can more easily understand and relate to, but it?s about cultural acceptance.? The feud between the Montegues and the Capulets is a symbol of the very real cross-cultural hatred that too often plagues our society.? It?s also about love- a love so strong that a couple of ?star-crossed lovers? were willing to die to be together. If it makes one kid think, ?Hmm, love? Wow, that seems a bit more powerful than that lust I share with Maria Bootie Pants. I think she?s pregnant again. That sucks. But she?ll just get an abortion like she always does, so I?m off the hook. But this love stuff- I might have to check it out.? He might just ?shake the yolk of inauspicious stars.? In other words, he might try to avoid his bad fate. Romeo couldn?t change his fate, but Maria Bootie Pants? baby?s daddy might get to.? And then she might not be known as Maria Bootie Pants- all because some kids read Romeo and Juliet.
And when you get tired of tragedy, know that Shakespeare didn?t just write tragedies.? He wrote comedies, historical plays and sonnets.? The key is that children learn that man is flawed, and when he ignores that flaw, tragedy ensues.? The Bible is the book that teaches us to avoid these flaws, but teachers can?t teach The Bible in public schools.? Whether we like it or not, Christianity is now the subversive undercurrent in society.? With godless lawyers around every corner just waiting to sue you for the mere mention of Jesus to children living Christ-free lives directed by the god of government, Christians need to understand how to pass on the moral aspects that our culture used to take for granted as universal.
If you?re a teacher teaching Death of a Salesman, it?s completely fine to teach that Arthur Miller was a communist and an atheist.? You might not be able to tell the kids about Christ, but you can tell them about how a man, who doesn?t believe in God, tends to view life as meaningless and devoid of all happiness.? Were you happy when Willy Loman killed himself?? Did it seem meaningless?? Then explain what nihilism is.? Throw in some John Paul Sartre.? The Age of Reason is about the meaningless meetings of a French philosopher and his mistress in a small room oppressed by cigarette smoke.? He?s obsessed with maintaining freedom before WWII, but finds himself more and more oppressed by the meaninglessness of his atheistic life and his mistress? pregnancy.? Granted, this book might be a bit racy for students, but Sartre is another atheistic author whose nihilistic view of life is incredibly bleak. Children can subverted to the good side by the teacher?s obligation to emphasize that that is how someone who doesn?t believe in God might view the world.
I don?t know about the book The Pact, but it sounds like an uplifting story about three kids promising to work really hard to be employee-slaves of Obama?s Obamacare monster. I believe kids need to read the older stuff before they mess with the newer stuff. The glue that prevents society from collapsing in on itself comes from understanding the foundations of society, which are derived from the literature produced by that society. Biographies are great, but I think biographies are better read once the literary foundation has been tackled. It?s easier to read a biography once you understand the period in which the person lived, and for that, literature is where it?s at.
The bottom line, it doesn?t matter what time period you look at.? Literature is one of the ways we understand that period and that place.? When we want to learn about life during WWI and afterwards for those who lived through it and now like to drink and fish, we give Ernest Hemingway a call.? If you want to learn about the Roaring 20?s and all the plastic veneer of life painted by the euphoria from the excessive flow of forbidden prohibition-era alcohol, you check out Hemingway?s friend F. Scott Fitzgerald.? How can one not love a book that begins:
In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I?ve been turning over in my mind ever since. ?Whenever you feel like criticizing any one,? he told me, ?just remember that all the people in this world haven?t had the advantages that you?ve had.?
If you want to learn about the South, visit Yoknapatawpha County and follow the Bundren family as they all take their dead mother?s stinking corpse for a long voyage in a horse-drawn wagon to the town where she wanted to be buried.? Any kid who thinks he has it so hard needs to go on this adventure in William Faulkner?s As I Lay Dying.
And we shouldn?t restrict our children?s knowledge to life in the 20th Century.? Go to the 1800?s and go on a long obsessive deep-sea voyage with Captain Ahab in Herman Melville?s Moby Dick.? Or experience the 19th Century Europe with Charles Dickens.? Life was so hard and terrible that the word ?Dickensian? was coined to describe the ?squalid and poverty-stricken? world he so successfully captured in literature.
I could go on, but I?d rather further explain why I think a child?s literary educational foundation should be focused towards the past.? We read literature to pass the time, but also to know and understand that we are not alone in our sorrows, despair and occasional hopelessness.? These are emotions that have been driving humans since the beginning of time.? And literature is chosen by what the most people of that time period related to.? If you were to look at the most popular literature of today, you couldn?t avoid the fact that the most popular books sold are the Twilight Series and the 50 Shades of Grey Series.? Let?s consider the implications of literature purchases in Obama?s America.? The first series is about a young girl who trades her soul for eternal damnation over her lust for a vampire boy- not very wholesome.
The second series is called mommy porn.? It has women all across America fantasizing about sadomasochism and bondage.? What is bondage but another word for slavery?? This is how sick our culture is right now.? Sure there are a lot of guys out there telling other guys to make sure their wives read these books, but what happens when the S and M inside the marriage isn?t enough to satisfy the fantasy?? Some of those wives will seek a new disease-wielding master to tie them up and deprive them of freedom.? Don?t tell me that this is because society isn?t sick culturally.
So I write this in full knowledge that presently, Obama is installing his Commoncore plans to make 70% of what children read be non-fiction. In other words, instead of learning the literature that ties these children to the great culture of the United States and the English-speaking world, these children will be reading reports on global warming and instruction manuals on how to build a greenhouse and grow organic vegetables fertilized with their own poop. In other words, Obama wants these poop-flinging children so unattached to their culture that they?ll be easier to manipulate onto the train that will deliver them to a utopian serfdom on the spinning planet of global socialism run by the dictators at Turtle Bay.
Violence doesn?t come from getting the opportunity to learn and appreciate literature.? No child will say, ?You gave me the chance to learn this book.? I?m going to kill you.??? However, I would argue that violent tendencies are more likely to come from not knowing or understanding why the world is the way it is. This might come from being functionally illiterate, and being unable to enjoy the knowledge and history that we all take for granted.? But if you look at the fact that over 90% of mass shootings are committed by children on psychotropic drugs to treat ADHD and depression, you might find fault in literature.? These drugs prevent the patient from feeling anything other than an artificial happiness guaranteed by increasing the neurotransmitter concentration in the brain?s synapses.? When sorrow, sadness, depression and love become feelings and emotions that are too elusive due to a drug-induced brain-chemistry, violent homicidal and suicidal reactions are becoming more and more common.? The emotions that literature is supposed to inspire in the reader become meaningless to the drug-addled who aren?t able to experience them.? But this problem isn?t the fault of literature.? It?s the fault of teachers, parents and doctors who put these young children on these awful drugs.
Thus, concerned teacher, I say, ?Let the children read literature.? And be prepared to give them an answer when they ask, ?Why do I need to learn this?? Your answer might be as simple as this, ?Because if you don?t learn this, due to your own tragic flaw of prideful arrogance, you might get seduced by the dark side and become a witch who gets burnt to a crisp.?
Sincerely,
Mack Rights
For your entertainment:
?What burns apart from witches??
?More Witches.?
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