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© St. Petersburg Times, published October 7, 2001
I read with mixed feelings the report in the St. Petersburg Times on an eighth-grade language arts teacher's use in her class of the award-winning adolescent novel The Chocolate War (Parent objects to book at middle school, Sept. 19). The parents of one of the students judged the book to be inappropriate. While I do not fault a parent's right to object to a part of the school curriculum, I am concerned that we may be missing an important aspect of this issue.
In advance of introducing the book to her students, the teacher made a deliberate effort to inform parents. It's obvious to me that the teacher is intelligent enough to recognize the book's potential to create the kind of controversy in which she now finds herself embroiled; nonetheless, she apparently was committed to the value of the book. So she did the prudent and responsible thing. She sent a note home with her students, asking the parents to give their child permission to read the book.
How often do we, as mature adults, recall one of our teachers inviting our parents to participate in the process of judging and selecting curriculum content? Furthermore, the teacher "encouraged (her students) to discuss information with their parents and encouraged their parents to read (the book)."
We can argue First Amendment rights and Supreme Court cases until the proverbial cows come home, but let's not fail to recognize the efforts of a teacher to democratize the education process, to include the voices of parents in making informed decisions about ideas that some may find objectionable. Isn't this what the phrase "freedom comes with responsibility" is all about?
-- Herb Karl, Clearwater
Re: Keep independent shops afloat, letter, Sept. 23.
-- It will be of no comfort to the letter writer to know that it has always been a struggle for the "small man" to survive.
The small business would cash a check for the customer when big business would not. Then the customer would go to big business and spend their funds. Small business would give credit when monthly funds were depleted. Big business would not. When the check arrived, the customer would pay up his credit and head for the big business to stock up.
Small business is what makes this country so great. They really care about their customers. If you are temporarily down on your luck, big business couldn't care less.
Donald F. Kelly, St. Petersburg