http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,33108,00.html

Now I can completely understand people not wanting to read books period, let alone the rather slow paced classics. This doesn't bother me at all. But they are taught in schools because they are brilliant pieces of writing that have encapsulated an idea worth upholding and have stood the test of time, whether they are liked or not is not the point; at the least we need to accept that they are well written.

And then this comes about. These books portray unpleasant racial themes and cover issues such as homosexuality. If To Kill A Mockingbird is being studied in class then the kids, I presume from my own experience, will be about 15 years old or older. At that age they are already aware of these issues, and these books further help them understand the history of our race and our own disgusting discrimination of many groups in different countries and cultures in the past.

Why are people so damn stupid?

http://www.ala.org/ala/oif/bannedbooksweek...edbooksweek.htm

Go there to see just how many books are banned or are proposed to be so (in the US that is).

Banning books that reveal nastier sides of culture (and history) simply presents the child with an unrealistically sanitized version of the world, which will only breed ignorance. Ignorance is bliss... until reality gives one a bloody nose when that one is not paying attention... (Real-life case study: September 11, 2001. Enough said...)

That's just silly. I mean, like you said, students who would be taught these things, for most part, would be mature enough to handle profanities and references to sex. If not, it would be about time that they did. I think it's a bad attempt to shield their children from the realities and cancers of society. =_=