"The last of [Baby Suggs'] children, whom she barely glanced at when he was born because it wasn't worth the trouble to try to learn features you would never see change into adulthood anyway. Seven times she had done that: held a little foot; examined the fat fingertips with her own--fingers she never saw become the male or female hands a mother would recognize anywhere. She didn't know to this day what their permanent teeth looked like; or how they held their heads when they walked."
On January 28, 1856, Margaret Garner, an escaped slave, and her family were on the verge of being captured by US Marshals. Hoping to spare her children from the horrors of slavery in America, she killed her eldest daughter and attempted to kill her other children. She was captured, tried, and returned to her master, eventually dying of typhoid, a slave.
Celebrated author Toni Morrison encountered Garner's story while editing a historical account of American slavery in 1974. It struck her so deeply she had to set the story aside for almost a decade. The life of Margaret Garner was so full of abuse, rape, and violence, mostly at the hands of cruel masters, that Morrison based her novel Beloved on it. Published in 1987, the book won Morrison the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction the following year.
The darkest moments of the book were so challenging, a Virginia high school senior had nightmares after reading just a portion of the book for school. After telling his mother how disturbed the life of Margaret Garner left him, she set upon the book's depictions of rape and bestiality, and tried, unsuccessfully, to have it banned from Fairfax County Public Schools.
And that's how we arrive at Del. Steve Landes' House Bill 516. If signed into law, the bill would compel teachers to provide a list of content that might be deemed "sexually explicit" to parents for censorship. If this sounds like an end-around to banning books, there's a good reason for that.
A list of books frequently taught in schools that contains content that might be considered "sexually explicit" could fill volumes. The Odyssey. The Great Gatsby. The Sun Also Rises. Invisible Man. Slaughterhouse-Five. On The Road. Romeo and Juliet. The Canterbury Tales. The Scarlet Letter.
Romeo and Juliet isn't pornography, but it depicts teen sex. The Scarlet Letter isn't pornography, but it depicts infidelity. On The Road isn't pornography, but it depicts promiscuity. All of these books are more than the salacious segments of their text. The books are frank depictions of the whole of human experience, not just the G-rated stuff.
Every child is different, and every child deserves a chance to advance at their own pace. And not every child is emotionally prepared to tackle humanity's darkest aspects. And that's why Virginia public schools already allow students to opt out of assignments on a case-by-case basis. But imagine the burden on the teachers if parents repeatedly opt chunks of the class out of a book as celebrated as Beloved? How long will good teachers put up with the challenges before they start catering their curriculum to the whims of the most squeamish parents?
The solution isn't to push through legislation to effectively ban books just a few people find objectionable. The solution is for teachers and parents to work together and maintain an open dialogue when children struggle with course materials. The solution is for challenging subjects, be they advanced calculus or the horrors faced by slaves in America, to be tackled in the classroom, and not by closed-minded legislators in Richmond.
HB516 supporter, Sen. Bill Carrico (R - Grayson) had this to say during the Senate Health and Education Committee hearing, "Evil is just -- when you plant the seed, it's a kitten. You feed it, it becomes a lion and it eats you." We don't know what any of that means, but while on the subject of not feeding evil, let's do our best to not ban books! Let's not feed evil kittens. Let's set aside this absurd bill, and let great works of literature stand on their merits.
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There's still time to put a stop to HB516, and that duty rests with Governor Terry McAuliffe. Tell the Governor that Margaret Garner's story deserves to be told in our classrooms. Tell the Governor Virginia isn't for book banning. Tell the Governor to veto HB516. And tell the General Assembly our children are made of tougher stuff.
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Progress Virginia and our sister organization, Progress Virginia Education Fund, are looking for a communications associate and Spanish language media specialist to join our team. The associate will build relationships with Spanish-language media, work with the Executive Director and allies to execute earned media campaigns, and provide communications training and advice to partners. The person we're looking for will have excellent oral and written communications skills in English and Spanish, is out-going and creative, and the ability to handle multiple fast-moving projects.
With student loan debt topping a staggering $1.2 trillion dollars --and 60% of college graduates leaving school in thousands of dollars of debt--student loan debt has become a national epidemic, one that keeps on hitting the economy--- nationwide and here in Virginia-- like a wrecking ball.
weather with the best audience Koch dollars could purchase in Dulles earlier this week, according to the 