You suggested that those states are actively banning books such as Maus, The Kite Runner, etc like Florida, Texas, Tennessee and Kentucky. I’m still looking for a link proving that’s the case.
I read lots of books, including those banned by the left and the right. Enjoy both.
My son had to read Huck Finn in his English class - don’t recall which high school year that one was. He graduated from high school in 2014. I’m not sure if it’s still required or not.
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I’m working at a Pre-k to 5th grade school. Because of covid almost everything is in the individual classrooms, including the “library.” The teachers have a lot of books available for the students to pick for ‘free reading’ or on a specific topic, like for Black History month. It’s up to each teacher to pick the books for the classroom.
I work in the old cafeteria which is now lined with bookshelves full of material for the teachers to grab, arranged by grade level. Tons of books. But the teachers never seem to come get them. I’m dying to send these books home with the kids. Some are beautiful picture books. Our school is about 30% Muslim and about 50% Hispanic, and many of the books are about those cultures (I’ve read through a bunch during lunch). They are really beautiful.
The math we teach is off printouts, and my big complaint is that while they are trying to be inclusive, some of the names they pick for the word problems are so complicated the kids lose all thoughts of math trying to figure out the names (most of mine struggle with reading). They get ‘Ahmed’ because they know 3 of them from school, but stumble over Deanna or Matthew. and names that aren’t pronounced like they are spelled (we do actually have a Seamus so they get that one). Oh for the days of Jane, Mike and Spot.
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and
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As the recent posts have been dominated by a handful of users, I have put the thread on slow mode until morning. My hope is this will allow other users to join the conversation and prompt the more exuberant users to be strategic in postings.
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Regarding the sentiment that reading has been de-emphasized in recent years, this is just part of cultural evolution. It is a natural correction to what people think is most important now.
Kids don’t want to read the “classics”, or anything that is “difficult”, and parents don’t feel it is necessary. I agree, and I don’t believe it has ever been of significant value. It seems like something that has been pushed by people who like to read, and are good at reading, so as to say, “I can do this, so you need to be able to do this.”
It is similar to an imagined curriculum where everyone must take 4 semesters of calculus and a number theory class, and if society falls short of this, we’re falling apart. Completely unnecessary.
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It’s interesting that people feel their kids books were dumbed down. I had the opposite with my kids. They did read some of the ones that I “read”- cliff notes! Some of the stuff I read in high school, they read in middle school, books I read in college, they read in high school. They also had plenty of others- each read more than one Shakespeare. My kids actually read their books. One D had an author she had to read in depth- Washington Irving. We read some of his stuff aloud, I really enjoyed his writing. The only assignment I didn’t like the way it was done was Invisible Man- teacher felt it was too long to read and split up chapters by group. I don’t know how you were supposed to read and understand the context of your chapters without reading what came before it.
I think their favorite book was The Outsiders 7th grade. I was supposed to read it in high school, but the movie came out a couple years before and they knew we would all just watch that.
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The only book on that list that I have read is “Outlander”. “Outlander” is fun, escapist reading but hardly great literature so to exclude it is no great loss.
When my kids were in school I recall them reading a lot of Jack London, Charles Dickens and Shakespeare.
Remember Devo?..short for de-evolution, and we truly need to whip it.
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Outsiders was 7th grade reading when I was in 7th grade many years ago. As for not reading the books or reading cliff notes, that’s on you. 
I read everything we were supposed to read and never touched cliff’s notes. That is good that your children are being asked to read in school. So, two questions: are your kids in public or private school? And what region of the country?
Just one example, I read 4 or 5 Shakespeare in high school (public school - mid-atlantic, although I always consider it the northeast) my D has read none, (public HS, South).
I think that will depend on the school involved and the particular kids in that school. My kids read more in school (midwest public) than I did in mine (midwest private). Though we read a lot of the classics in my school. Overall, my kids’ educations ran circles around mine. And it wasn’t even close. But there were a lot of the kids in their school who got pretty mediocre educations because they did not take advantage of opportunities that were there for the taking.
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For those still interested, Florida’s DoE has released 4 pages as examples of problematic text from the rejected books. The NY Times separately examined 21 of the books and offers other examples of potentially challenged material in today’s paper. Publishers have 21 days to appeal a rejection and submit modified material if they so choose; 1 publisher thus far has stated that it will do so.
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FWIW, I have kids at both ends of the math ability spectrum, one struggles and one is exceptionally gifted. Neither would have benefited from the cited exercises in the books, and frankly would have flat out refused some of them. Not willing to write a biography about the history of their relationship with math, self-assess their feelings towards a math problem, or opine on methods of solving single digit addition. They preferred straightforward text and problems, no distractions.
As more than one publisher is likely to be approved after revision, it appears the financial concerns of some were misplaced or allayed
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Kid is in AP Seminar in private school in the mid-Atlantic - a combo of APUSH and AP American Lit. Granted, it’s not indicative of general curriculum or reading practices in high school, but I’m comforted by his reading list so far this year: Scarlet Letter, Crucible, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, As I Lay Dying - also a hefty chunk spent on DuBois/Booker T. Washington - White Noise, Their Eyes Were Watching God, and they read tons of shorter stuff every week from their Norton’s Anthology.
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The math books or the fiction/literature??
The math books. I am unaware of any Florida statewide statement on literature
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Large diverse public school in NC. Same school system I graduated from. Parents are very well educated here. Sadly, there have been some grumblings about books. There were some books pulled from the PUBLIC library recently. I think they are back on the shelves. It’s a slippery slope.
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There are cultural agendas at play with banning books, and then there are other agendas at play regarding the de-emphasis of books (in favor of multimedia technology etc.)
For the former, it’s obvious to everyone what the sides are and who feels strongly about what (and why). The latter is more insidious. The literary dumbing down of America (lowered expectations) is sometimes couched in terms of progress (“in with the new”, which is screen-based interactive content rather than War and Peace…) but can be a Trojan Horse for ideology (on both sides…Left will cancel certain classic books, Right will ban certain classic books).
But FAANG also has an economic interest in getting our kids off of books and in front of screens - so their ads get clicked, their movies get watched, their content is prioritized, etc. That influence is worrisome. They give big discounts to schools to have technology there; necessary technology, yes, but parents and teachers do need to sometimes push back against replacement of long form reading with bite-sized snippets.
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One example cited by the Times was a textbook which provided brief biographies of famous mathematicians. Not one was a white male. I am strongly supportive of inclusion of diverse representation, but to deliberately exclude white male mathematicians is simply ridiculous.
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Although sometimes the primary sources that are now more readily available may convey the ideas better than textbooks. For example, in a history course that teaches the civil war, the immediate causes of secession can be found in The Declaration of Causes of Seceding States .
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