The children of South Windsor, Connecticut, are at long last safe from the pernicious influence of David Olio, who has been forced to resign as an English teacher at South Windsor High School after showing a video of Allen Ginsberg reading his poem "Please, Master" to his Advanced Placement English class in February. The poem, which is definitely not rated PG, apparently upset some students enough that they complained to their parents, so the school suspended and then moved to fire Olio, who had taught at the high school
lol I am with you there. Pay the teachers MOARThe way I see it, parents send their kids to school but they do not really want the teachers to teach. Except when they don't teach the parents get irate. And when the students don't excel, it is the teacher's fault too. But if they teach anything the parent is against, then it is persecution. And it is always someone else's fault except the student and/or the parent.Friggin teachers ought to be bajillionaires for putting up with the shit parents give them. I try my damnest not to be one of those parents.
I'd guess every guy in that class and most of the girls have checked out some internet porn either purposely or having a friend showing it or sexting their boyfriend the high school quarterback.And this is Connecticut, for fuck's sake, so I'd think they'd be a little more fucking comfortable with fucks than the South Georgia county full of serious Southern Baptists where my English class read "Catcher in the Rye" more than 30 years ago.It just may have been that the parents who would have objected back then were functionally illiterate, so they had no idea what the hell those elitist teachers were having their little angels read.
I read Deliverance in high school. Admittedly, I would not have wanted to sit through Mrs. Burns reading the rape scene. Also, the Godfather sex parts. You can tell I'm old, yes, by what I read in HS.
Probably more going on here than meets the eye--some effort to see how far they could go with Olio. Maybe some people trying to get him fired. As for South Windsor, it used to be known for tobacco growing (the Connecticut River Valley has a relatively short, but hot and humid summer and towns East and North of Hartford grew cigar tobacco for many years). It's also on the less sophisticated side of Hartforf (West hartford and the Farmington River Valley is where the money is). In short, it's not that big a surprise ven being Connecticut. Ginsberg probably is more for a college audience and even then, he's probably more camp than revelation or revolutionary.
Heaven forbid anyone approaching adulthood should be confronted with anything shocking in the course of one's education! That could lead to discomfort and dissonance, which could lead to questioning and perhaps, almost too awful to mention, thinking! Much better to offer comforts and fantasies to soothe the soft American mind and foster conformity.
Doktor Zoom - just so you know, the kid who brought in the poem spoke at the Board of Ed meeting in defense of Mr. Olio and wants to be a teacher because of Him. My daughter and other students who were in this class also spoke on his behalf. Here is what I wrote about the issue:HTTPS://sites.google.com/si...
Reading Allen Ginsburg "encourages anal" about as much as reading F. Scott Fitzgerald encourages alcoholism and mental illness, or as much as reading Ezra Pound encourages a love of fascism. If you think high schoolers in an Advanced Placement English class were actually damaged by reading the word "cock", then you're a freak. Hell, my friends were performing in the Rocky Horror Picture Show by age 16.
Thank you for speaking up, you and your daughter. And thank you for letting us know that the students are so touched, adds something good to what otherwise is a very sad story. I hope they can all take this with them and let it help them know that there are so many who would tell us what not to see, not to hear, not to know.
Perhaps if they were seniors in a college prep course - maybe.
AP English. *Cough.*And not *all* the parents btw, scroll up. Some of the parents, at least, are not afraid to let their kids know there is a world out there, some good, some bad, and teach them how to make good choices, instead of trying to hide everything they, the parents, consider icky.
lol I am with you there. Pay the teachers MOARThe way I see it, parents send their kids to school but they do not really want the teachers to teach. Except when they don't teach the parents get irate. And when the students don't excel, it is the teacher's fault too. But if they teach anything the parent is against, then it is persecution. And it is always someone else's fault except the student and/or the parent.Friggin teachers ought to be bajillionaires for putting up with the shit parents give them. I try my damnest not to be one of those parents.
I'd guess every guy in that class and most of the girls have checked out some internet porn either purposely or having a friend showing it or sexting their boyfriend the high school quarterback.And this is Connecticut, for fuck's sake, so I'd think they'd be a little more fucking comfortable with fucks than the South Georgia county full of serious Southern Baptists where my English class read "Catcher in the Rye" more than 30 years ago.It just may have been that the parents who would have objected back then were functionally illiterate, so they had no idea what the hell those elitist teachers were having their little angels read.
Piggybacking is a sexual practice that's popular in the South.It involves a pig and a man who can run faster.
That's the only part of the bible I like ~ the Songs of Solomon. Sexy stuff.
I read Deliverance in high school. Admittedly, I would not have wanted to sit through Mrs. Burns reading the rape scene. Also, the Godfather sex parts. You can tell I'm old, yes, by what I read in HS.
Probably more going on here than meets the eye--some effort to see how far they could go with Olio. Maybe some people trying to get him fired. As for South Windsor, it used to be known for tobacco growing (the Connecticut River Valley has a relatively short, but hot and humid summer and towns East and North of Hartford grew cigar tobacco for many years). It's also on the less sophisticated side of Hartforf (West hartford and the Farmington River Valley is where the money is). In short, it's not that big a surprise ven being Connecticut. Ginsberg probably is more for a college audience and even then, he's probably more camp than revelation or revolutionary.
are you asking for a friend?
Heaven forbid anyone approaching adulthood should be confronted with anything shocking in the course of one's education! That could lead to discomfort and dissonance, which could lead to questioning and perhaps, almost too awful to mention, thinking! Much better to offer comforts and fantasies to soothe the soft American mind and foster conformity.
Doktor Zoom - just so you know, the kid who brought in the poem spoke at the Board of Ed meeting in defense of Mr. Olio and wants to be a teacher because of Him. My daughter and other students who were in this class also spoke on his behalf. Here is what I wrote about the issue:HTTPS://sites.google.com/si...
Reading Allen Ginsburg "encourages anal" about as much as reading F. Scott Fitzgerald encourages alcoholism and mental illness, or as much as reading Ezra Pound encourages a love of fascism. If you think high schoolers in an Advanced Placement English class were actually damaged by reading the word "cock", then you're a freak. Hell, my friends were performing in the Rocky Horror Picture Show by age 16.
Thank you for speaking up, you and your daughter. And thank you for letting us know that the students are so touched, adds something good to what otherwise is a very sad story. I hope they can all take this with them and let it help them know that there are so many who would tell us what not to see, not to hear, not to know.
Repressed moralist says what?
Perhaps if they were seniors in a college prep course - maybe.
AP English. *Cough.*And not *all* the parents btw, scroll up. Some of the parents, at least, are not afraid to let their kids know there is a world out there, some good, some bad, and teach them how to make good choices, instead of trying to hide everything they, the parents, consider icky.
Do you know what "being on the down low" means?
Connecticut? hells no. The Puritan still runs super deep in most of the state.
Perhaps you.Not that there's anything wrong with that. As for your statement, I don't subscribe to that fiction.