>

So sick of seeing the kowtowing to the concerns of right-wing snowflakes.
The excuse send to be "we weren't ready to have this discussion with the kids". Bullshit. When you have (or teach) kids, you often have to meet them where they are. If they're encountering topics of racism, you talk about it. And nine is plenty fucking old, so there's no copping out there, either. >

This might be my personal biases talking, but I think it's more likely that they were worried about the parent's reaction.
"this was not the conversation we had prepared Mrs. Robek, the students or parents would take place."
I think kids of that age should learn that racism is stupid, arbitrary and socially constructed. Not sure that everyone agrees with that. >

That's another standard excuse, but it's usually about hypothetical parents. Sure, some sometimes complain, but either schools are way more gun-shy about this than the numbers bear out or it's just a way to shift the blame for a decision that they were going to make anyway.
Most parents I know would like their kids to have these conversations at school. Ideally, also at home, but a lot of parents would be happy the school is doing it for them. It was part of of curriculum from kindergarten when I was in school.
Realistically, you read s book about the stupidity of treating people differentlywho look different >

It’s not at all hypothetical. My district in a liberal state has been receiving parent complaints since the summer about books, topics, etc. >

What books, what topics, what kinds of complaints? >

Do you really need an enumerated list?  Any topics that parents disagree with or might cause their children to become independent thinkers.  The excuse the school gives by suggesting the children are not ready for the topic when they were the ones to bring it up is laughable. >

I agree with the overall sentiment but I do need a list to make an informed decision. There are things that clearly should not be discussed with anyone but a parent. >

Is that clear though?  What would be an example of a topic that clearly only parents should discuss with children, particularly when it is the children that bring up the subject in relation to the material being covered?  I can't think of a subject that can't be discussed in an age-appropriate way.  
Public or even most private education isn't set up to provide à la carte educational services.  If you want that you have to home-school or hire a private teacher. >

A good example we should all be able to agree on is politics. Conversations start that a teacher can't help but a child shouldn't come home saying "Biden is an idiot and is ruining this country" any more than "Trump is racist" and when you ask them where they got it they say "teacher said...". 
What does that have to do with math or science? Perhaps in a history class there could be some overlap. I think we should all be able to agree that a teacher should never speak in a way that gives any definite opinion on sexuality, politics, or religion. >

I don't agree.  Censoring teachers from being able to express anything that might be considered an opinion on sexuality, politics or religion is a loophole you can drive a truck through to limit student's exposure to important topics they will have to learn about to live in the real world.  
Part of getting an education is being exposed to different ideas that you don't agree with.  If your child comes home saying X politician is an idiot, 1. They are probably right, and 2 it creates an opportunity to discuss why they may or may not be and let your child reach some of their own conclusions even if they are different from your own.  I don't see how this is harmful >

What was the lesson of “The Pale Green Pants with Nobody Inside Them”? That story terrified me to the point that my siblings chased me with the book open to it. >

I think it’s just about running away from your fears and maybe realizing that once you stop running and face them, they weren’t so scary after all. >

You should read Sesame Street's "The Monster At The End Of The Book". It stars Grover.
I love that book. I think it was my first book. >

"The Monster at the End of This PDF" doesn't quite have the same oomph. >

You get to the end and it's just a message saying you need to update Adobe Reader. >

Scary shit tho. >


Beras later contacted Beeman about what happened, Beeman said, "When the book began addressing racism, segregation and discriminating behaviors, this was not the conversation we had prepared Mrs. Robek, the students or parents would take place. There may be some very important economics lessons in The Sneetches, but I did not feel that those lessons were the themes students were going to grasp at that point in the day or in the book." Beeman further told The Dispatch, "As (The Sneetches) was being read, I made a personal judgment call we shouldn’t do the reading because of some of the other themes and undertones that were unfolding that were not shared that we would be discussing with parents."
Published in 1961, The Sneetches (which is part of a collection of Dr. Seuss stories titled The Sneetches and Other Stories) is about a type of yellow creature (a Sneetch) that is either born with or without a star on its belly. While those with stars discriminate against those without, a character named Sylvester McMonkey McBean invents a machine that can either remove or add a star. The story ends with the Sneetches spending all of their money on Sylvester McMonkey McBean's machine before learning neither star-bellies nor non-star-bellies are superior.

The admin apparently hadn't read the book ahead of time.. >

That’s what is so absurd to me. How the hell was this assistant communication director caught off guard here? The kid has to teach her what’s going on before she realizes?
And it just heightens the concern—what actually nefarious messages escape the grasp of educators and get propagandized to kids, not from malice, but mere incompetence? >

Not letting them finish the book robs them of a valuable life lesson.  All they got to learn was that star bellies were better than blank bellies, they never got to the star adding machine, nor to the lesson that it was all fucking ridiculous and everyone is equal star bellied or not.  You let the kids learn to segregate, but failed to teach them why that's wrong. >

I would argue they learned an even more valuable life lesson: in America today, the fact that anti-racism is controversial is total bullshit
But you’re also right, of course >

It’s always been controversial cause America is stuck in 1823 instead of 2023. >

Oh, so now they want to cancel Dr Seuss >

Wasnt Ben Shabibo going on about how the "radical left" wanted to cancel Dr Seuss? >

Borb Sharpizzo indeed regularly complains about the radical left cancelling Dr Seuss >

Dr Zeus early cartoons contain some pretty racist looking depictions of black people(I think they were drawings for a client) however during WW2 he did a ton of anti Nazi political cartoons. >

His WWII comics also have some very racist depictions of Japanese people. As he got older, though, he wrote more books with anti-racist themes like The Sneetches and Horton Hears a Who. People can learn! >

Horton Hears a Who isn’t just an anti-racist story, it’s a direct criticism of the America’s decision to use Nuclear weapons against Japan. >

Whether this is accurate or not, it reads like that south park episode with "the tales of scrotie mcboogerballs". >

I remember about halfway through reading this as a 6 or 7 year old that I thought the moral of the story was going to be to not make rash decisions about tattoo choices at a young age - which was still a pretty darn good life lesson. >

Omg I hate our society it's embarassing >

I blame warning signs.  We've been delaying darwinism way too much. >

100%. We normalized and even glorified weakness. >

Wow, we have a rare specimen here: abuse apologist, fan of a sex trafficker, and spouting literal fascist propaganda! >

Lmao, yea coming from a literal NPC. >

It's almost fascinating just how rotted your brain is. One of the varieties of mold up there might be a new antibiotic, you should get someone to study them! >

Good thing someone was there to hit the "Critical Thinking Alarm". Kids might have accidentally learned something about people!
I'm going to save this for the next time someone asks why I moved out of Ohio. I have a large collection of Ohio racism & stupidity stories already. >

The only reason necessary for moving out of Ohio: because you realized you were in Ohio. >

Yes, but they export their stupid.  We don't want Ohioans either. >

Well, do what we Michiganders do: don't let them in. >

Great day when a third grader is genuinely the smartest person in the building >

Why is that great?  Wouldn't you want teachers or admins to be smarter? >

Woosh >

My 5yo understood this was about discrimination...9yos should be fine with this. As another commenter said it works for any "ism". >

I loved it as a kid and loved it even because I could see the deeper theme of discrimination.
I mean personally I can't remember a day in my life that I didn't know about discrimination. My mother was a teacher and never hesistated to tell me the reality of the world. >

Oh dear lord no, the Sneeches are absolutely the story about discrimination that you read to children.  It's about the best deconstruction of the idiocy of discriminatory behavior I've ever seen or read. >

When the kids understand the context.
It proves the storys are doing the job adults cant do and expaining something complex in a simple manner that even a CHILD can understand. >

It’s not even explicitly about racism at its heart. If anything it’s about how divisions between individuals are commodified and taken advantage of by outside forces whose only goal is profit. It starts out with a racist society, but that racism (it could be any -ism and the story still works) is encouraged by the outsider capitalist. >

This guy comrades >

Lol at 9 my class learned about the civil rights movement, slavery, the Holocaust, visited the Holocaust memorial, and more >

"I was all for it when I thought it showed racial stereotypes, but anti discriminatory messages? This needs must be cancelled!" >

Dr. Suess cancelled by the anti-woke mafia. >

Better not teach kids that racism is bad or else they could grow up thinking racism is bad >

“I don’t think this book is appropriate for children” ma’am it was written for children by one of the most famous children authors of all time 😂 people can be so ignorant >

And it's written for children younger than 9 years old. 9 yo is kind of old to still be reading Dr Seuss. >

Bite your tongue.  Children's books often have lessons that can be applied at any age.  I'm in my 40s and still find myself charmed and inspired by children's stories that remind me of something I needed to think about. >

HAHAHHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA BRO WHAT HAHAHA >

Well seems they have no problem with incrimination!? >

Ohio. Get it together. >

Don't want to be too progressive with a book from "check my notes" the 1960. >

This is so stupid.
The district's assistant director of communications, Amanda Beeman:

"I just don't think it might be appropriate for the third-grade class and for them to have a discussion around it."

If at 9 years old you don't think that kids can understand and recognize racism even if they can't put a name to it, then you shouldn't be in education. Kids are a lot smarter than you give them credit for. This is especially highlighted by one of the students actually picking up on the themes.
And if you don't think that racism doesn't have an effect on economics then you are crazy. The extreme of racism is slavery and slavery is ALL about economics, What's more economics than not paying for labor, so you can earn more money. >

"Dr. Seuss isn't appropriate for kids" was not a hot take I was expecting to see first thing in the morning, but here we are! >

"The Sneetches" teaches a valuable lesson about the harm of othering, which is something needed in education to deter bullies.  I hope this isn't the reason it was actually pulled. >


"I don't know if I feel comfortable with book being one of the ones featured," Beeman said. "I just feel like this isn't teaching anything about economics, and this is a little bit more about differences with race and everything like that."

I thought this was a joke but this motherfucker really was trying to teach economics with the book then got butthurt when kids realized it was about discrimination. >

And of course we all know that racism/discrimination is NEVER relevant to economics /s >

Imagine how much more horrifying those books would be if --- (dramatic pause) --- a DRAG QUEEN was reading them! (ba ba BAAAA) >

Lol.  Censorship.  Cancel culture.
Conservatives really are what's wrong with this country. >

To be clear, butter side down mother fuckers deserve death. >

The district's assistant director of communications out here making curriculum changes and not educators >

As much love as teachers get a lot of them are cowards. Parents will find any excuse to rage against them if they feel like their kids don't do well so you might as well expose them to themes everyone is aware of.
Sorry but the school district can't be sued for reading Dr suess and talking about racism. Either way the school made this into country wide news so they failed in both aspects >

I'm surprised that this didn't turn into something about being transgender, because you know those sneetches with 'no stars upon thars' wanted to change who they were to be those with stars... they even went through with a surgery!!!
edit to add: I think this is ludicrous >

Thats the entire point of the book! Goes to show the gov't isn't about providing education in schools lol! >

A book about teaching kids about discrimination is banned (in a sense), because it teaches kids about discrimination. Of course. Texas? >

"Stop learning from books!" -the school >

I remember this as one of my favorite stories because it taught me that a book could allude to a deeper metaphor. It was like "Oh-- they aren't talking about just Sneetches!" It opened up a whole new way of looking at literature.
The teacher really didn't have to dive deep into discrimination or anything like that. She could just point out that stories are not always just stories, but they often have a wider meaning. >

Remember when the Seuss family themselves decided to no longer publish a handful of Seuss books that were in fact super racist, and the Right was up in arms about protecting racist material. But if the material says racism is bad, then they are opposed to it?
What possible logical explanation can explain simultaneously having both view points unless your core ideology is that racism is good? >

The books also weren't exactly selling well. So to cut costs they decided to stop publishing them. >

No, you don't understand! That book was an attempt to teach CRT, and that clever Young Republican saw right though that! It's the democrats fault after all! /s >

Dr Seuss was all about CRT before it was a thing, original hipster. >

Schools are notoriously anti-learning >

Um. No. 
Only the (public) ones in backwards republican states are. >

Not just the public ones in GOP states. There are plenty of private, fundamentalist schools in all states that teach the world is 5000 years old, evolution and climate change are myths, gay people don't exist, and, in extreme cases, that we should trash the world to make Jesus end it faster. >

Yes, you don't go to school to learn. You go to school to become a docile slave to the system. >

Streisand effect.
I heard this podcast when it aired. I knew it wasn’t going to be the last time I heard about it.
This district rep made an issue out of a non-issue and it’s going to blow up in their faces. >

Got an episode name? I listen to planet money from time to time but never heard this one.