When dictators feel their support slipping among adults, it is not unusual for them to alter school textbooks in the hope of enlisting impressionable youths in their cause.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
It worries me that undergrads and high school students are forced into books they aren't ready for, like Faulkner's, and then they are afraid of putting their toes in the water again.
Dictatorship and authentic literature are incompatible... The writer is the natural enemy of dictatorship.
We have seen the civil rights movement insist on re-writing many of the textbooks in our universities and schools. The labor unions likewise insist that textbooks be fair to the viewpoints of organized labor. Other interested citizens groups have not hesitated to review, analyze and criticize textbooks and teaching materials.
One of the problems is that kids who don't read - who are not doing well in school - they know they're not doing well. And they want everyone to be in that same category.
Books are as dark as what is available to teenagers through the media every day.
Promoting education is an effort that is close to my heart. Illiteracy contributes to poverty; encouraging children to pick up a book is fundamental.
It's insulting to believe that teens should have a different kind of book than an adult should.
Putting lessons in young adult books is very dangerous.
I hope my books empower kids, and that they learn how to work out their problems themselves.
Textbooks are no longer given to schoolchildren; they're too expensive. So they're given to the teachers, who probably need them more.