Why did you just put that cheeseburger in my lap?
Posted by knittymom at 7/21/2008 6:56 AM and is filed under uncategorized 
(No pictures or knitting in this post, just some time on my own private soapbox.)
We walked into the village for lunch the other day at Riki's, the local diner. Erin, my six year old, ordered a cheeseburger and I watched her carefully take her cheeseburger out of its bun, turn to her right, and drop it into my lap. Needless to say, I was a bit surprised. So I asked, calmly, lots of control, not screeching like my first inclination, "Why? Why did you just plop your cheeseburger in my lap?" Her answer was, "Because I wanted it to cool down." OK, reasonably logical if not a bit misguided. (This wasn't a complete mess because I did have a napkin in my lap.) I pointed out that if we moved the bun, her plate would be a much more appropriate place to have a cheeseburger cool down. My point here is sometimes I don't understand people's motives. I was lucky enough to be able to ask Erin, but that opportunity doesn't always present itself.
Case in point, when we arrived home from vacation, we found a 3 page single-spaced letter from the parents of one of the children in my oldest daughter's 3rd grade class. It was basically a "let's burn some books" letter. The letter had not only been sent to us, but to all the other parents of the children in the class, the teacher, the principal and the superintendent of the district. All this because their daughter had borrowed a Goosebumps book from the teacher's library and read the "whole" book on the way home on the bus and it ruined her innocence by introducing scary images to her. By the end of the letter, the parents had offered to buy all the Goosebumps books from the teacher and replace them with books that are more "edifying". (Have you ever heard the word "edifying" sound so chilling?) The offer was simply a desire to burn books masked by their available wealth.
Here are my 3 major problems with the letter and its contents:
1. Innocence is not fostered through ignorance. Innocence and ignorance are two different words for a reason. I appreciate these parents wanting to preserve their child's innocence. We all want to preserve the innocence of our children for as long as possible but that isn't accomplished by not establishing a dialog with them. If there is a genre of books a parent would prefer a child not read, that child should certainly be aware of this by the end of third grade. Megan (9 year old daughter), Mike (DH) and I have certainly talked about different kinds of books, what we like, what we don't like and why. We have these discussions regarding television programs and internet web sites as well. So if you really are that concerned about some genre or author you don't want your child reading, tell her. She is 9 years old going on 10 by the end of 3rd grade, so she is certainly old enough to understand your instructions.
2. A large part of the letter was made up of quotes strung together from the Goosebumps book using ellipses. I read a significant amount of non-fiction and as part of that I evaluate the author's position on their given subject. I've found that an excess use of ellipses when quoting a source greatly reduces the impact of that source. In other words, if the author can't find a direct quote to use to support his or her position and has to cobble together a quote using ellipses, that author is presenting a weak argument. Using many ellipses allows taking quotes out of context or allows the stringing together of potentially unrelated ideas leaving out the intervening literature. Using a series of ellipses, I could certainly string together some pretty horrifying quotes from classic literature like Homer's Odyssey, Beowulf, any of Shakespeare's tragedies or certainly the Old Testament. It is the literary equivalent of TV sound bites and it isn't a very skilled way to present an argument.
3. Lastly, if you insist on sending your letter to such a wide audience, be advised most people stop paying attention after the first page. We are all busy people and appreciate concise, well thought out arguments. If it takes you 3 single-spaced pages to present your point, consider another read through and some editing, you're being inconsiderate and verbose.
The ironic part of this is, I don't like the Goosebumps books. I don't like Stephen King either. I just don't enjoy reading (or watching) horror. It's just not my idea of a good time. However, I'm not arrogant enough to make the jump that because I don't enjoy it, then no one should. Plenty of people find these books entertaining and that's fine with me. I just hope the teacher isn't discouraged from having a free lending library in her classroom -- that really was a nice extra offered to the kids by this teacher.
Back to my original thoughts on motivation.... So why did these people plop this cheeseburger in my lap?
We walked into the village for lunch the other day at Riki's, the local diner. Erin, my six year old, ordered a cheeseburger and I watched her carefully take her cheeseburger out of its bun, turn to her right, and drop it into my lap. Needless to say, I was a bit surprised. So I asked, calmly, lots of control, not screeching like my first inclination, "Why? Why did you just plop your cheeseburger in my lap?" Her answer was, "Because I wanted it to cool down." OK, reasonably logical if not a bit misguided. (This wasn't a complete mess because I did have a napkin in my lap.) I pointed out that if we moved the bun, her plate would be a much more appropriate place to have a cheeseburger cool down. My point here is sometimes I don't understand people's motives. I was lucky enough to be able to ask Erin, but that opportunity doesn't always present itself.
Case in point, when we arrived home from vacation, we found a 3 page single-spaced letter from the parents of one of the children in my oldest daughter's 3rd grade class. It was basically a "let's burn some books" letter. The letter had not only been sent to us, but to all the other parents of the children in the class, the teacher, the principal and the superintendent of the district. All this because their daughter had borrowed a Goosebumps book from the teacher's library and read the "whole" book on the way home on the bus and it ruined her innocence by introducing scary images to her. By the end of the letter, the parents had offered to buy all the Goosebumps books from the teacher and replace them with books that are more "edifying". (Have you ever heard the word "edifying" sound so chilling?) The offer was simply a desire to burn books masked by their available wealth.
Here are my 3 major problems with the letter and its contents:
1. Innocence is not fostered through ignorance. Innocence and ignorance are two different words for a reason. I appreciate these parents wanting to preserve their child's innocence. We all want to preserve the innocence of our children for as long as possible but that isn't accomplished by not establishing a dialog with them. If there is a genre of books a parent would prefer a child not read, that child should certainly be aware of this by the end of third grade. Megan (9 year old daughter), Mike (DH) and I have certainly talked about different kinds of books, what we like, what we don't like and why. We have these discussions regarding television programs and internet web sites as well. So if you really are that concerned about some genre or author you don't want your child reading, tell her. She is 9 years old going on 10 by the end of 3rd grade, so she is certainly old enough to understand your instructions.
2. A large part of the letter was made up of quotes strung together from the Goosebumps book using ellipses. I read a significant amount of non-fiction and as part of that I evaluate the author's position on their given subject. I've found that an excess use of ellipses when quoting a source greatly reduces the impact of that source. In other words, if the author can't find a direct quote to use to support his or her position and has to cobble together a quote using ellipses, that author is presenting a weak argument. Using many ellipses allows taking quotes out of context or allows the stringing together of potentially unrelated ideas leaving out the intervening literature. Using a series of ellipses, I could certainly string together some pretty horrifying quotes from classic literature like Homer's Odyssey, Beowulf, any of Shakespeare's tragedies or certainly the Old Testament. It is the literary equivalent of TV sound bites and it isn't a very skilled way to present an argument.
3. Lastly, if you insist on sending your letter to such a wide audience, be advised most people stop paying attention after the first page. We are all busy people and appreciate concise, well thought out arguments. If it takes you 3 single-spaced pages to present your point, consider another read through and some editing, you're being inconsiderate and verbose.
The ironic part of this is, I don't like the Goosebumps books. I don't like Stephen King either. I just don't enjoy reading (or watching) horror. It's just not my idea of a good time. However, I'm not arrogant enough to make the jump that because I don't enjoy it, then no one should. Plenty of people find these books entertaining and that's fine with me. I just hope the teacher isn't discouraged from having a free lending library in her classroom -- that really was a nice extra offered to the kids by this teacher.
Back to my original thoughts on motivation.... So why did these people plop this cheeseburger in my lap?
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