Greg Van Voorhis, Bronx Teacher, Suspended For Assigning Chuck Palahniuk Story

Runnin' Scared:

We recall that when we worked as a tutor in Brooklyn in the 90s, many of our students carried a copy of Sapphire's Push with their schoolbooks. We wonder what those now-grown students will think when and if they learn that a teacher in the Bronx has been suspended for assigning a Chuck Palahniuk story to a test-prep class.

Read the whole story: Runnin' Scared

Comments

[Chris Griswold]

I'm committed to both the First Amendment and the cause of teachers who actually want to challenge their students, but this teacher did something incredibly stupid. How could he not think this story would create a scandal?

I'm someone who argues for the availability of banned books and for students to have access to literature. In high school, I railed against our bowdlerized version of Call of the Wild. But this story is inappropriate for high school students.

Five years ago, Pahlaniuk was on a book tour, and at every stop, he read Guts. And at every stop, at least one person fainted from listening to it. This may sound like hype, but Pahlaniuk is my favorite author, so I saw that several people had indeed fainted when they heard the story. It's a demanding story - one I find amazing, but it's way out of many people's comfort zone.

It's a lot to ask of someone to have them read Guts, and while he may have thought it would engage his students, he had to know how much trouble this would bring. It's too bad that a supposedly good teacher is in this position, especially in a school system that sorely needs good teachers, but this was poor decision-making.

His asking a room full of teenagers to keep a secret is a pretty good clue as to how he felt about what he was doing, as well as his understanding of what a teenager is capable of mentally.

[jasper48]

This should serve as a cautionary tale as to what (if it hasn't happened already, elsewhere) our educational system will be up against, with the ascendancy of the Evangelical Dominionists so firmly entrenched in our political system. The biggest detriment we have in our educational system are parochial and educationally challenged people being elected to local school boards.
Educational parameters and requirements should be Federally standardized across the nation, with some nuanced controls accorded the State governments, and the local school boards should have responsibilities no greater than deciding lunch menus. Otherwise we will have large swaths of this country thinking that the world is 6,000 years old, and magic underwear can strengthen monogamy.

[dct1999]

What a waste of someone who is apparently a good teacher.