I think my eye just twitched a little...

Parent criticizes book Fahrenheit 451

"A Caney Creek High School dad is fired up because the Conroe Independent School District uses the book Fahrenheit 451 as classroom reading material.

Alton Verm, of Conroe, objects to the language and content in the book. His 15-year-old daughter Diana, a CCHS sophomore, came to him Sept. 21 with her reservations about reading the book because of its language. ... Alton Verm filed a 'Request for Reconsideration of Instructional Materials' Thursday with the district regarding Fahrenheit 451, written by Ray Bradbury and published in 1953. He wants the district to remove the book from the curriculum. ... 'It's just all kinds of filth,' said Alton Verm, adding that he had not read Fahrenheit 451. 'The words don't need to be brought out in class. I want to get the book taken out of the class.'

He looked through the book and found the following things wrong with the book: discussion of being drunk, smoking cigarettes, violence, 'dirty talk,' references to the Bible and using God's name in vain. He said the book's material goes against their religions beliefs. ...

Fahrenheit 451 is a science fiction piece that poses a warning to society about the preservation and passing on of knowledge as well as asks the question about whether the government should do the thinking for the people, [Chris Hines, CISD assistant superintendent for secondary education] stated in an e-mail to The Courier. Other themes include conformity vs. individuality, freedom of speech and the consequences of losing it, the importance of remembering and understanding history and technology as help to humans and as hindrances to humans (emphasis mine), Hines stated in the e-mail."


In a way, I suppose it's positive that the student felt free to express her disagreement with the book. But I firmly believe that banning Fahrenheit 451 would be a disservice.



Reading: Fahrenheit 451 (Damn the man!)

Playing: Lay it Down by the Cowboy Junkies