Olentangy Schools official cuts off reading of Dr. Seuss book during NPR podcast

[cbabe]

https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/olentangy-schools-official-cuts-off-212431376.html

Olentangy Schools official cuts off reading of Dr. Seuss book during NPR podcast

Megan Henry, The Columbus Dispatch
Wed, January 11, 2023, 8:10 AM PST·4 min read

The assistant director of communications for Olentangy Local School District abruptly stopped the reading of the Dr. Seuss book "The Sneetches" to a third-grade classroom during an NPR podcast after students asked about race.

Shale Meadows Elementary School third grade teacher Mandy Robek was reading "The Sneetches" to her class as part of NPR’s latest episode of "Planet Money" about the economic lessons in children’s books. During the podcast, which aired Friday, Amanda Beeman, the assistant director of communications for the school district, stopped the reading part way through the book.
…

“I don't know if I feel comfortable with the book being one of the ones featured,” Beeman is heard saying on the podcast during the middle of "The Sneetches" reading. “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.”

"The Sneetches," published in 1961, is a book about two kinds of Sneetches: those with stars on their bellies and those without stars. The Plain-Belly Sneetches are judged negatively by their appearance, so capitalist Sylvester McMonkey McBean makes money selling them stars for their bellies. Meanwhile, the Star-Bellied Sneetches don’t like associating with the Plain-Belly Sneetches, so they start paying to have a machine take their stars off.

…more…

[CoopersDad]

1. It's a brilliant f'ing book that every child and adult needs to read.

I'm not kidding.

[electric_blue68]

2. Yeah? Well, racism effects economics. Duhhh. 🙄

Never read that one.

[cbabe]

4. Yes. Last speech of MLK.

https://www.afscme.org › about › history › mlk › mountaintop

"I've Been to the Mountaintop" by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered this speech in support of the striking sanitation workers at Mason Temple in Memphis, TN on April 3, 1968 — the day before he was assassinated. License to reproduce this speech granted by Intellectual Properties Management, 1579-F Monroe Drive, Suite 235, Atlanta, Georgia 30324, as manager for the King Estate.

[Bayard]

3. When I think the censorship can't get any more ridiculous,

I continue to be proved wrong.

[Red Pest]

5. The school district official who stopped the reading is an idiot

After reading the full article, it becomes obvious that Amanda Beeman, the assistant director of communications for the school district, did not prepare for this event with the NPR and the third grade class.

NPR reporter Erika Beras spent the day in Robek’s class with Beeman for the podcast. As part of the district stipulations, politics were off limits. Six books were selected ahead of time by Beras and the district — including "The Sneetches."

“I don't know if I feel comfortable with the book being one of the ones featured,” Beeman is heard saying on the podcast during the middle of "The Sneetches" reading. “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.”

The book was selected by the district & the NPR reporter! Ms. Beeman represented the school district. Why didn't she go over the material before the broadcast? If she had a problem with the book she could/should have complained ahead of the broadcast and have one of the other five books read. This is an example of incompetence.

To be sure, censorship is also involved, as economics is greatly affected by racism. So, again, Ms. Beeman was demonstrating her incompetence and ignorance.

[DBoon]

6. so we are back in 1958?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rabbits%27_Wedding

The Rabbits' Wedding is a children's picture book created and illustrated by American author and illustrator Garth Williams, who came to the fore as a writer after his success as an illustrator with Stuart Little.[1] The Rabbits' Wedding was published on April 30, 1958, and depicted the love affair and wedding of two bunnies, one white and one black. The following year it became the center of a controversy in the state of Alabama when Edward Oswell Eddins, State Senator from Marengo County, claimed the book was "propaganda for integration and intermarriage".[2] Alabama's State Library Agency director, Emily Wheelock Reed, faced censorship challenges over the book at the height of the Civil Rights Movement in the American South.[3]

[Timeflyer]

7. Betcha FL DeSadist will ban that book now, unless Moms for Bigotry already did.