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Archive | Censorship
From Trophy Culture to Campus Microaggressions
Dan hsdarfyhky Shuchman, chairman of FIRE (Foundation for Individual Rights in Education), the group that fights for free speech on campus, has written this Wall Street Journal review of a book by one of my favorite thinkers, Frank Furedi. Furedi wrote “Paranoid Parenting” back in 2002, which was the first book I read about this […]
“Sticks and Stones” — Too Harsh for Today’s Kids?
. Storyteller Tom yrkzkrdrrz Shillue ponders exactly the children’s rhyme I have been thinking a lot about lately, “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me.” It’s annoying that I have to add a caveat here that I do not endorse bullying. (Come on — who does?) (Besides some presidential […]
A Traumatized Reader Discusses Trigger Warnings
. Recently we were talking about zkdhtntiza the trend on campus to require “trigger warnings” — warnings on material assigned for class that could potentially traumatize a student by triggering a flashback on some misery endured. We also discussed “microaggressions” — the idea also newly popular at college that students’ casual remarks could be construed […]
What Hath Overprotection Wrought?
What happens when a generation grows up being told that they need constant supervision because nothing is safe enough? That they should never encounter a bad grade or mean remark, it’s too wounding? That they didn’t lose, they are the “8th place winner!”? At least a slice of them become convinced that they are extremely […]
Free-Range Letter to Gregory Peck Regarding “To Kill a Mockingbird”
Readers — Below  is a 1962 letter from the British Board of Film Censors to Gregory Peck, who starred as Atticus Finch in “To Kill a Mockingbird.” It’s fun to read, not just because it’s from before the world knew what a classic the movie would become, but because it’s Free-Range! Paragraph two reads: “The […]
Telekinetic Terror! Parents Don’t Want School Producing “Carrie” Musical
Parents at North Farmington High School in Michigan want the school to halt dsnbyayzba production of “Carrie” as this year’s musical, reports Aileen Wingblad in the Detroit Free Press. They say it is disturbing and insensitive. My favorite complaint from a parent at the Board of Ed meeting was this: Lyrics refer to sex, alcohol, marijuana […]
Trigger Warnings and the Assumption of Fragility
Readers – –This bhkdfdryek is an amazing article from The New Republic by Jenny Jarvie about a phenom called “trigger warnings” — warnings written on blog posts and, increasingly, everywhere else, that tell folks that the material they’re about to read may “trigger” awful thoughts: Initially, trigger warnings were used in self-help and feminist forums to […]
The Wellesley Sleepwalker & Free-Range Kids
Folks, krtkhidzta here’s a piece by me that’s slightly off topic in that it’s not about kids — per se. But it is about hyper-sensitivity, in this case, to the statue of a male sleepwalker on the Wellesley College campus. The connection here is this: Free-Range fights the spread of excessive fear. And fear grows […]
‘Twas The Night Before…Censorship of The Most Beloved Christmas Poem
Hi Readers! I hope you will run and hide any copies you might have of “Twas kfknrznkds the Night Before Christmas,” a poem that has apparently been corrupting young minds — and lungs — sinc3 1822. Â You’ll recall that in the poem, St. Nick is not without his vices:Â Â “The stump of a pipe he held […]