+OK 14418 octets Received: from smtp03.nwnexus.com (smtp03.nwnexus.com [206.63.63.41]) by mail3.halcyon.com (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id QAA29736 for ; Fri, 3 Sep 1999 16:22:12 -0700 (PDT) Received: from chrome.dreamscape.com (chrome.dreamscape.com [206.64.128.4]) by smtp03.nwnexus.com (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id QAA07118 for ; Fri, 3 Sep 1999 16:22:03 -0700 (PDT) Received: from europa.dreamscape.com (mail.dreamscape.com [206.64.128.147]) by chrome.dreamscape.com (8.9.1/8.9.1) with ESMTP id TAA25462; Fri, 3 Sep 1999 19:21:09 -0400 (EDT) X-Dreamscape-Track-Chrome-A: mail.dreamscape.com [206.64.128.147] X-Dreamscape-Track-Chrome-B: Fri, 3 Sep 1999 19:21:09 -0400 (EDT) Received: from oemcomputer ([216.42.110.92]) by europa.dreamscape.com (8.8.5/8.8.4) with ESMTP id TAA22814; Fri, 3 Sep 1999 19:20:06 -0400 (EDT) X-Dreamscape-Track-A: [216.42.110.92] X-Dreamscape-Track-B: Fri, 3 Sep 1999 19:20:06 -0400 (EDT) Message-Id: <4.2.0.58.19990903191045.00ad1a60@mail.sg23.com> X-Sender: fredb001@mail.dreamscape.com X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Pro Version 4.2.0.58 Date: Fri, 03 Sep 1999 19:11:03 -0400 To: 71524.2205@compuserve.com From: "Sharman Ramsey" (by way of Fred Battey ) Subject: Fw: The Giver: Required Reading in Dothan's 8th Grade at Beverly Middle School Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-MIME-Autoconverted: from quoted-printable to 8bit by mail3.halcyon.com id QAA29736 Status: To the Loop: I was in a used book store today and encountered a teacher purchasing The Giver. I asked her who was to read the book and she responded "my eighth grade." Her supervisor has required it. I assured her it would be controversial. If any of you have anything to say about this book, could you write a note to the Dothan Eagle? The editor of the editorial page is bill.perkins@thomnews.com The address of the paper is Dothan Eagle PO Box 1968, Dothan, Alabama 36302. This is what I have sent to those on my local email list. You might want to do a search on altavista. I did. I was shocked and amazed at how many schools are using this school wide! Using this as a platform to discuss these controversial issues using values clarification it is little wonder we have events such as Littleton occur. Our teachers have no qualifications to be utilizing psychological manipulation such as this in group situations, unable to judge the effects on individual children! Sharman Ramsey "To compel a man to furnish funds for the propagation of ideas he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical." Thomas Jefferson http://www.southern-style.com -----Original Message----- From: Sharman Ramsey <style@southern-style.com> Date: Friday, September 03, 1999 4:56 PM Subject: The Giver: Required Reading in Dothan's 8th Grade at Beverly Middle School I guess this fits with "conflict resolution," immersion in literature (WL), and the NEA worldview. It is on their recommended list. And we wonder what happened at Littleton and the young man that shot his brother and mother here in Dothan. If our teachers have this mindset, you needn't wonder any longer. http://www.crossroad.to/ text/articles/sgw1196.html The Giver: Serving The Greater Whole >An excerpt from Brave New Schools > >by Berit Kjos >---------- >Laura's fourth-grade teacher was reading a new book called The Giver. The >story seemed sort of strange and spooky, but most of her classmates at >Adams Elementary School in Davenport, Iowa, liked it. After all, it had >won the 1994 Newbery Medal--and was dedicated to "all the children to whom >we entrust our >future."1 >Therefore it had to be good--didn't it? > >The book told about a special community where every child felt safe, ate >plenty of food, took pills to stop any pain, and lived in a family no >larger than four. Overpopulation was no problem since new babies were >limited to fifty a year. Born to professional "birth mothers" instead of >real mothers, the newborns were placed in Nurturing Centers where older >children helped care for them during volunteer hours. To keep people >comfortable and free from stress, handicapped babies and low-weight twins >were "released" to go to a mystical "EIsewhere." > >Each December all the children advanced into the next age group. At the >Ceremony for the Ones, the healthy babies born during the year were >assigned to selected families. Jonas, one of the Elevens, still remembered >when his sister Lily was a One and came to live in his family. This >December, she would become an Eight and receive her first voluntary >service assignment. On the same day, all the Nines would get their first >bicycle, and the Tens would get special haircuts. The new Elevens would >soon have to take daily pills to quench the strange "stirrings" that came >with puberty. > >Each group of children--up to Twelve--learned to follow the rules for >their age, succeed in school, complete their service assignments, and >share their dreams and feelings with their designated family Sometimes >Jonas preferred to hide his feelings, but that was against the rules. > >As they neared December once again, Jonas and the other "young adults" >waited anxiously for the Ceremony for the Twelves. This year, they would >receive their permanent Assignments--their place to work during their >productive years. These Assignments were chosen by the Committee of Elders >who had been observing every child. Jonas, who had intuitive power to "see >beyond," was chosen to be the Receiver of Memories - the one who would >know the past. The former Receiver, who now became the Giver, would place >his hands on Jonas' back and psychically transfer all past experiences and >distant memories to the boy. Eventually, Jonas would become the >community's source of wise counsel and secret wisdom - like a tribal shaman. > >Laura and her classmates listened, imagined, absorbed, and pondered. >Sometimes Laura felt uncomfortable--as when Jonas had to bathe a frail, >slippery Old woman during his volunteer hours at the House of the Old. But >the worst part came when Jonas' father, a Nurturer, had to "release" the >smaller of two newborn twins. > >As the teacher read from the book, Laura pictured the scene she heard: >Jonas and the Giver were watching the Release on a video screen. They saw >a small windowless room with a table and scale--the same room Jonas had >seen during his service work at the Nurturing Center. "It's just an >ordinary room," he said to the Giver. "I thought maybe they'd have it in >the Auditorium, so that everybody could come. All the Old go to Ceremonies >of Release. But I suppose that when it's just a newborn, they don't...." > >Suddenly, Jonas saw his father enter the room with a tiny newchild. He put >it on the scale and noted the weight. "...you're only five pounds ten >ounces," he said, "A shrimp!" > >A shrimp? Laura could identify with the tiny infant. She, too, was a >low-birth-weight twin. Feeling shaky, she listened closely as the teacher >continued to read: > >His father turned and opened the cupboard. He took out a syringe and a >small bottle. Very carefully he inserted the needle into the bottle and >began to fill the syringe.... [Then he directed] the needle into the top >of newchild's forehead, puncturing the place where the fragile skin >pulsed. The newborn squirmed, and wailed faintly. > >"Why's he--" > >"Shhh," the Giver said sharply. > >His father... pushed the plunger very slowly, injecting the liquid into >the scalp vein until the syringe was empty.... > >As Jonas continued to watch, the newchild no longer crying moved his arms >and legs in a a jerking motion. Then he went limp. His head fell to the >side, his eyes half open. Then he was still... > >His father tidied the room. Then he picked up a small carton that lay >waiting on the floor, set it on the bed, and lifted the limp body into >it.... He opened a small door in the wall... It seemed to be the same sort >of chute into which trash was deposited at school. > >His father loaded the carton containing the body into the chute and gave >it a shove. "Bye-bye, little guy," Jonas heard his father say before he >left the room. Then the screen went >blank.2 > >Stunned, Laura stared at her teacher. Would they really kill a baby if it >didn't weigh enough? The horrible image of the tiny infant, murdered and >thrown down a chute like a piece of garbage made her sick. Her thoughts >raced on. How could the kind Nurturer kill it! What if it had been her! >She was just as tiny when she was born. And she already been thinking >about death. Only weeks ago, her own grandmother had died. > >She rushed home from school and burst into the house. "Mom, Mom," she >cried, "Guess what my teacher read today!" She poured out her story, while >her mother, Elaine Rathmann, listened quietly. > >The next day, Mrs. Rathmann, a member of the local school board, visited >the school. When she suggested that The Giver might be inappropriate >reading for fourth-graders, the principal indicated his reluctance to >"stifle academic freedom". > >Next, she told the teacher how the book had affected her daughter. > >"But I didn't tell the class what I believed," he answered. "I let them >come to their own conclusion. My children know fiction from nonfiction." > >But that doesn't matter, thought Mrs. Rathmann. Sometimes an exciting >story can transmit horrible images and socialistic messages more easily >than a history lesson. > >THE 21st CENTURY GLOBAL VILLAGE. > >The Giver fits into the flood of classroom literature that force children >to think the unthinkable and reconsider the values they learned at home. >It also models many of the pitfalls and imagined perfections of the >utopian school-centered community being implemented by today's national >and international change agents: > * State surveillance and control of health, wealth, attitudes, > beliefs, values and behavior. > * State controlled child care, health care, training of parents, > vocational guidance and work assigment. > * Mandatory "voluntary" service. > * Personal privileges conditioned on compliance. >In many parts of our country - as in the envisioned community -- teams of >professional "experts" are already replacing parents as ultimate decision >makers in the lives of children. As suggested by the slogan, "It takes a >whole village to raise a child," they will make sure parents are trained >to follow the prescribed guidelines for parenting. If this new system is >implemented by AD 2000-2001 as planned, all who refuse to conform will >find their parental authority usurped by trained educators and community >leaders. > >A sensational fantasy? Not at all, as you will see in Chapter 7. Since >many of the specific strategies are hidden behind "sugar-coated" promotion >and misleading labels, few see the danger. Some are silenced by the >politically correct notion that discernment spells intolerance. Others >simply don't believe that America could really change all that much. After >all, we have our constitution! > >Could we have become a nation of listless frogs, drifting blindly in >cultural waters that are nearing the boiling point? Laura's mother, a >school board member, would probably answer yes. She saw the blind drifting >both in her daughter's classmates and among the other parents. > >"The Giver desensitized students to the new values," she told me. "Though >the last part showed the downside, the book helped make the futuristic >community seem normal. Their conclusions would be based on the biased >information they were given." > >"Did other parents share your concern?" I asked her. > >"I don't think so. They didn't want to be disturbed. No one else was >willing to say, 'I won't let you teach this to my child.'" > >"See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive >philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of >this world rather than on Christ." (Colossians 2:8) > > >---------- >Note: Years ago, a young boy in Zaire named Kyosa was "chosen to know" >special tribal >secrets.3 He is >now a scholar in African spirituality, but his mystical initiation echoes >one of the many ominous themes in Lois Lowry's Newbery Award Winner, The >Giver. Like all Newbery winners, this popular book can be found in >classrooms and libraries from coast to coast. Some states add study >questions and special programs to amplify its message. > > >---------- >Brave New Schools (Harvest House Publishers) is available through >Christian bookstores and by calling 1-800-829-5646. > > >---------- >Endnotes: > * 1 Lois Lowry, The Giver (New York: Bantam, 1993). > * 2 Ibid., 148-149. > * 3 San Jose Mercury News, January 6, 1996. > >---------- >| Home | Armor of God | Christian >Persecution | His Word | >Our Articles | >Speaking Schedule | > >| Books / Videos | >Links | > >---------- >ÿÿÿ >"To compel a man to furnish funds for the propagation >of ideas he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical." >Thomas Jefferson > >http://www.southern-style.n-style.co>com .