teaching controversial texts

#540: Masturbation Is Not A Thing

Here’s a poem I drafted quite a while ago, I think, while I was still teaching, that I was too hesitant about publishing, not necessarily because of the subject matter, but because this classroom inspired story was too recent, too close, and I might have been gun shy as the result of an earlier experienceContinue reading “#540: Masturbation Is Not A Thing”

Teaching Controversial Texts: In Defense of Kalpa Imperial by Angélica Gorodischer

So I wrote a little blog post some many months ago now. It was 2000 words long. It was a furious little rant about how one of the books I teach in 11th grade IB English, Kalpa Imperial by Angélica Gorodischer, was being removed from, or at least being considered for removal from, or, asContinue reading “Teaching Controversial Texts: In Defense of Kalpa Imperial by Angélica Gorodischer”

#35: Sax and Violins

The title stolen from the Talking Heads tune; the subject stolen from real life. Censorship, or the urge to censor, is still alive and well. Sax and Violins The parent of the high school junior objects to all the sax and violins in the literature studied in English classes. She objects, in the case ofContinue reading “#35: Sax and Violins”