Response to Readings" Sophia is too liberal

Suzanne M. Kauer explores the issue of censoring adolescent literature. Her position seeks to invite and encourage parental involvement while maintaining that certain literature is simply too imporant to remove from the classroom. She attempts to reconcile the families' belief systems with her desire to teach literature. I take this quote very seriously because I often find myself pushing the envelope with some of the texts that I read aloud in the classroom. She writes:

"A book in which an adolescent hires a prostitute would definitely fall under the category of "not part of Mormon values."

I find the balance between literary merit and smut to be precarious because I read Henry Miller, Anais Nin, and such for both. I have to realize that my love of certain literature does not translate into a middle school classroom, but the reality is that of the greatest works of literature, sex, sexuality, human development, love, regret, and despair are always present. That is the attitude that I take with me into the classrooms. I understand, and agree with Kauer that we must "concede that parents have a right to decide what their children will or will not read." Moreover, Kauer notes that the "dark side of humanity" is important for adolescent readers to experience. I think parents should be involved with their child's education, but I would have to argue that teachers should be the judges of what is taught in the classroom, ultimately. It is easier for me to argue this from my position, though, because my experience with parental involvement is nearly nonexistent. Yet, for those parents that want to stand at a schoolboard meeting and argue against Catcher, (Ulysses, Tropic of Cancer, and "Howl"), I say its a relevant and important debate to have over literature; it speaks to the ultimtae lesson that I hope my students would learn: texts, in historical contexts particularly, have power, a power to change the way people think in a certain time period or culture. I am resisting the urge to enter into a discussion of the canon vis-à-vis Guillory or Greene because I do not think it is a teacher's responsibility to defend the literary canon to a parent nor do we often control what is in our secondary curriculum let alone what students face once they enter college. Despite my similar concerns to Kauer, I think she is right to pose an alternative and reflect on the question: Why do we choose to teach certain texts in the classroom?