Wednesday

“You can have sex with your girlfriend every Friday night. You can have 34 Friday nights in a row, and if she says ‘no,’ it’s rape . . . consent is pretty easy for me to understand. I don’t need to get kicked in the groin or punched in the face to know it’s wrong . . . guys say to me . . . If you’re going at it and it’s hot and heavy and you’re not sure if you have consent, ask. It might not be the most romantic thing but it will save someone from going to prison and someone from having a life of hell.”

“One of the prisoners said that he lived in a trailer court. There wre kids running all over that place. He got to know the kids over a course of months. Then he invited six of them over to his trailer. He had pop, chips, candy, and Playboy magazines out for them. The kids loved it. Then one kid noticed the man was missing. He went looking for him and found him in a back room on the computer. ‘What ya doin’?’ the kid asked. ‘Playin’ a game. Do you want to try it?’ the guy replied. So the kid plays the game. The guy leaves and comes back half an hour and the kids still playing the game. ‘Are you having a good time?’ the man asked. ‘This is awesome!’ the kid replied. ‘Can I touch your penis?’ the man asked. ‘No. What are you some kind of sicko?’ Five minutes later, the kid let him. ‘If you tell anyone, I’ll kill your mother. You’ll come back tomorrow and let me do it again or I’ll kill your mother.’ That kid went back for a year and a half because he didn’t want to go to his mother’s funeral.”

“Here’s a list of words I’ve heard women called . . . bitch, slut, sweetie pie, cunt, whore, hottie, pussy, baby doll, sweetie, hootchie mama, babe. . .”

These are some things I remember from our presenter today. Now why is it that he can use this type of language and discuss these types of issues – to not only our entire student body but also to that of a neighboring school, yet a book talking about a young African boy’s vision of seeing other young boys about to be sodomized in return for food is cause for recalling the book.

What the presenter said today was totally relevant to our student body. Yet, the book is deemed indecent and taken away?

Am I the only one who thinks this is nuts?

Had our school brought in the author of Kaffir Boy to speak and he had used that same language, we would have been hailed. No one would have objected.

Had our choir department done it, parents would have wept and there would have been photos in the paper and the community would have turned out for a concert.

But when it’s read in class, it’s banned?

Am I the only one who thinks this is nuts?

Where is the parent to object to our lyceum? At least the students were warned about the book and given the option of reading an alternative one. No one was given the option about attending the lyceum.

Or is it because the lyceum deals with issues that happen right here in our school (and have recently happened too) and the novel deals with another culture and country?

Well, we have several students from that country here. So how can it not be relevant? The lyceum was based on true events. So is the novel.

According to one colleague, a student in class found that book totally relevant and even offered to have her uncle come in and talk to the class about the horrors he witnessed when they lived in Africa.

Should a book that elicits that type of response be recalled?

I’ve taught TKM dozens of times and never once have I had a response like that.

Obviously, Kaffir Boy connects with students – just as our speaker did today.

Now, when I bring this point up at our meeting later this week, what will the response be?