Mo. challenges and the axis of evil

Lee Wardlaw, author of "101 Ways to Bug Your Parents," thinks our project is "fabulous." And she wrote this:

An interesting aside: I was blown away when I learned last year that 101 Ways had been translated into Farsi in Iran and won an award there as Best Translated Book of the Year. It is also currently being made into a television series there to be broadcast later this year.Part of the reason I was blown away is because the translation was done without my permission - - Iran does not recognize US or International Copyright Laws - - so my book was, essentially, stolen. But the main reason I was blown away is this: Iran is one of the most restrictive countries in the world - - especially for women and children And yet, the Iranian people saw nothing wrong with this book! Ironic, don't you think?The sequel is now being translated into Farsi, again without my permission.

Fun-ny stuff. She's got a good point

Interesting Twist

Here's some information I came across as it relates to the Blue Valley situation. Check it out.

Students, ACLU and NAACP Join Battle against Book Removals in Kansas

The American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas and Western Missouri is joining forces with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and concerned parents, educators and students of the Blue Valley school district to oppose the removal of fourteen books from the district curriculum. The removal is being called for by a new organization, the Citizens for Literary Standards in Schools (abbreviated ClassKC), who oppose the books primarily due to profanity and sexual explicitness. Students are organizing against these efforts by circulating a counter petition and creating a website to fight for their right to read the challenged books. To visit the students' site, click here. To see ClassKC's site, click here. To read more about the controversy in Blue Valley, click here.

Here are the links:
http://www.freewebs.com/studentsspeakout/
http://www.classkc.org/
http://www.kidspeakonline.org/classkc.htm



...

Sasha Mushegian, a 15-year-old student of the Blue Valley School District, spoke out in The Kansas Star against efforts to remove some of her favorite books from her school's curriculum. To read her editorial, click here. To read about the Blue Valley School District's Citizens for Literary Standards in Schools, the group whose efforts Sasha opposes,

http://www.kidspeakonline.org/sasha.htm
http://www.classkc.org/

Survey Project of Missouri Challenged Books

Survey Project of Missouri Challenged Books

An Interesting Story on a Challenged Textbook

http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/index.php?sty=39120



The removal came on the heels of a slew of angry emails to Scottsdale Unified School District officials and entries on conservative Internet Web logs.

Janie White is a Scottsdale parent who complained about the "History Alive! The Medieval World and Beyond" textbook, which was being used on a trial basis at her daughter’s school. In a Jan. 25 email to Superintendent John Baracy, she objected to what she believed was "religious bias, dogma, my th and proselytizing."

"I received a significant number of e-mails saying (the book) was Islamic propaganda and we shouldn’t use it," said district governing board member Christine Schild.

Before the board could take action, the book’s publisher requested an end to its trial license with the district in March, and the district quit using the materials.

Nancy Bredin, national sales manager at TCI, insists the publishing company did not pull the license due to the controversy. Instead, she said, the newly-released state standards do not match the textbook’s focus.

"We pulled out because it became very clear we did not match the standards," Bredin said. The book is still being tried in schools in other states, she added.

The textbook covers history from the fall of the Roman Empire in the fifth century to the Age of Enlightenment in the 18th century. It devotes 33 pages to Christianity and 42 pages to Islam. Bredin explained the book is meant to serve as the second in a twopart series.