Public School/Left Behind Books

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kage_ar

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Son in public school (Catholic School not a real option). School has a reading program where the kids are required to read certain books off a list, the books have a point value, when the child reads a book and passes a test on that book - they accrue points. Points are part of the grade, extra points get you nifty awards.

The Left Behind books are on the list, and in the public school library.

What would you do???
 
I found them as entertainingly enough fiction, not terribly well written, and riddled with errors, but entertaining. Shocked they are on a Public School reading list though.
 
  1. Don’t read them.
  2. Ask if you can substitute books by Mary Fabyan Windeatt or Louis de Wohl (depending on your child’s reading level) or any of the Vision series of lives of the saints.
If the answer is “no” to number 2 above, I’d start making some waves! Why are Protestant Christian books allowed, but not Catholic Christian ones?

BlueRose
 
** ** Blue Rose has an excellent idea. Find out if any Catholic Books are available. There are several good fictional Catholic books available. Catholicity.com has links to some.

Left behind even though it is a somewhat entertaining series is written from a very racist and anti Catholic perspective.

The author was on the faculty of Bob Jones University…a school know for its blatant segregation policies (President Bush was heavily criticized in 2000 for speaking at Bob Jones U during the campaign.)

I don’t know your children’s ages but for junior high students I recommend a non fiction book. “Profiles in Courage” by President John F. Kennedy is an excellent summer book and they will learn about courageous Americans.
 
Is this part of the Accelerated Reader program? Many schools use this program to incent kids to read. It includes a large variety of books (although I believe the schools choose which tests to purchase.)

I’ve been really pleased with the choices at my kids’ schools (public). If you do not see enough books that you prefer, I’d recommend contacting the librarian to see how to add books to the list. (It’s usually a matter of funds to purchase the tests.)
 
If you can get them to accept it, I’d try to see if you could get A Philadelphia Catholic In King Jame’s Court on the list (or at least as an option for your child). It is about a boy who loses his firefighter father and goes to live with anti-Catholic relatives in Kentucky. He has to learn how to defend his faith with charity and confidence. This book even has a study guide available that can be used with it. Here is the link:

amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0967149215/qid=1092273071/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/104-8831847-2348763?v=glance&s=books&n=507846
 
Ignatius Press has a wonderful catalog of books (including novels). Check them out! And Mark Twain also wrote a biography of St. Joan of Arc. I haven’t read it, but I know it’s available through Ignatius.

BlueRose
 
parents should protest immediately in writing to the administration and the school board that their children are required to read books with religious content and dogma, which violates separation of church and state. make sure the media hear about your protest, and line up others behind you, Catholics, mainstream protestants, Jews, Muslims and athiests. this is politics - no permanent friends, no permanent enemies.
 
As adults, we KNOW the Left Behind Series is just fiction (and bad at that), but a child,(oops…YOUNG PERSON 😃 ) it may be harder for them to make that distinction. In my son’s school, there are choices within every reading level for the child to choose from, but if your child HAS to read this book (junk), help him/her understand that its just fiction and point out WHY!
 
Have not checked this for a few days, sorry! Thanks to all who replied. My son has no desire to read the Left Behind books - of course, he read “the Rapture Trap” last year, that must’ve turned him off the books 😉

We did offer to donate other books, to be told that there were no AR tests available for any of the titles we offered. This year, my son has moved on to Jr. High - I still feel a twinge of guilt about not storming the school board demanding for these books to be removed… This year, the Jr. High is begging for book donations - so, I’m packing up boxes to send!
 
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asquared:
parents should protest immediately in writing to the administration and the school board that their children are required to read books with religious content and dogma, which violates separation of church and state. make sure the media hear about your protest, and line up others behind you, Catholics, mainstream protestants, Jews, Muslims and athiests. this is politics - no permanent friends, no permanent enemies.
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I basically agree with asquared, though I would suggest approaching it in a way that makes your point, states the action you expect, and leaves the school a way to save face. I would suggest you start with the principal of the school or even the head of the dept. or whoever was directly responsible for compiling the list or for supervising the librarian.

Make it clear (albeit politely) that you feel strongly about this and that you intend to raise it to the appropriate level to ensure that it will be resolved favorably. (Don’t worry, they will get the message that you are prepared to go over their head, which will embarass them, if the situation isn’t addressed satisfactorily.) Take it one step at a time before going to the next level up. This approach allows each level to correct the issue before you go over their head and embarass them if they don’t take action.

I have found that the situation will not be resolved unless you take a stand and approach the right people. I am also a firm believer in putting your concerns in writing–that way there is a record that the public official must deal with. E-mail is great because it also documents when your message was sent. I also have found it useless to get others involved because a lot of people don’t want to take a public stand on an issue. God bless you for addressing this issue and for making others of us on the forum aware of it too.
 
Tell the school that if they can have the left behind books, in the library, why not the Bible and "Catholicism and Fundamentalism, " by Karl Keating? 😃
 
I am a teacher at a small high school on the Llano Estancado…my school library does the same AR program, and also told me that the reason some books were not on the list was because there was no AR test for them. My solution? I offered to write AR tests for the books I would like to see on the list. My librarians graciously took me up on it, and it’s working fine so far.

May our Mother protect us!

Saba
 
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