Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Vent..Reading....

I am in shock. My son reads...VORACIOUSLY (up to 1,500- 2,000 minutes a week when he is in school- more when he is not) and everyone knows it at school-the teacher gets it and lets him keep all his books at his desk(normally 5-7 at any given time) it's what he does all day when he is done with his work. IT keeps him out of trouble. He is RE-Reading the Hunger Games before he sees the movie- he actually read it when he was 8. He is now 9 and in 3rd grade. I read it first and asked him a lot of probing questions while he was reading it to make sure he was ok reading it. None of his peers have read it and his teacher has asked him not to talk about it since the other kids are not allowed to read the book due to content...SERIOUSLY??? every video games these kids play have as much or more violence....He always reads books way above the other kids content level and if anything has pushed other kids into reading larger and more difficult books because he is SO PASSIONATE about them. It just makes me sick- censorship of a 9 year old.... insert scream here!!!!

Perhaps the parents of the other children have shared with her that they find the content inappropriate for their kids with the movie coming out and it coming more into the awareness of other parents. I'd have to expect the teacher to comply with other parents' requests of that sort if that is the case regardless of whether they make sense to others (i.e. - no greater violence than the video games they play).

If she were telling your son that he couldn't read it due to other kids' or their parents' objections, then I'd have more of a problem with it. Sorry to play devil's advocate here .

Just to play the other side of the Devil's Advocate...;-) If a bunch of parents said that the Bible's content was inappropriate and the student was requested not to discuss his reading... threatened child sacrifice and all.... Should/would the teacher comply?

I bet half the kids in the class will have seen the movie by the second month it's out on DVD.

The teacher LOVES the series and actually was shocked when the first week of school he was reading Mockingjay- she asked if I thought it was appropriate- I said- I know you just met him but yes he can handle it- feel free to question him....it actually opened her up into accepting how much and what he reads- it is just sad she feels like he has to be censored.....he single-handedly got 3 or 4 other kids interested in the Eragon series because how animated he was in telling the others about it. I just hope it does not squelch anything in him

The problem here is that it's Stephen King.

The Long Walk.

Really, when I realized the plot of The Hunger Games, this was the first thing I thought of...

"One hundred teenage boys participate in an annual walking contest called "The Long Walk," which is the "national sport". Each Walker must maintain a speed of at least four miles per hour; if he drops below that speed for 30 seconds, he receives a verbal warning (which can be erased by walking for one hour without being warned). If a Walker with three warnings slows down again, he is "ticketed." The meaning of this term is intentionally kept vague at first, but it soon becomes clear that "buying a ticket" means to be shot dead by soldiers riding in half-tracks along the roadside. Walkers may be shot immediately for certain serious violations, such as trying to leave the road or attacking the half-track. The soldiers use electronic equipment to precisely determine a Walker's speed and is said to even be able to hear the boys conversations.

The event is run by a character known as "The Major," who is implied to have much power, stemming from a possible military or fascist state system. The Major appears at the beginning of the Walk to encourage the boys and start them on their way, and then occasionally thereafter. While the Walkers initially greet him with awe and respect, they eventually realize their admiration is misplaced and ridicule him in later appearances.

The Walk begins at the Maine/Canada border and travels the east coast of the United States until the winner is determined. There are no stops, rest periods, or established finish line, and the Walk does not pause for any reason (including bad weather or darkness); it ends only when one Walker is left alive. According to the rules, the Walkers can obtain aid only from the soldiers. They may request a canteen of water at any time, and food concentrates (apparently similar to the ones developed by NASA's space program) are distributed at 9:00 every morning. Walkers may bring anything they can carry, including food or additional footwear, but cannot receive aid from bystanders. They are allowed to have bodily contact with onlookers as long as they stay on the road. While they cannot physically interfere with one another to detrimental effect, they can help each other, provided they stay above four miles per hour."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Long_Walk

Yes. The bible has stories of justified gang rape, wars against and mass killings of unbelievers, and so on. Parents would be justified in saying, "I don't want my child exposed to that." Besides, what if other kids in the class come from families who come from other religious backgrounds?

Bgbarnes, I can see Cricket2's point. I looked up the book and it seems to be aimed at older kids (12 and up, according to amazon.com). I agree that it would have been out of line to tell him not to read it, but it seems reasonable that other parents might think the book is too mature for nine-year-olds.

My son just turned 9 and is in the 4th grade. He has read the books and is excited for the movie (we already have tickets for Friday) I also think that a lot of 8-9 years old (3rd-4th graders) that should not be reading the books as they do have mature content that will not be fully understand by a lot of children in this age group. We can only make this decision for our own children not the other children in the class.

I don't think this is censorship at all. I would respect the teacher's wishes that it not be talked about in class. When the other children are ready for this type of book/movie I am sure that their parents will let them read/ watch it. The movie has a PG-13 rating, I think that the parents should be able to decide individually if their child is ready.

I guess that for me this might fall in the whole Santa Claus discussion...some children are ready at 5, some at 7, some at 10 and some might never be ready. As parents we should respect other parents and their children.

If you're asking whether "seriously" nine year olds aren't allowed to read it, yep, even at least one gifted kid, in my ds's case. My ds turned 10 yesterday and I would not let him read it. Ds11 (12 in April) read it recently after much discussion. They also DO NOT play violent video games (Wii, which is all we have, isn't that violent to begin with, and certainly not the games we have). We do choose to set limits based on what we feel is appropriate for our kids. Neither ds has watched a PG-13 movie. You really can't make assumptions so easily (that every single kid is playing violent video games). I read enough of the book to know that it didn't appeal to me (ds11 finished it, but chose not to read the sequel). Not everyone is ready for that kind of storyline. I respect your decision to let your son read it, but you should also respect that some kids (frankly, I think many) are NOT ready for it in 3rd grade.

The only thing I know about the movie is that they use kids as gladiators to the death.   There's a sad parallel.  I'm sure you've heard of the Border Wars.  The Zetas also steal little children and raise them up to be killers in the drug war.  I imagine it's not much different in the war torn middle East.  You hear stories how they kidnap people and make their families do horrible things or they'll kill the whole family.  Well, something else they do is kidnap little kids to raise to use in the drug war.  I have no idea how much of that is true and how much is rumors.  I know one of the last times I went across the river there was a Huge Kinko's banner across the highway from the drug lords saying, "hey cops and soldiers, if you want a better job with benefits and protection for your family.. Call this phone #".  And there were armed soldiers on the bridge and on the sidewalks.  I heard that the drug gangs were shooting the soldiers in downtown.  So, it might be likely they really were stealing little children and raising them to kill and be killed.  And I'm sure they do in the middle East.  And they vets have said they did in vietnam.  The vets say in Vietnam they had to shoot children  because you'd see a toddler running to you and when it lifted its arms to be picked up a bomb would go off.  
If this post is too graphic tell me and I'll edit.  It makes me cry too.  But training children to kill children is not as purely fiction as it should be.
This is how I know about the starfish story.  My grandma told me when I told her the stories I was hearing about the drug war in Mexico.  She said something like you can't save the world, but with a heart like mine I'd like this story and she sent me the story of the starfish.