What's appropriate?

An even bigger controversy than whether race is socially constructed or not, schools across the world debate on the appropriateness of explicit and higher level text.

There lies two sides to this debate. The first is that children should not be exposed and would be harmed given that they are introduced to sketchy and controversial topics. On the contrary, the other opinion is that with the exposure to these subjects, kids are empowered with education to have a more realistic outlook on the world. In addition to this, the ability to deeply analyze carry on to all facets of life far beyond the classroom.

Personally, I believe that the cause of this problem in a nutshell is over sensitivity and fear. These two go hand in hand and cannon exist without the other. Over sensitivity stems from the fear that the reaction to such things would result in negative and damaging effects and vice versa. However, if the world was to realize that this was essential to the development of intellectual independence, things would change. I strive for the change of biased thought and societal influence on the way we perceive things. I realize that this is literally an impossible task given the fact that everything, even history, has sprinkles of bias since to recount something such as history must come with bias. However, the less filter that the government has on our lives, the better.

On a less serious way of looking at it, I enjoy it when we read these kinds of books since they aren't the conventional story books that we would read in middle school. In fact, I look forward to these kinds of classes in that I know that they will push the boundaries of what's socially right and wrong. I respect Valentino in that she challenges the status quo and would give us a book such as The Bluest Eye. Nobel prize winning authors shouldn't be judged based on against lines such as "young girls in whores' clothing," but rather their themes and messages.