Discrimination

[rick401r]

This makes me want to slap the stupid out of some people:
http://now.msn.com/living/0402-kid-kilt-prom.aspx
All of the comments are in favor of the student.

[crfriend]

Typical -- and utterly ignorant -- as usual.

I think it nice seeing this kind of thing in the press now. That didn't happen 40 years ago; at least now folks can see this sort of stupidity and laugh at it -- and laughter can be more devastating than anything else.

I detested little tin gods when I was the lad's age, and that hasn't diminished with time. The "authorities" (authoritarian figurines in this case) should get lives. I wonder if they were bullies when they were back in the school-yard.

[JRMILLER]

That's the problem with asking permission first.... better to simply walk into the Prom wearing the rig and see how it goes....

[skirtingtoday]

This is just complete injustice! And what more traditional garment than a kilt is there?

I am scheduled to go on holiday to Chicago Ill. in late June but am seriously reconsidering the trip there I can tell you!

[skirt24]

Since this is discrimination couldn't he file a lawsuit against the school?

Two things that personally ticks me off is someone telling me how I should dress and how long or short my hair should be.

Anyway this boy should have been allowed to wear the kilt and not harassed by the school officials. Just another group of fools on a power trip.

[crfriend]

I am scheduled to go on holiday to Chicago Ill. in late June but am seriously reconsidering the trip there I can tell you!

Don't let the ignorance of one jerkwater school board shape your opinion of the large place that is the US of A. School boards here tend to be regarded more as jokes than anything else -- usually more interested in banning books or the teaching of evolution rather than actually preparing the local children for their adult lives. Unfortunately, what they display is usually the absolute worst that our form of government has to offer, and frequently do so completely unapologetically and in great earnest: this is what makes them jokes.

Before somebody reads the above commentary as libel, I will point out that the vast majority try really hard to do their level best -- and most succeed, quietly, and without fanfare. It's the idiots that garner scorn, ridicule, and laughter, like this batch in Illinois. I wish they'd stick to banning books (can we start with Salinger and Hemingway, please?) and Evil-ution.

[rick401r]

I saw this story a few minutes ago. The story is a bout a boy being expelled for posting a prone tweet. but it also mentions that he had been suspended for wearing a kilt to school.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46943248/ns ... 3tYmL_MDeM

[ethelthefrog]

can we start with Salinger and Hemingway, please?

I've not read any Hemingway, and I only encountered Salinger quite recently. Lawks, I'm glad I was spared that in school. See here for my take on it.

That's eight hours of my life I'm not getting back...


P.

[crfriend]

I've not read any Hemingway, and I only encountered Salinger quite recently. Lawks, I'm glad I was spared that in school.

You're lucky; here in the US of A, works by those two are considered high literature and mandatory reading for secondary-school kids. The former was merely a bad writer who derived great enjoyment from defiling the English language, and for some unfathomable reason, the "adults" that comprise school-boards everywhere here actually think that Salinger's Catcher in the Rye contains some level of connection to the modern condition.

See here for my take on it.

That's eight hours of my life I'm not getting back...

That's a nice try, but a bit wordy. I got in formal trouble at school for remarking that it was "the most wretched piece of drivel I've read in years." It's really an amazing work in which not only are none of the characters are even remotely likeable, but rather that one actively wishes most of them ill by the time one is more than a third of the way through the book; one then begins to wish the author ill.

I hope you have a "warm lodging", Mr. Salinger, for all the grief your work has caused over the years. And to Mr. Hemingway: "Why couldn't you have finished the job some 30 years earlier? The language, and those who love her, would have thanked you for it."

Did I mention that I absolutely detested my school years? (With the exception of electronics and computers, that is.)

[ethelthefrog]

Did I mention that I absolutely detested my school years? (With the exception of electronics and computers, that is.)

Once or twice. Mine were pretty horrible up to the age of 16, when I transferred to a school of my choice, rather than one of my parents' choice. My high school were surprised to see me go. I was astonished that they were surprised. I did 6th form at the grammar school in the next town, where intellect and quirk were valued rather than repressed, and I took off from there. Life didn't really begin until I got school out of the way.

[skirted_in_SF]

I rather enjoyed my schooling. But I was never forced to read Salinger or Hemingway. To this day (40 years on) I don't believe I've read any Salinger and only a few chapters of a book by Hemingway. I checked that out of the library thinking I should try some of his work to see what all the fuss was about. I took it back unread which is unusual for me.

[Milfmog]

I have a (long) list of books that I feel I ought to have read. Every now and then I get one out and read it, sometimes it's good, sometimes I find them hard work, but I will eventually read them all as I feel they constitute a part of my education that has been missed.

I recently read the Herman Melville classic Moby Dick. I had wondered why everyone seemed to know the story, but I did not know anyone who'd actually read the book. Now I know why; it was the most turgid and unreadable text I've ever encountered. I hated it; but I'm glad I read it.

The next one on my list that came up was Catch 22. Took me a while to get into it, but then I loved it. I have subsequently reread it, getting considerably more out of the early chapters than I did the first time around because this time I knew what the author was doing.

Catcher in the rye is the next one I intend to read; sounds like I may need to find a long flight or some other scenario where I have no other distractions...

Have fun,


Ian.

[ChrisM]

Well, I just have to say that Moby Dick is one of my top two favorite novels of all time. (The other is The Count of Monte Cristo.)

"Yea, foolish mortals, Noah's flood is not yet subsided; two thirds of the fair world it yet covers."

Chris

[crfriend]

Catcher in the rye is the next one I intend to read; sounds like I may need to find a long flight or some other scenario where I have no other distractions...

A large portion of unconsciousness would help.

From my recollection of the book (and I've done my best over the years to try and expunge it), the characters are 2-dimensional, wholly rigid, and utterly unlikeable. The writing is, at best, meodicre; the subject matter does not map into the modern millieu at all; and combined with the characters therein makes for a dismal experience. Good stories -- the real classics -- are timeless, have real 3-dimensional characters (whether one likes them or not; one needs villians as well as heroes), tend to be well written, and contain facets that anyone can latch onto. Catcher in the Rye has none of those qualities.

Perhaps I'll have to have another go at Moby Dick; the last time I tried I got bogged down in the verbiage and gave up. Thanks for the prod, Chris.

On characters: It's worth noting that it isn't necessarily required to like a character -- or to identify with him (or her) -- if the story is up to the challenge. In this vein I am drawn to George MacDonald Frasier's Flashman who -- as the character himself admits -- is a cad and a bounder; however, the way that the author puts his character into the stories (which are useful as remarkably accurate historical works, by the way) is stellar. The reader will wince and groan at Flashman's behaviour (How bad can it get?), but the story and the writing manage to excuse him. Another favourite of mine is Guy Gilpatric's Glencannon -- Chief Engineer aboard a tramp steamer in the early 20th Century. Colin Glencannon is a bit of a rogue and is out to make the best of things for himself; the first mate is a nasty bit of work and always scheming to get the Master's job; and the Captain is well-intentioned, if somewhat bumbling, and an ace shipmaster. Picking up a volume of those short-stories is like visiting with old friends.

Favourite authors: Harry Harrison (of Stainless Steel Rat fame), H.P. Lovecraft, A. Bertram Chandler, and P.G. Wodehouse (one cannot go wrong with any of the Mulliner shorts).

Most hated authors: any of those that were foisted on me as "literary masterpieces" during my school years. It's truly astonishing how much damage gets done to youngsters in their formative years by rotten choices for the reading list. On Hemingway: if any of the pupils in school wrote the way that Hemingway did we'd have received failing grades. This was not lost on folks.

I rather enjoyed my schooling.

I'm rather envious. I keep trying to figure out why I should have enjoyed mine -- one is supposed to, after all -- and cannot come up with anything other than bits and snatches where things were quite good amidst an overwhelming sea of dross.

[Milfmog]

Well, I just have to say that Moby Dick is one of my top two favorite novels of all time. (The other is The Count of Monte Cristo.)

One of the things that makes people interesting is that we are all different. This is one area where you and I are simply not going to agree.

Perhaps I'll have to have another go at Moby Dick; the last time I tried I got bogged down in the verbiage and gave up.

Yes, it is the overly wordy style that kills the book for me and apparently for many others too. Think how many rewrites, films, TV programs etc the story has been used in and it is easy to see it is a great story, but the writing...

I read a number of historical books on the sinking of the Essex, the Nantucket whaler that really was sunk by a sperm whale a few years before Melville wrote Moby Dick. Every one of these was more interesting and more readable than the novel and in fact it was these books that moved the Melville to the top of my "must read" list. A case of truth being more interesting than fiction.

Have fun,


Ian.