Petitioning the "RFH Reading Assignments, Rumson NJ 07760" Petition

These overreacting parents and community members are missing the forest for the trees - the overall educational and literary experience from these works far outweigh any potential harm as described in the counter-petition. As a past RFH student, I am certain that the caliber of literature I was exposed to in honors English and SUPA helped foster my success in college and law school. And let's be real, high school students don't need shielding from the terms and situations described; they need more guidance from and conversations with their parents about sex, profanity, drugs, etc. High School's purpose is to prepare for college - removing these works simply further disadvantages our students, academically, socially, emotionally.

it is so very categorically "rumson" for parents to think that the literature that RFH assigns is the biggest problem for their children. they fail to see what really goes on in this town. the petition to ban these books is frankly laughable. as an RFH alum, i am embarrassed by these parents' efforts to ban books.

You never know which books are going to inspire students to become more avid readers. For me at RFH, that book was Catcher in the Rye. I was never well read and did not enjoy many school readings until then. Once I discovered a familiar voice in Holden Caulfield I realized that books could comfort me and broaden my views on the world at the same time. Banning books will take that away from many kids over the years, for it is the books with the most promiscuous topics that will reach those specific individuals.

One book I really enjoyed reading during high school was The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy.

I am proud of the education I received at RFH, particularly in the English department, and it has served me well. My favorite banned book is Their Eyes Were Watching God. The books we read and the discussions we had about them have stayed with me. Please continue to trust educators to pick thought-provoking works and have faith in students' ability to digest and learn from them.

Is the language too vulgar or people too sensitive? You're gonna hear it somewhere, might as well be in school.

We read Equus in AP English. It remains one of my favorite plays.

As an Educator, the banning of books limits students' true capabilities of understanding and growth.... I am proud to have had a fruitful education at RFH, and I trusted my teachers to guide me to the information that I needed to grow, and we need that to continue!

"Cal" got me a 5 on the AP exam, and is a wonderful book.

My favorite books are about any book I read. All time classic old reliables would be The Shining and Brave New World.

Save the books!

The banning of ANY book is a violation of the ideals upon which this nation was formed. The fact that people are so concerned with censoring information in this day and age is alarming, especially in an area I am so proud and honored to come from. All information/books/data should be available to any student or citizen who wishes to use said information for their personal education or gains. I hope the movement to ban books is halted and the people behind it come to realize how damaging this course of action is for us in this locale and as a nation.

I was always proud of having an education at RFH that did not limit our access literature. Please trust the teachers to do their job, and pick books that they feel add value to the classroom and the student's live.

The content of frequently banned books should be used as fuel for critical dialogue and open conversation between parents, teachers, and students. Children should be challenged by the content of their books and asked to wrestle with the implications of the content - good and bad. Hiding that content and pretending it doesn't exist doesn't do anyone any good.

Parents have every right to help decide what their own children read. They DO NOT have the right to make that decision for everyone else's children. Favorite book: Richard Adams' 'Watership Down'.

The RFH English curriculum in the late 1990s, which included the books in question, was probably the best and most enduring part of my RFH education. It would be a huge disservice to the students and their education to water down the curriculum to only the non-challenging and inoffensive. I hope RFH does not give in to these parents. (Although, I'm sorry Mr. Shea, but I never did learn to like Bartleby the Fucking Scrivener. I did develop an appreciation for Waiting for the Barbarians years later, though. So we'll call it even?)

Your opinion of a book does not determine its worth. That is for each person to decide. That includes every child. Stop banning books at schools, it says more about your limits than the worth of the book.

What if museums were cleansed of their controversial artworks? How would Courbet or Picasso fare?

The English curriculum at RFH introduced me to the power of literature and started me thinking about the way books affect lives. All books are important: ones we like and ones we don't like, ones we are disturbed by and ones that calm us. Don't limit the ideas to which students are exposed!

As a writer and lover of books, and a former RFH student, I am fiercely supportive of the rights of students to read everything. Parents should respect their teens' intelligence and their ability to handle challenging material. "Slaughterhouse-Five" is one of my favorite books, a book that has had an enormous influence on me as a person. It's also been challenged or outright banned for the last forty years: http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2011/08/the-neverending-campaign-to-ban-slaughterhouse-five/243525/