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Subject:
From:
Gregg Camfield <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Mon, 2 Nov 1998 09:16:35 -0800
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        We're so caught up in a prior debate that we have said nothing
about the shocker Jim Zwick has tried to bring to our attention.  I repeat
it below in violation of the Forum's protocols because it is so important.

        One always hopes one's judges are at least literate. But the one
who wrote this ghastly opinion doesn't even recognize "trash" as a racial
slur against whites. And the odd thing is that now students are to be
protected against a hostile "work" environment.  As a kid, I thought all
school work was hostile to childhood!  Maybe when my daughter complains
about mathematics, I should bring suit that it creates a hostile work
environment for her.  Does this mean, too, that we now have to pay
children for the work they do at school?  How did employment law come to
be applied to education?

        The chilling thing about this decision is that it applies, I would
imagine, as well to college courses.  We, too, compel our students to do
certain "work"  when then read certain "works."  Are we creating hostile
work environments?  Will we be able to teach any literature of value?
After all, most good literature is good because it challenges us, and most
any challege could be construed as hostile by some reader.

Gregg

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