cintinative Posted February 9, 2017 Share Posted February 9, 2017 https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/02/08/us/black-school-racist-sexist-graffiti.html Check out the list. These were assigned by the judge as a "disposition." They must also write papers and visit the Holocaust museum and the exhibit on Japanese American internment camps. THE READING LIST "The Color Purple," Alice Walker "Native Son," Richard Wright "Exodus," Leon Uris "Mila 18," Leon Uris "Trinity," Leon Uris "My Name Is Asher Lev," Chaim Potok "The Chosen," Chaim Potok "The Sun Also Rises," Ernest Hemingway "Night," Elie Wiesel "The Crucible," Arthur Miller "The Kite Runner," Khaled Hosseini "A Thousand Splendid Suns," Khaled Hosseini "Things Fall Apart," Chinua Achebe "The Handmaid’s Tale," Margaret Atwood "To Kill a Mockingbird," Harper Lee "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings," Maya Angelou "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks," Rebecca Skloot "Caleb’s Crossing," Geraldine Brooks "Tortilla Curtain," T.C. Boyle "The Bluest Eye," Toni Morrison "A Hope in the Unseen," Ron Suskind "Down These Mean Streets," Piri Thomas "Black Boy," Richard Wright "The Beautiful Struggle," Ta-Nehisi Coates "The Banality of Evil," Hannah Arendt "The Underground Railroad," Colson Whitehead "Reading Lolita in Tehran," Azar Nafisi "The Rape of Nanking," Iris Chang "Infidel," Ayaan Hirsi Ali "The Orphan Master’s Son," Adam Johnson "The Help," Kathryn Stockett "Cry the Beloved Country," Alan Paton "Too Late the Phalarope," Alan Paton "A Dry White Season," André Brink "Ghost Soldiers," Hampton Sides 18 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 9, 2017 Share Posted February 9, 2017 (edited) Awesome. Edited: Said without snark Edited February 9, 2017 by Kinsa Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amira Posted February 9, 2017 Share Posted February 9, 2017 That is a great list. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HomeAgain Posted February 9, 2017 Share Posted February 9, 2017 Yay! I like that "punishment"! I'm always a fan of correction rather than creating an unstoppable path toward more crime. 10 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bettyandbob Posted February 9, 2017 Share Posted February 9, 2017 But can they read and understand those books? I do think it's great. There are a lot teens who couldn't do that much reading. 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marbel Posted February 9, 2017 Share Posted February 9, 2017 Part of me agrees that this is great. Part of me wonders, like Diana P, if they can actually read and understand them. Part of me cringes at the thought of reading as a punishment. Will these kids always look at reading as a punishment? Will they be so resentful that they won't get the message the books are trying to convey? I don't have a better answer, though. I do like the idea of visiting sites such as the Holocaust museum to help them understand. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anne in CA Posted February 9, 2017 Share Posted February 9, 2017 I think it's a great idea, it should be very broadening for them. Anyone who was defacing property probably is not a reader anyway, they are going to view it as a punishment. But it's still good for them to read the books. Some of those books were painful for me to read as an adult. I don't think I read more than a couple of those as a teen. The Color Purple was painful for me to read as a teen but I knew someone who left the book at my grandmother's house and I read it there. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julie Smith Posted February 9, 2017 Share Posted February 9, 2017 Sounds like an appropriate punishment. I hope someone volunteers/mentors them with the project. I imagine for many teens this being an impossible task to handle alone. 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carol in Cal. Posted February 9, 2017 Share Posted February 9, 2017 (edited) That's quite a list. I hope it works. I can picture it creating empathy or backfiring. Six of one, half a dozen of the other. IMO they should take out "The Handmaid's Tale", which is futuristic and dystopian, and replace it with something like "The Women's Room", which, like all of the other books on the list that I have personally read, is historical fiction. Maybe "Other Women" would be better--it's much shorter and a bit more contemporary--80s rather than 60s. I would also add "Their Eyes Were Watching God" and "The Other Rosa". Edited February 9, 2017 by Carol in Cal. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farrar Posted February 9, 2017 Share Posted February 9, 2017 I like this punishment. I do wonder if - depending on the kids - having them read and study shorter works more intensively might work better. But I won't argue too much with the specifics. Great list. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TranquilMind Posted February 9, 2017 Share Posted February 9, 2017 Excellent move. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
QueenCat Posted February 9, 2017 Share Posted February 9, 2017 I pass by this school every time I go to my sister's (it's about 1/4-1/2 mile from her house). I was so sad when I heard about the damage. The only positive from it was that their fundraising efforts went through the roof after word got out about what happened. They are working on fully renovating it as an educational site. 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ravin Posted February 10, 2017 Share Posted February 10, 2017 Something to be aware of: This isn't punishment. It's a rehabilitation measure. 11 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mom-ninja. Posted February 10, 2017 Share Posted February 10, 2017 Uncle Tom's Cabin would be great on the list. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catz Posted February 10, 2017 Share Posted February 10, 2017 1 per month for a year seems great. I love this! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Catwoman Posted February 10, 2017 Share Posted February 10, 2017 Quick question -- does anyone know what will happen if they don't bother to read the books or write the papers? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AimeeM Posted February 10, 2017 Share Posted February 10, 2017 This -- or if they can't read the books. Just for the sake of conversation, having children with LDs (who have friends with LDs), this would be impossible for such children. It would have nothing to do with unwilling, and everything to do with not possible. Quick question -- does anyone know what will happen if they don't bother to read the books or write the papers? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AimeeM Posted February 10, 2017 Share Posted February 10, 2017 ETA: Nevermind my comment above. It appears this possibility was probably addressed RE "Ms. Rueda said she first gave the list to defense lawyers to make sure there were no objections from the boys’ families on religious or other grounds." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zoobie Posted February 10, 2017 Share Posted February 10, 2017 Quick question -- does anyone know what will happen if they don't bother to read the books or write the papers? Depends on the terms of the plea deal. They took a deal to avoid prosecution, so they would need to be prosecuted before they could be given another sentence. (Or whatever the jurisdiction calls prosecution in juvenile court if that's where they are.) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lere18 Posted February 10, 2017 Share Posted February 10, 2017 I think they should have had to work at the museums, meet elderly black people and get a feel for life prior to civil rights, meet with holocaust survivors and get a feel for life during the holocaust, etc. in addition to reading and writing papers. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HomeAgain Posted February 10, 2017 Share Posted February 10, 2017 This -- or if they can't read the books. Just for the sake of conversation, having children with LDs (who have friends with LDs), this would be impossible for such children. It would have nothing to do with unwilling, and everything to do with not possible. I do not think in this day and age this is an impossible task. Can't read it - audiobook to read it to you. Can't write it - dictation to a machine or other person. If they accepted the deal, I'm sure they found the task possible. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
poppy Posted February 10, 2017 Share Posted February 10, 2017 (edited) This -- or if they can't read the books. Just for the sake of conversation, having children with LDs (who have friends with LDs), this would be impossible for such children. It would have nothing to do with unwilling, and everything to do with not possible. Audiobooks. My dyslexic daughter reads well below grade level. There are free audiobook programs for dyslexics (I'm thinking of Bookshark). There are also CDs you can get at the library. Edited February 10, 2017 by poppy 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
poppy Posted February 10, 2017 Share Posted February 10, 2017 Sounds like an appropriate punishment. I hope someone volunteers/mentors them with the project. I imagine for many teens this being an impossible task to handle alone. They have parole officers visiting regularly, which is..... probably a nice change of pace for that job. 'They must also listen to a recorded interview of Yvonne Neal, a Virginia woman who described her experiences as a student from 1938 to 1945 at the Ashburn Colored School, its official name in tax records.' 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 10, 2017 Share Posted February 10, 2017 The Rape of Nanking would probably give them nightmares if they have an empathetic bone in their bodies. That could still be a highly useful outcome though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shawthorne44 Posted February 10, 2017 Share Posted February 10, 2017 The list looks really good. But, then one book a month? I think part of what I liked about the list was the length. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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