Letter to the editor
Schools require students to read smut

Parents, grandparents and guardians, do you know what our children were required to read in Richland School District One's Summer Reading Program?

As an avid reader and fairly openminded person, I was shocked and furious that my 17-year-old daughter was required to read, Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison, as part of her summer reading curriculum.

I am angered that the public school system, the school superintendent, principals, and teachers can require my child to read a book that is totally against our religious, family, and moral beliefs. The book is not appropriate for high school students. We would be considered unfit parents if we allowed her to watch TV or go to movies with words in it like this book has.

Students learn enough about society's vile behavior everyday in the media, on the streets, and unfortunately in school, but it shouldn't be from the school's curriculum.

My daughter was required to read this book for her senior honors English class at A.C. Flora High School. I told her I also wanted to read it because the author is recommended on Oprah Winfrey's reading list. Fortunately, my daughter didn't finish reading the book because she did not like it for all the incest and crude language; however, she made an 84 on the test.

This is an excerpt from the book, Song of Solomon by Tony Morrison. Page 117:

"The sights and the women."

"You kiddin," said the first man in mock dismay.

"You mean to tell me pu--y different up North?"

"Naw," said the second. "Pu--y the same everywhere. Smell like the ocean; taste like the sea."

"Can't be," said a third. "Got to be different."

"Maybe the p----- is different."

" The first man spoke again.

"Reckon?" asked the second man.

"So I hear tell," said the first man. "How different? " asked the second man.

"Wee little," said the first man. "Wee, wee little."

"Naw!" said the second man. "So they tell me. That's why they pants so tight. That true?"

The first man looked at Milkman for an answer. "I wouldn't know," said Milkman. "I never spent much time smacking my lips over another man's d--k."

Everybody smiled, including Milkman. It was about to begin. "What about his a-- hole? Ever smack your lips over that?"

"Once," said Milkman. "When a little young n----- made me mad, and I had to jam a Coke bottle up his a--."

"What'd you use a bottle for? Your c--k wouldn't fill it?"

"It did. After I took the Coke bottle out. Filled his mouth ?"

"Prefer mouth, do you?"

"If it's big enough, and ugly enough, and belongs to a ignorant motherf--ker who is about to get the livin sh-t whipped out him."

Toni Morrison is the Robert F. Goheen Professor of Humanities at Princeton University. She has received the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Pulitzer Prize. In 1993, she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. She may be a great story teller for adults who are mature enough to understand the reason this language is in the book, but I do not want the school to require my child to read this kind of smut until she is able to comprehend the meaning behind it.

Pam Clark

Pamc@sc.rr.com