If there’s one group I never envy it would be teachers — I can think of few more underpaid individuals who are at the mercy of the alarmism that grips parents in aggregate. A group whose livelihoods depend on ill-defined and constantly shifting standards of what is deemed acceptable by community standards. It makes for odd, confounding political decisions by school administrations and fear-mongering by individuals often ill-suited to rear children much less have a major impact on community standards.

Bear in mind this case described in the New Haven Register:

GUILFORD — The parents of a freshman student whose teacher resigned after he gave her a sexually explicit illustrated book said Wednesday their daughter has been the target of harassment from fellow students, and they want the school district to do more to clarify the issue with other parents.

The girl’s father, who asked that his family remain anonymous because it has already been the target of criticism, described the graphic novel that English teacher Nate Fisher gave the student as “borderline pornography.”

The book, one of a series of comic book novels by Daniel Clowes, is called “Eightball #22.” It includes references to rape, various sex acts and murder, as well as images of a naked woman, and a peeping tom watching a woman in the shower.

On their blog, Eightball publisher Fantagraphics responds, noting that the School Library Journal gave this particular issue a “grade 10 and up” recommendation, and then links to the school’s approved reading list (pdf link), which includes such paragons of Christian virtue as Charles Bukowski and Sylvia Plath. Eric Reynolds of Fantagraphics writes:

Some are arguing that Eightball was a far too mature choice for a teacher to give a 13-year-old girl and clearly grounds for dismissal. Perhaps in some parts of the country, yes, but consider this school’s approved summer reading list [ go HERE ], which includes authors like Charles Bukowski, Allen Ginsberg, Augustyn Burroughs, Sylvia Plath, Graham Greene, and many more. In light of this rather progressive list, it’s hard to believe that Eightball crosses any lines that any number of other titles from the approved list absolutely obliterate.

I’m a strong believer that the overly-alarmist demographic of conservative and born-again parents in this country is responsible for the prevalence of the shocking number of wrong-headed, anti-progressive, anti-science and anti-reason policies being pushed through on the federal and state level, while lowering the discourse and regressing community standards. I’m reminded of an instance from a couple years back in which a teacher from the generally-progressive Santa Cruz area who was vilified by a particularly noxious homophobe parent who took exception to a poster reading “respect all families” hung in a high school classroom. Democracy demands equal time for these bozos, but it doesn’t mean that the enlightened people around them should let them run roughshod over community standards that truly reflect the community while advocating and enabling ruinous and destructive policies. They must not be silenced, but they must be strongly counterbalanced — not only by the people directly affected (often parents and teachers) but by the community as a whole. The alternative is to allow these idiots to run hard-working, rational individuals out of house and home because of people’s unwillingness to stand up in the face of religious extremism.

Fantagraphics post via Gaper’s Block Book Club