I would like a shredded questions conference on my story.

Disclaimer:
1. If you do not believe that your teachers were once young, you may not understand this story or the concept of time.
2. Do not expect perfection from the following story. Perfection isn't fun.
3. Rebellion is nothing to fear. It has its place, in stories.

My friends were all in that class. We could talk and get nothing done. It was great. Mr. Tombs was a pushover in study hall. He had his own work to do. Bothering us was the last thing on his mind. My slack covered all of my actions. I would slack on over to the pencil sharpener pretending to need its use. Charlie wanted to work; I wanted to pretend to work. He had ambition; I had slack. I was better than homework, better than the teachers that gave it. I had four detentions because of that. I’m pretty sure it was four; it could have been more. Anyway, I stayed after school some days for not turning in work or mouthing off. That’s why they came and got me. I had too many detentions. They didn’t say that at first, though. All they said was, “We need to see Ben Wilkoff.” My friends and I looked at each other, knowing that I was in trouble, not knowing why. They took me to Mrs. Parmalee’s classroom. I hated Mrs. Parmalee. She had failed me the previous year in the advanced math class for not doing my homework. I faked it for a while, but she knew. She always knew. I was taken to her class, unfairly. I was put in there with the real hoodlums of Chagrin Falls Middle School. Neil Zucker brought knives to school. Jon Gunton snorted someone’s Ritalin in the library in the 6th grade. They always got caught, but they were still well loved by the student body. I was not. Not loved, not understood. I was put in that room with those kids, mostly boys. I wanted to know why. I had my rights. I demanded from Mrs. Parmalee an explanation. She didn’t have anything useful to say to me. She just wanted me to sit down. I was rebellious. I didn’t want to sit down. I wanted to know why I was in there. “You. You took me away from a class that I was peacefully coexisting in to bring me in here? Why? Drew, back me up here. Don’t we deserve some kind of reason? We can see what this class is. Why can’t you just say it? It is for all of the troublemakers, the people you think are losers, the ones that no one else wants to handle. Just say it. That’s why we are here.” “Sit down Ben. Your Schedule was changed. That is all you need to know.” I could tell she was not feeling very good about the way I was talking to her. I could tell she really didn’t want to discuss this matter any more. Making as much of a scene as possible, I sat down. I sat down and stared at Mrs. Parmalee, a personified evil. She said to get out a book. I got out a book and stared over it, right at her. She looked up occasionally over the next couple of minutes to find me, me and my devilish scowl. “Do you have a problem?” “Yes.” “Get Out.” “Why, I’m reading my book.” “Get out, now. Go down to the office and I will meet you there shortly.”

Writer's Memo:
1. I tried to write a piece about my past that exposed my frustration with my teachers. I also wanted to explore the idea of fairness and justice in schools. However, I was more successful at making teachers look evil than I was at exposing frustration.
2. I would have liked to expand the story and say what happens next. I would also have liked to reveal a little more of the setting in my middle school. I really liked the sentence structure of the piece and how jumbled it is.
3. I learned from this piece of writing that I am still quite angry about what happened to me in middle school, but I am more angry at who I was becoming if I had gone on in my rebellious ways.

The technology of blogs gives us the oportunity to be truly anonymous in our writing. We are able to post ideas whenever we want, and no one will know their author. This is a powerful way of saying things that can be scary to say when everyone knows who you are. It also can let us feel the freedom of experimentation without being thought of as strange. This medium allows us to comment anonymously and give realistic feedback that can change our writing in amazing ways. All we have to do in order to harness this power is to set up an account on Blogger.com and type in our first posts. I'll show you how first, and then you will do it on your own. In order to get this anonymous ball rolling, at home you will type up your piece of writing in a word processor (like Word) and then copy it into the posting window. Once you post, the whole world will be able to know the wonder that is your writing.

Your Censorship Resources

Here are your censorship resources. Use these web sites to find out information about your topic on both sides of the issue. Look for specific court cases, struggles with school boards, speeches, well worded arguments, etc. Take notes (write down important events, phrases, proofs, etc.) so that you will have enough background info to refute anything that the opposite team throws at you.

Here we go:
1. This link is great for #5 groups.

2. This link is good for all groups because it is a has definitions and general information on Censorship.

3. This link is for #4 groups.

4. This link of for all groups. It deals with the court cases and complaints of all forms of Censorship. WARNING: There are a few cases that deal with sexuality, you DO NOT need these to support your case. Therefore, there is no reason to read these cases which are clearly labeled.

5. This link will work for #6 groups.

6. This link deals with the issues of banned music, perfect for #2 groups. You will only be able to access this link from home.

7. This link can be used by #3 groups.

8. This link is all about free speech and the first amendment from a kid's perspective. If you think it will help you out, look here.

9. This site deals with all forms of censorship, so it should work for all groups (It does deal directly with group #3, though). However, there are A LOT of broken links, so you may have to do some clicking around to find things that are useful.

10. This link will help out #6 groups specifically.

11. This one is also for #6 groups, but it is a little hard to read. There is a lot of info. here so check it out.

12. This link is for both #1 and #6 groups

13. This deals with movie ratings. Look at it if you are in group #1

14. If you are in a group #1, look no further than this link because it has the full history of movie ratings.

15. Here is lots of information about censoring the internet, which would be really good for group #4.

16.This is a great article on Self-Censorship. #5 groups this is your thing.

17. This link deals with the connection between race and music censorship. Look here for good group #2 stuff.

18. This link is also for people in group #2.

19.This is a comprehensive resource for all those people in #3 groups.

20. This link will be of interest to group #3 people. WARNING: You may look at the list of books, but you may not view the contents of the offensive books.

21. This site is all about music censorship. It may be a little biased, but it has a lot of good information on it. Look here if you need more ideas in group #2.

Use these links to find all of the information you will need to construct a well rounded argument on your side of the Censorship issue. If you are having trouble finding all of the facts/ideas you need, you may search the internet ONLY AFTER you have gone through all of the relevant sites and talked to Mr. Wilkoff about exactly what you will be searching for. Happy info. Gathering.