Role Models Aren't Everything

Letter to Paul Tracy defending The Chocolate War

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A high school teacher from Maine who followed the news account of a censorship battle in Proctor, Vermont, John Merrill skewers the wrong-headed rationale of a literary work as inappropriate because of the “absence of positive role models”. Instead, he points to the opportunity for positive affiliation of students through conversation using the dark storyline as a backdrop.

RELATED LINK:

Happy Endings: The Devil’s Work in Vermont
http://www.nytimes.com/1981/12/19/opinion/happy-endings.html

Defending Robert Cormier's Novels
Role Models Aren't Everything