of my standards on my students. In discussing Robert Mapplethorp's images, I am careful to use those images that display his talent and insight as a photographer without utilizing his more graphic images. If the students on their own, wish to pursue viewing more of Mapplethorp's images, they are free to do it on their own time with their own resources. To deny that he is an accomplished photographer because he often photographed taboo subjects is wrong. If we put Mapplethorp on the "censored, do not discuss list", how then can one justify a discussion of the life and work of Michelangelo?This diatribe has gone on long enough. I thought in the beginning that I had a brief response to the issue of censorship in the classroom. Censorship is wrong in all occasions, but being appropriate to the existing conditions is not. The gray area is defining what is appropriate, and developing within the class or school or community a reasoned rational consensus and understanding of the concept....
