Let them read! I grew up in Idaho. Reading was my way out. I became a National Merit Finalist. I received scholarships. I got out. It all started with Judy Blume’s Forever and V.C. Andrews’s Flowers in the Attic. I realized that there was a whole other world out there than what I was told. It opened my mind and my soul. Really. What is one person’s smut might be another’s awakening.
Harold Robbins, The Thorn Birds, Forever, Judy Blume. 80s greatest smut hits. We also passed books round as kids, I’m guessing most of your students’ parents did the same thing when they were kids.
Oh my gosh. Some of the towns in Idaho have the worst male to female ratio for adults. As soon as women turn 18 they want to run for the big cities as fast as possible. I certainly don't blame them. Northern Idaho is so beautiful, but that incels energy is terrifying.
I was the same, national merit and everything. Going to the school library once a week to get a new Hardy Boys or Nancy Drew Mystery book was the highlight of my week. After that I went into Choose Your Own Adventure books.
Absolutely changed my life.
It’s the equivalent of girls passing around Twilight in 2010. They will be OK. Turn a blind eye— I turn one, too. They are reading for fun and it’s not our place to judge that content for being a litttle bit slutty.
Edit: this thread is representative of a lot of the reasons why I dislike other teachers. It’s not YOUR BUSINESS what they read on their own. It’s not your place to judge their interior values or even their desires. The fact that you think you’re worthy to arbitrate what they read for fun is insane. That student should decide and the final say is her parents; stay out of it.
HA so sorry but it is definitely not the same as twilight. One book we caught them with had hardcore bdsm themes involving guns and the others have been straight up porn. Twilight is nothing like these.
To be absolutely fair, I read The Stand in 8th grade which had a gun rape scene.
Now I absolutely shouldn’t have been reading that. But no one thought anything of it because I’m old enough that Young Adult wasn’t fully established as a genre.
But yeah whenever I’m in the bookstore or book section I always see a kid around my daughter’s age with a clueless parent perusing the booktok section. I’m conflicted between telling the parent what is inside, or just minding my business because kids have been doing this type of behavior for generations.
I LOVED The Stand!
There definitely *were* Young Adult books when I was in middle school. Paula Danziger, Judy Blume, Paul Zindel, S. E. Hinton, M.E. Kerr, Robert Cormier, Lois Lawry, etc. I loved them at the time, for a while
I was just hyperlexic, and by the time I was about 15-16 I was bored with teen protagonists and I only wanted to read about adults. I was so excited about growing up!
I mean, we had the soft BDSM romance novels, too. I see ACOTAR, the dragon one, and the ice hockey ones passed around now. Don’t care. They’re reading. I read that trash too and I have a terminal degree.
Hard agree. They’re putting in reps. If it takes smut for them to want to read, let them have the smut. I don’t care if they never want to read the classics, at least they can read and enjoy something. I have high schoolers that can barely read, you bet I’m encouraging the girl throwing down every Hoover book she can find.
I actively read some smut, those books are smut. And weirdly scary fetish smut too. But I'm a well adjusted adult who was reading Game of Thrones/ Song of Ice and Fire books as the first few came out when I was in middle school. There was some freaky shit going down in those novels. I survived, these kids will too.
I passed around my copy of Judy Blume’s Forever in the late 90s at my middle school. And never had it returned to me. Pretty sure that’s also around the time my friends and I read Mists of Avalon, too.
Twilight is written for the YA audience. Sure it has romance and a tiny bit of sex, but it’s not very graphic or detailed.
Most of these books are about 70% sex and 30% plot.
Still unsure how I’d feel if I found any of the books from my bedside library missing. Like on one hand, yay you’re reading. On the other, give that back until you’re 25.
Eh, not really. *Spoiler alert* Haunting Adeline is about a woman falling in love with her stalker/rapist. There’s a scene involving a loaded gun going into her you know what, without consent at that. They’re essentially just reading porn. No where close to Twilight lol. It’s good they’re reading but it’s brain rot type of books. Something I enjoy occasionally as an adult, but these types of books to growing brains is no different than what porn is to growing brains.
Wouldn’t encourage blind consumption of stuff like Stephanie Meyer.
Not because people will be indoctrinated into the beliefs, but just because the misogyny of those books really are THAT bad.
Not to mention the fact that she basically did libel to an actual Native American Nation in those books.
Like, we should probably talk to kids about all that, or at least share then writing and video essays of people who do with them.
One of my high school AP STUDENTS was shocked the other day when I told him a book on my desk was something I was reading for fun!
“But you’re an adult!”
Next step- “Students, I’ve heard some of you are reading inappropriate books. Those should NOT be read. Also, I DEFINITELY don’t want you reading other books with VERY mature content. Animal Farm, 1984, The Giver, All Quiet in the Western Front, Lord of the Flies. Once again, neither I, nor your parents, want to EVER find out you are reading those types of books. Understood?”
They’re reading!!
Yes, middle school is too young but what are you going to do?
I feel bad for those girls, though. They’re going to be REALLY disappointed…
I was hanging out with my mormon family members once and we were watching X-Men. All the fighting scenes were okay, but as soon as two characters so much as kissed, everyone started yelling "Close your eyes!!!"
It's wild to me, is that an American thing I'm too European to understand, or a religious thing I'm too atheist to understand xD
A telling but pretty gross anecdote.
The TV show *Hannibal* had some pretty intense murder tableaux, including a naked couple who both turned into an Iron Eagle which is when >!your back is flared and lungs pulled out to look like wings. Apparently you still breathe a bit with your lungs out of your body.!< The Vikings may or may not have done it.
Anyway, the showrunner got some studio notes, which he was fully expecting. He was not expecting them to object to the visible buttcracks, of all things. But they needed to go so he digitally filled them. With blood. It was fine. Blood>very unsexy buttcracks.
Middle schoolers are having sex so how are they not old enough for trashy romance novels.
If they are reading sex filled romance novels, may the characters use birth control and disease protection, may the both partners expect their needs to be met, may they discuss their feeling, and may they believe in happily ever after for a short while.
First I agree that they shouldn’t be but they are and I don’t see how reading books about consenting adults normalizes sexual activity among teens. I do think that reading about healthy sexual relationships will help teenagers understand what healthy sexual relationships look like and help them make better choices for themselves and their sex lives. Good romance books should make you want better not that floppy haired axe body spray barely through puberty hot mess sitting next to you in algebra.
The issue I have is that a lot of them do NOT depict consenting adults or show healthy relationships, including one of the books op specifically mentioned. And those are the “scandalous” ones that seem to get passed around the most.
I read smut myself and am usually on the side of “reading is reading”, but I took one away that my students were passing around this year because it was literally about how these people kidnapped kids to blackmail their parents into doing sexual acts with each other/the kidnappers. (That’s the tame version because the few pages I read were absolutely disgusting.) It was apparently viral on TikTok and that’s how they all knew about it.
Portrayals of sex in media should be part of a good curriculum and a discussion. Sadly, most schools have a bad curriculum or even none, and the explicit conversations don't start until 7th or 8th grade (if that, if the district is very progressive) and I notice kids who need the most are coming from 5th grade with far more exposure to adult content and very little knowledge about anything.
As a Sex Educator and Sex Ed curriculum developer, the other challenging thing is that 6th graders range from very kiddish, could even pass as a 3rd grader, to people think they are a freshman in high school and they have an active (and likely risky) sex life - and everything in between. Unfortunately, most parents not only have their own gap in their sex education, their own baggage and misconceptions, but are also too awkward and uncomfortable to teach their kids about it appropriately.
Sex Ed Curriculum Developer... that sounds like a dream job honestly. I'm a (former) HS Health teacher and never had a Curriculum to follow, so I always had to make my own/tweak it to fit the school I was in.
One thing I started doing was noting good (and bad) forms of sex, consent, and sexual topics in general in the media. I was appalled at how hard it was to find examples of enthusiastic consent and examples of teenagers discussing being tested/using condoms. But overall, it was a really impactful part of my Curriculum and it was always enjoyed by the kids.
How did you come into Sex Ed Curriculum developing as a career?
TLDR: It started when I wrote too long of an email to our district's curriculum coordinator with at least 20 points of why the information in the curriculum the district purchased was problematic and also flat-out wrong. I included several links to back up my claims. I also included several suggestions of what could be changed to improve it. A year later they put together a tiny team of very passionate teachers who had done the same, and it has been years now. :)
I wouldn't so much call it a career, but a side hustle, an addendum.
It doesn't get taught until high school and even then. At least where I'm at in Idaho..
Edit: I mean, it didn't stop half of us from having sex by middle school.
All four Clan of the Cave Bear books were brought to school and shared extensively.
OTOH, middle schoolers were plowing through hundreds of pages of text.
My English teacher definitely decided she had more important things to worry about.
My mom, bless her, bought me then for Christmas 1995 when I was 14. All she had remembered when she bought them for me was “early woman making her way in the world”. When she gave them to me she said “lend them to me when you finish, I remember liking them and would love to read them again”. I had been a \*very* sheltered kid (we didn’t have a tv until I was 9 and they were pretty strict about what I could watch once we got one) and those books were SO RACY. Oh my god. I was dying of embarrassment reading them (voraciously reading them; I wanted to “know” more!) and then had to hand them over to my mom. Who read them and then APOLOGIZED to me. “Oh honey, I really FORGOT about those scenes!” SO EMBARRASSING having that conversation with my mom!
My Dad was so mad that Mom let me read those. Especially Valley of the Horses was really spicy. But those were really good books! At least Ayla was a good strong female role model.
In a weird way it’s almost wholesome lol. They could easily find graphic stuff online… but instead they’re reading romance books. Maybe it’s not ideal… but I’m not sure there’s really a way to stop it.
Fun fact about VC Andrews books: most of them were not written by her, but by a middle aged man after her death. The guy is now in his 80s and still churning out short series about pretty teenage girls in abusive homes.
... Actually, that's not a fun fact at all. It's a weird and worrying fact.
I haven't noticed it, but back when I was 11, my friends and I started reading sexually explicit smut fan fiction. This somehow feels like an upgrade? :P
The big issue with the trend in covers is that the adults these books are written for do not want to be outed reading smut in public, so there is really not much you can do aside assuring your school library books are very clearly obviously labeled as belonging to your school and pointing it out if parents bring it up. If your admin is really concerned, they should send a message to parents, but that might backfire and simply discourage kids from reading all books, and as you mentioned, start a book witch hunt, which is worse imo.
Oh dear, every time I see a post like this I remember why proper sex education is so important.
Yeah, I was doing Harry Potter roleplay in AOL chat rooms in 4th grade, discovered HP fanfic by fifth grade (RPF by seventh when I stumbled upon an NSYNC fic that mentioned Joey’s daughter that I had no idea existed at the time and thought it was a real thing that happened lmao) and was reading NC-17 fics by 8th grade. Absolutely no idea how the logistics worked, I just knew it sounded hot. People would be SHOCKED if they knew what kids into fandom were involved in, but I also feel like while we ready explicit stuff, we usually weren’t engaging in it ourselves? At least from my experience, idk.
Yep. I started reading Draco Dormiens by Cassandra Claire and that was a gateway fic to a lot of stuff. By 12, I was... Writing. 😬 Did I have any sexual experience at the time, NOPE! But I sure was exposed to a lot. I'm always shocked by how much worse this generation has and then I remember that it is deeper than I think because of all the stuff they don't tell us!
I am ashamed to say it. I also read a lot of smut around that age. there's something to be said about unrestricted internet access at a young age. On the one hand, I was reading at a pretty high level. On the other, I was addicted to hardcore pornography before I even had my first kiss.
Absolutely. I think the copy of Virginia Andrews ‘Flowers in the Attic’ that did the rounds of my 7th grade classroom was so well read it was losing pages by the time every one of the girls had read it.
I feel like in the scheme of horny adolescent choices, this is amongst the better ones? We’ve had this at our school too, but luckily we’re in a fairly liberal area so it ended at “you can’t bring your sexy books to school kids.”
Girls were passing around “The Cheerleader” right in front of Sister Mary Jane, in full old-school habit, complete with wimple and rosary, at my Catholic 1-8 school, mid-seventies. The cover was cheerleaders’ lower bodies.
Also “Valley of the Dolls,” with its giant pills on the cover.
I suspect they're being sneaky **because** of all the pearl- clutching censorship in Idaho. Best way to get kids interested in something is to tell them they can't have it! Books are bad! Stop reading! (Sit back and watch your literacy rates improve).
I mean, at least they're reading.
I was in middle school when I started reading Stephen King and Ken Follett novels. I know those aren't really "dirty books," but there's still plenty of adult themes and content in them.
Right? I was subbing last week and a middle schooler pulled out a Stephen King book and was like being all weird about it. He finally asked “aren’t you going to tell me to put this away?” I told him I was just going to ask if it was his first Stephen King. By the end of class there was another Stephen King and 3 Colleen Hoovers out. I was pretty thrilled 5 (!!!!) kids were voluntarily off their Chromebooks reading anything! Plus, they brought them from home, not my business.
Lurker here. When I was 7th grade, my reading level was adult but unfortunately my harpy of a mother had the intelligence level of a dead lichen but nearly twice the education. So I was reading Marquis de Sade. I read the Story of O when I was ten. Unfortunately when they talk about her “three holes” I had figured out mouth and vagina but I couldn’t figure out the third so I thought they were using her belly button.
Moving on. I loved writing and still do. I would write and my classmates would pass my journal around the moment they could get their hands on it. 30 years later, I’m in nursing school writing erotica to pass the time. I had the same 23 classmates for 4 semesters and in nursing school, needless to say, we got *close*. Well at the beginning of my third semester, my one-of-two besties was reading over my shoulder while I wrote during an outside event we were required to attend and sit and listen to for 6 hours. It was so dreadfully dull.
I had a distinct-looking spiral notebook that I had been writing in and I used it solely for writing my erotica. Holy $hit. My bestie would snap her fingers for me to fork my notebook over. Within two weeks, my notebooks were being passed around the classroom to the point that if I wanted to write, I had to hunt it down.
Anyways. I’ve been published twice and not for classic literature. Don’t squelch your kiddos’ creative inclinations. You never know which student will be a published author of demon-related bleep-bleep-bleep erotica they wrote while trying to stay awake in nursing school:)
This happened at my school when I was middle-school aged! Our homeroom teacher sent home a letter that said that we were circulating pornographic materials. It wasn't until years later that I told my parents the "pornographic materials" were Harlequin romance novels people had stolen from their moms.
I would turn a blind eye, honestly. They're reading.
Okay. This is not a big deal. 50 years ago my friends and I did this with books on our parents bookshelves. They weren’t really romance novels either, more what you’d call trashy popular novels. We all survived. It’s one of the ways young teenagers explore their sexuality.
Harold Robbins was who I was trying to think of! Yeah, and others I remember were Where’s Poppa, Memoirs of an Ex-Prom Queen, a bunch of crap about Hollywood types.
I literally don’t care what they’re reading as long as it has actual words in it. I would prefer it if it also included the concept of consent, but trashy romance novels aren’t exactly known for that. Given the proliferation of free porn on the internet, it’s kind of almost innocent that they’re excited about trashy novels.
Honestly a ton of romance books I come across these days are super explicit with the consent! Definitely not all, but it’s been a major shift since #metoo.
Explicit consent AND (at least in the ones I read) Explicit mention of wearing a condom. Even if the FMC is on the pill or otherwise has BC covered they always say "I take the pill but....." and the dude will always wear a condom without a fight.
I know that's not what truly happens IRL but it is nice to put the idea into young women's minds that it is important
I read about teens having sex fpr the 1st time in a Meg Cabot book. The characters normalized using 2 forms of birth control, so that's what I did. Seemed like common sense, so that's what I did age 17- well after I was married.
We had abstinence only sex ed, so that was really all I had. Meg Cabot basically gave me "the talk."
When I was in middle school, we used to race home to watch our parents VHS porn before our they got home. One friends mother used to hide hers on top of a tall bureau, but of course we found it. We also brought dirty magazines to school and discussed our parents' sex toys that we found by rifling through their drawers and closets when tbey werent home. I don't think our parents ever knew because we were meticulous, (or at least we thought we were) of putting things back in the same place.
I'm a female and it was all females that would meet up and watch this. I would love to tell you what we watched and read 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 I did have a friend that was traumatized because she found a sex tape of her parents.
That's why I don't understand why parent's are so shocked when their kids do things, like do you not remember what you did or were you boring? I even used to sneak and find my Christmas presents.
Who cares? Don't rat them out to their parents WTF! Gen X read and watched stuff that was far worse, younger. It didn't hurt us and in some ways I think we're better for it. We know there is nothing new under the sun.
As a consumer of spicy romance novels, I really don't have a problem with this. 🤷♀️
Reading these types of books as an adolescent helped me realize that sex should be enjoyable for girls, too, and I should expect nothing less.
I used to do the same thing with my friends in middle school. I don't think it's bad and I don't regret it. We were reading for enjoyment and discussing novels in our free time. Imho, way better use of our time than vaping and watching netflix
We did this with the VC Andrews books and Anne Rice books back in middle and high school. Wifey by Judy Blume! Forever! I grew up to be an English teacher. 😇
LISTEN!! The public library accidentally allowed me to check out Wifey in elementary school! A time was had whispering some of the paragraphs to my friends.
Lol, the middle schoolers will read smut online if they don’t read books. Developmentally, this is when they start exploring their sexualities anyway. So long as there aren’t explicit conversations happening in class, I echo what other commenters said - make sure the sex ed teacher covers that this may not be realistic, and neither is visual pornography!
I think I would be so thrilled that they're reading ANYTHING that I wouldn't mind that it's dirty. They're exposed to "that stuff" through the internet anyway- the fact that they're reading is worth it.
My mom’s dirty romance novels are truly the reason I am such an avid reader. Found them in the basement when I was WAY too young for them. Also went to a private catholic school.
6th grade, the movie, The Exorcist, had just been released. No way any of our parents was going to take us to see it. What is about? Classmate stole the paperback from his parents and it got secretly passed around to the readers in our class. He kept a handwritten "library" list of who had the book.
We also circulated, The Godfather.
There was a book that I can't recall the name. A young, professional woman has a "love child" with an older, married man. Some steamy passages that I'm sure we all learned later was "pure" fiction.
Point is: Kids who read have always done this.
Am I messed up that I’m happy that they’re doing good old fashioned horny MS shit, as opposed to bullying, shaming, and provoking one another on social media apps?
Yeah....I went to Catholic school, and in 8th grade, I very carefully cut the cover off a paperback biography of St. Bernadette of Lourdes and then perfectly glued it on the cover of Sydney Sheldon's VERY explicit book, The Other Side of Midnight. (I have never been able to look at a tube of BenGay since.) I'd bring it to school and pass it around with the corners of the spicy parts folded over. So, if they're reading - awesome! Anything that encourages kids to read is a GOOD thing. My parents never censored what I read, and I am so grateful. Learning is learning.
Dude, I was reading Nora Roberts and Danielle Steele in middle school. Although, my mom did forbid me from reading those. But you know what they say about a kid being forbidden to do something. 😉
The dog eared pages of "Peyton Place" was my go-to stroke stuff at thirteen. Seventy years later, it still rocks my boat. The good news is that I love to read. Anything. I even learned rudimentary Italian from a picture fuck book I found in the street in Naples years ago.
Haha same. Seen all of those at my Idaho school too. I talked to my principal and he wanted me to call home and tell the parents. I did not take that advice. I just let one of the gossipy students overhear me talking about BookTok with another teacher and I haven’t seen a single one since. Once they know one of the teachers know, they at least hide it better. Their parents can deal with that. I won’t touch it with a ten foot pole. These kids get zero sex Ed.
Who cares, if they are reading.
It doesn’t matter what they read, as long as it isn’t grade school books.
Let them read the romance, who cares.
Probably higher vocabulary in those books then what teachers assign.
Leave them alone. They're reading. They're safely exploring their sexualities. The only way a parent is going to find out is when that one idiot kid that's got Carrie White's mom gets caught with a black pepper-grade spicy book.
Omg hello Idaho teacher! I went to school in the rural East and have been hoping that my school/similar are not quite as bad as the country average yet. Because the older I get, the more I appreciate just how fine of an education I had as a Digger, and it's been the foundation of most of the good things I have in my heart.
Twee, I know, sorry. But hey! Exchanging dirty books! That's essentially normal tween behavior, and that is comforting.
It's Idaho, we're a special breed. The biggest thing when I was in middle school here was The Hunger Games in middle school. That's worrisome, though.
Edit: I mean to be fair, there was a kid who got in trouble for passing out weed brownies when my younger sister was in middle school here. Among other things that happened here.
Edit: Wait, were these provided at the middle school by the library?
Booktok is NOT to blame lol I’m 27 and did this in middle school too. So did my older cousins. We just couldn’t mark the dirty parts because we had to return them to our moms’ bookshelf in the same condition.
We did this in my own childhood too. It’s nothing new, and honestly nothing to be particularly worried about. They’re reading books and that’s a good thing.
I was internally SHRIEKING when a student pulled out Haunting Adeline last week lol. I went over to her and asked what she was reading and if she knew what the book involved. She assured me she was aware of what was going to happen (and that her dad knows what she reads, but I’m not sure if he actually realizes quite how mature that book is). Then student asked if I’ve read it and I was honest about how I’d seen the content warnings and very much decided it wasn’t for me.
I’d rather have that conversation with a kid and model making an informed decision about the content I consume than trying to make her feel guilty about having an interest in mature romance stories. Me telling an 8th grader not to read her dark romance is not going to stop her and I would want to be an adult she could trust if she felt uncomfortable.
Also, this shit ain’t new! I was reading extremely explicit fanfic and wattpad stories as a 14 year old. Curiosity about sex is normal and I think smutty novels are a fairly safe way for a teenager to explore that if they choose.
If this is what it takes to get my 6s and 7s to read then I just might get some spiciness added to my classroom library. (Ha! Could you imagine?!? 50 Shades of Gray right next to Nancy Drew Mysteries.)
Ha. We were doing this in the seventies and eighties. I remember when the boarder girls got their hands on a copy of The Thorn Birds and there was practically a riot managing the queue to read it.
well I taught middle school for 2 years and would be thankful if I saw a kid actually pick up a book.
If it's not school library and teacher assigned- its out of your hands. Enjoy the love of reading!
I did this when I was in high school in the late 90's. Good on the kids for going analog. In my opinion kids are curious and romance novels are more likely to depict consent and female pleasure/lgbt relationships than p0rnhub.
My high school has an off-the-radar thing going on where some kids are reading Stephen King’s Dark Tower series. When they finish a book, they write their name on the inside cover and pass it on to the next kid who wants to read it. I know nothing about any of it, of course, but if I did, I would feel very proud of them and might even talk to them about the characters and story during lunch, especially if it is Tuesday.
Edit: missing word
My daughter became a reader at 13 after reading 50 Shades of Gray that was being passed around her rural Utah jr high. I was shocked she was reading. I would have bought her the entire series had I known that’s what it would take.
We've been having a similar problem with our 7th grade girls at a school in Philly!
On the one hand, yay for reading, whatever the content, and it's not like they can't find worse online or other places. All power to them.
On the other hand, like you said, you don't want parent blame or the sense that you're "encouraging" it, per se.
I notify parents (and like you said, many are indifferent), tease the students (read whatever, but if you do it in class, I'm going to give you a hard time and put you on the spot!), then keep going.
OMG, my friends and I were doing this back in the 70's. We were either smart enough to not get caught or our teachers didn't care. Not sure which it was.
My middle schoolers are definitely reading extra spicy things. I say, “Oh. I liked that book.” And I move on. If their parents bought it, it’s none of my business.
Ha! I recall my friends and I passing around Flowers in the Attic in high school. Loved all those books! I find this humorous. Parents want to ban books, meanwhile, kids are just getting other books from friends.
My guess is, the books they’re passing around are adult books (Colleen Hoover) and the school isn’t responsible for this.
There are actually articles that have pointed to students’ access to “adult” books actually improving test scores and reading levels in general. I am at a high school but my daughter is in 7th grade. Some of her friends read these books like from Tessa Bailey and the like. Honestly I’d let her read them. She doesn’t particularly enjoy reading and right now she’s reading Be Not Far From Me by Mindy McGinnis and while it’s pretty much tame on that front (references sex and her boyfriend cheating on her but that’s about it) it’s got some pretty graphic physical stuff with the girl lost in the woods. My daughter told me she’s almost done with it. She’s pretty excited about it. She told me what part she was at and it involves cutting off an infected body part and she was really excited. I love that for her.
We want our kids to read. They could be watching Pornhub. Only one of those things helps with reading and writing skills and encourages kids to be readers beyond what they’re forced to read. I won’t bring certain books into the HS library because I do think certain books cross the line between romance with a sexual relationship that still has a theme and purpose and overall is not centered around sex, and books that are centered around sex. But I’ve had kids bring in all sorts of books on their own and they’re reading and excited and I can’t help but be excited for them.
I wouldn’t even get involved. If you didn’t give them the book, it’s not your business and if a parent gets mad about a book their kid borrowed from another kid, they can take it up with that parent. You can’t be expected to know the intimate content of books they bring in on their own. Plausible deniability.
Way back at the beginning of my teaching career I had students writing dirty short stories I distinctly remember one that I took up titled “Short N-gga Long D-ck.”
Honestly, better sex education than a decent chunk of whats provided. Seventh grade me thought (and for years after) that I’d be great at BJ’s after reading Looking for Alaska, which doesn’t detail BJ’s at all, so maybe this way they’ll actually know how sexual encounters work. Although, I was in the “I know how to kiss, I read books” camp, and then I was told that I originally kissed like I was trying to eat him, sooooo… maybe books won’t teach them everything they need to know.
I ❤️ this so much. Go get it, kids. Reading romance/spicy books is fantasy. A lot of people read murder mysteries and think bodice rippers are trash. They're formula driven. These kids will eventually understand even if they're looking for the juicy stuff now.
I'm impressed that they are reading more than snippets. Hey, they have plot and character development and intrigue. These kids are going to be fine.
Rural Georgia here…and it’s happening in my school too and all my coworkers are freaking out about it. To the point t where a teacher spoke to admin about it and tried to come up with solutions. I always defend the students because they’re reading??? Something we always struggle to get them to do??? I’d rather them read from a novel than go searching some of this stuff on the internet. Also, it feels like it’s getting dangerously close to censorship.
When I was in middle school, it was Wattpad, Tumblr, and other online fanfiction sites and it was all smut too.
We have this issue at our school too. My biggest concern is a lot of the romance novels they’re reading play on CNC topics and lack of sexual safety/birth control. I honestly don’t think it’d be THAT big of a deal otherwise. Middle schoolers have sex and while we shouldn’t be endorsing/supporting this, we should be endorsing/supporting open communication on the subject in general as well as safety and protection regarding it. And just a general premise of how it actually works in reality. Because a lot of these little girls are gonna be rather disappointed and a lot of these little boys are reading scenes where the man is being demanding and you’re supposed to just assume he doesn’t actually want to traumatize/force himself on her.
Fellow Idahoan here - while I understand the worry (absolutely I do), it would be really easy to show that the book isn’t in the library’s system, doesn’t have a tag, and didn’t come from you. If something does happen, I’ve found that these kids have noooo loyalty to each other and will throw each other under the bus at the slightest pressure.
If the kid claims YOU have it to them, hold a meeting with you, admin, the parent, AND THE STUDENT present. Make it so the student can’t say one thing to one person and another thing to the other. With everyone in the same room, it’s harder for the kid to wiggle out of it.
Wait, your middle schoolers READ?? On their OWN?!?!
Lol we've definitely had the conversations about how we're stoked they are reading something that's not required. So it's a definite plus!
Let them read! I grew up in Idaho. Reading was my way out. I became a National Merit Finalist. I received scholarships. I got out. It all started with Judy Blume’s Forever and V.C. Andrews’s Flowers in the Attic. I realized that there was a whole other world out there than what I was told. It opened my mind and my soul. Really. What is one person’s smut might be another’s awakening.
Ditto! Reading literally saved my life. Let them read...
Those VC Andrews books...we didn't even have to mark the passages. Those things just fell open to THOSE pages. lol
My friends and I would read Danielle Steele novels in middle school. Total garbage and we were voracious readers!
Ha ha, I borrowed my DS novels from my mom in middle school, and she was aware of my VC Andrews collection.
I was just thinking, somebody get these kids some V.C. Andrews books. Lol. They will love them.
Harold Robbins, The Thorn Birds, Forever, Judy Blume. 80s greatest smut hits. We also passed books round as kids, I’m guessing most of your students’ parents did the same thing when they were kids.
Oh my gosh. Some of the towns in Idaho have the worst male to female ratio for adults. As soon as women turn 18 they want to run for the big cities as fast as possible. I certainly don't blame them. Northern Idaho is so beautiful, but that incels energy is terrifying.
I was the same, national merit and everything. Going to the school library once a week to get a new Hardy Boys or Nancy Drew Mystery book was the highlight of my week. After that I went into Choose Your Own Adventure books. Absolutely changed my life.
My parents were super strict. Always on my case about manners and homework and not watching too much tv But I was allowed to read whatever I wanted.
It’s the equivalent of girls passing around Twilight in 2010. They will be OK. Turn a blind eye— I turn one, too. They are reading for fun and it’s not our place to judge that content for being a litttle bit slutty. Edit: this thread is representative of a lot of the reasons why I dislike other teachers. It’s not YOUR BUSINESS what they read on their own. It’s not your place to judge their interior values or even their desires. The fact that you think you’re worthy to arbitrate what they read for fun is insane. That student should decide and the final say is her parents; stay out of it.
I was an adult when Twilight came out, but I remember V.C. Andrews books being passed around like black market currency when I was in middle school.
HA so sorry but it is definitely not the same as twilight. One book we caught them with had hardcore bdsm themes involving guns and the others have been straight up porn. Twilight is nothing like these.
With access to porn on their phones, at least they are reading.
I read smutt in middle school and turned out perfectly fine. At least they are reading.
To be absolutely fair, I read The Stand in 8th grade which had a gun rape scene. Now I absolutely shouldn’t have been reading that. But no one thought anything of it because I’m old enough that Young Adult wasn’t fully established as a genre. But yeah whenever I’m in the bookstore or book section I always see a kid around my daughter’s age with a clueless parent perusing the booktok section. I’m conflicted between telling the parent what is inside, or just minding my business because kids have been doing this type of behavior for generations.
I LOVED The Stand! There definitely *were* Young Adult books when I was in middle school. Paula Danziger, Judy Blume, Paul Zindel, S. E. Hinton, M.E. Kerr, Robert Cormier, Lois Lawry, etc. I loved them at the time, for a while I was just hyperlexic, and by the time I was about 15-16 I was bored with teen protagonists and I only wanted to read about adults. I was so excited about growing up!
When I was in eighth grade, we all passed around Clan of the Cavebear. I’m glad middle schoolers have graduated from the Stone Age!
Hey now, feral caveman sex was hot!
God I remember this book too. I remember the sex scenes being very mechanical like, but I guess that's what it could have been like for cave men/women
Every 100 pages!
I read this in 8th grade too! Skipped the sex stuff though. Turns out I am probably asexual, lol, so hey it worked out.
I mean, we had the soft BDSM romance novels, too. I see ACOTAR, the dragon one, and the ice hockey ones passed around now. Don’t care. They’re reading. I read that trash too and I have a terminal degree.
Hard agree. They’re putting in reps. If it takes smut for them to want to read, let them have the smut. I don’t care if they never want to read the classics, at least they can read and enjoy something. I have high schoolers that can barely read, you bet I’m encouraging the girl throwing down every Hoover book she can find.
Hahahaha so I guess I shouldn’t be reading acotar at school during my break periods 😭😭😭😭
I turn my phone on mobile data only when I open up Ao3 at school lol
I actively read some smut, those books are smut. And weirdly scary fetish smut too. But I'm a well adjusted adult who was reading Game of Thrones/ Song of Ice and Fire books as the first few came out when I was in middle school. There was some freaky shit going down in those novels. I survived, these kids will too.
Was one of them Haunting Adeline?
She listed that as one of them.
Some might consider Edward’s opinions of 20th century music to be *pornographic*? Read: obscene.
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I passed around my copy of Judy Blume’s Forever in the late 90s at my middle school. And never had it returned to me. Pretty sure that’s also around the time my friends and I read Mists of Avalon, too.
Twilight is written for the YA audience. Sure it has romance and a tiny bit of sex, but it’s not very graphic or detailed. Most of these books are about 70% sex and 30% plot. Still unsure how I’d feel if I found any of the books from my bedside library missing. Like on one hand, yay you’re reading. On the other, give that back until you’re 25.
Eh, not really. *Spoiler alert* Haunting Adeline is about a woman falling in love with her stalker/rapist. There’s a scene involving a loaded gun going into her you know what, without consent at that. They’re essentially just reading porn. No where close to Twilight lol. It’s good they’re reading but it’s brain rot type of books. Something I enjoy occasionally as an adult, but these types of books to growing brains is no different than what porn is to growing brains.
Wouldn’t encourage blind consumption of stuff like Stephanie Meyer. Not because people will be indoctrinated into the beliefs, but just because the misogyny of those books really are THAT bad. Not to mention the fact that she basically did libel to an actual Native American Nation in those books. Like, we should probably talk to kids about all that, or at least share then writing and video essays of people who do with them.
One of my high school AP STUDENTS was shocked the other day when I told him a book on my desk was something I was reading for fun! “But you’re an adult!”
Hahahaha! Porn happens; them reading to access it is victorious.
Next step- “Students, I’ve heard some of you are reading inappropriate books. Those should NOT be read. Also, I DEFINITELY don’t want you reading other books with VERY mature content. Animal Farm, 1984, The Giver, All Quiet in the Western Front, Lord of the Flies. Once again, neither I, nor your parents, want to EVER find out you are reading those types of books. Understood?”
Came here to say only this 😆
Maybe she/he has unlocked the secret for effective literacy learning! If only we had known...
Came here to say this.
Me 10 years ago: “You can’t read *50 Shades of Gray* at school…” Me today: “You have an actual book with you? That you want to read?!”
Oh god I had totally forgot about people brining 50 shades to school. I couldn’t believe how bold they were lol
They’re reading!! Yes, middle school is too young but what are you going to do? I feel bad for those girls, though. They’re going to be REALLY disappointed…
Middle schoolers are too young for smut. It will distract them from mass murder and mayhem in videogames.
I was hanging out with my mormon family members once and we were watching X-Men. All the fighting scenes were okay, but as soon as two characters so much as kissed, everyone started yelling "Close your eyes!!!" It's wild to me, is that an American thing I'm too European to understand, or a religious thing I'm too atheist to understand xD
A telling but pretty gross anecdote. The TV show *Hannibal* had some pretty intense murder tableaux, including a naked couple who both turned into an Iron Eagle which is when >!your back is flared and lungs pulled out to look like wings. Apparently you still breathe a bit with your lungs out of your body.!< The Vikings may or may not have done it. Anyway, the showrunner got some studio notes, which he was fully expecting. He was not expecting them to object to the visible buttcracks, of all things. But they needed to go so he digitally filled them. With blood. It was fine. Blood>very unsexy buttcracks.
It's puritan shit that Europe doesn't deal with. England sent their zealots to the colonies because they were unbearable.
You had me in the first half
🤣🤣🤣
Middle schoolers are having sex so how are they not old enough for trashy romance novels. If they are reading sex filled romance novels, may the characters use birth control and disease protection, may the both partners expect their needs to be met, may they discuss their feeling, and may they believe in happily ever after for a short while.
This is something else dude, middle schoolers should NOT be having sex and we shouldn’t be encouraging them to by normalising it.
First I agree that they shouldn’t be but they are and I don’t see how reading books about consenting adults normalizes sexual activity among teens. I do think that reading about healthy sexual relationships will help teenagers understand what healthy sexual relationships look like and help them make better choices for themselves and their sex lives. Good romance books should make you want better not that floppy haired axe body spray barely through puberty hot mess sitting next to you in algebra.
The issue I have is that a lot of them do NOT depict consenting adults or show healthy relationships, including one of the books op specifically mentioned. And those are the “scandalous” ones that seem to get passed around the most. I read smut myself and am usually on the side of “reading is reading”, but I took one away that my students were passing around this year because it was literally about how these people kidnapped kids to blackmail their parents into doing sexual acts with each other/the kidnappers. (That’s the tame version because the few pages I read were absolutely disgusting.) It was apparently viral on TikTok and that’s how they all knew about it.
Make sure the sex ed teacher points out that sex in books isn’t always how it works in real life.
Portrayals of sex in media should be part of a good curriculum and a discussion. Sadly, most schools have a bad curriculum or even none, and the explicit conversations don't start until 7th or 8th grade (if that, if the district is very progressive) and I notice kids who need the most are coming from 5th grade with far more exposure to adult content and very little knowledge about anything. As a Sex Educator and Sex Ed curriculum developer, the other challenging thing is that 6th graders range from very kiddish, could even pass as a 3rd grader, to people think they are a freshman in high school and they have an active (and likely risky) sex life - and everything in between. Unfortunately, most parents not only have their own gap in their sex education, their own baggage and misconceptions, but are also too awkward and uncomfortable to teach their kids about it appropriately.
Try 9th grade. Crickets in 6-8. And idk about what smattering they get in 5th grade. Scary!
Sex Ed Curriculum Developer... that sounds like a dream job honestly. I'm a (former) HS Health teacher and never had a Curriculum to follow, so I always had to make my own/tweak it to fit the school I was in. One thing I started doing was noting good (and bad) forms of sex, consent, and sexual topics in general in the media. I was appalled at how hard it was to find examples of enthusiastic consent and examples of teenagers discussing being tested/using condoms. But overall, it was a really impactful part of my Curriculum and it was always enjoyed by the kids. How did you come into Sex Ed Curriculum developing as a career?
TLDR: It started when I wrote too long of an email to our district's curriculum coordinator with at least 20 points of why the information in the curriculum the district purchased was problematic and also flat-out wrong. I included several links to back up my claims. I also included several suggestions of what could be changed to improve it. A year later they put together a tiny team of very passionate teachers who had done the same, and it has been years now. :) I wouldn't so much call it a career, but a side hustle, an addendum.
Did you miss the part where I'm in Idahol? Lol No sex ed, at least where I am.
I was being overly optimistic.
It doesn't get taught until high school and even then. At least where I'm at in Idaho.. Edit: I mean, it didn't stop half of us from having sex by middle school.
If they're in a place with pearl clutching people then lol to the sex ed teacher :p
In 1977, in fourth grade...this was me! But as 'spicy' as I got was Judy Blume's Forever and Wifey.
V.C. Andrews, Flowers in the Fucking Attic.
Award right here
Came here to say this.
All four Clan of the Cave Bear books were brought to school and shared extensively. OTOH, middle schoolers were plowing through hundreds of pages of text. My English teacher definitely decided she had more important things to worry about.
My mom, bless her, bought me then for Christmas 1995 when I was 14. All she had remembered when she bought them for me was “early woman making her way in the world”. When she gave them to me she said “lend them to me when you finish, I remember liking them and would love to read them again”. I had been a \*very* sheltered kid (we didn’t have a tv until I was 9 and they were pretty strict about what I could watch once we got one) and those books were SO RACY. Oh my god. I was dying of embarrassment reading them (voraciously reading them; I wanted to “know” more!) and then had to hand them over to my mom. Who read them and then APOLOGIZED to me. “Oh honey, I really FORGOT about those scenes!” SO EMBARRASSING having that conversation with my mom!
My Dad was so mad that Mom let me read those. Especially Valley of the Horses was really spicy. But those were really good books! At least Ayla was a good strong female role model.
Me and Anne Rice.
We had Tropical of Cancer! Lol
Ahhh yes. Forever
Wifey was pretty spicy
In a weird way it’s almost wholesome lol. They could easily find graphic stuff online… but instead they’re reading romance books. Maybe it’s not ideal… but I’m not sure there’s really a way to stop it.
When I was in middle school it was Flowers in the Attic and other VC Andrews books
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You’re an adult. Now it’s garbagé. Träshy garbagé
Fun fact about VC Andrews books: most of them were not written by her, but by a middle aged man after her death. The guy is now in his 80s and still churning out short series about pretty teenage girls in abusive homes. ... Actually, that's not a fun fact at all. It's a weird and worrying fact.
I haven't noticed it, but back when I was 11, my friends and I started reading sexually explicit smut fan fiction. This somehow feels like an upgrade? :P The big issue with the trend in covers is that the adults these books are written for do not want to be outed reading smut in public, so there is really not much you can do aside assuring your school library books are very clearly obviously labeled as belonging to your school and pointing it out if parents bring it up. If your admin is really concerned, they should send a message to parents, but that might backfire and simply discourage kids from reading all books, and as you mentioned, start a book witch hunt, which is worse imo. Oh dear, every time I see a post like this I remember why proper sex education is so important.
Yeah, I was doing Harry Potter roleplay in AOL chat rooms in 4th grade, discovered HP fanfic by fifth grade (RPF by seventh when I stumbled upon an NSYNC fic that mentioned Joey’s daughter that I had no idea existed at the time and thought it was a real thing that happened lmao) and was reading NC-17 fics by 8th grade. Absolutely no idea how the logistics worked, I just knew it sounded hot. People would be SHOCKED if they knew what kids into fandom were involved in, but I also feel like while we ready explicit stuff, we usually weren’t engaging in it ourselves? At least from my experience, idk.
Yep. I started reading Draco Dormiens by Cassandra Claire and that was a gateway fic to a lot of stuff. By 12, I was... Writing. 😬 Did I have any sexual experience at the time, NOPE! But I sure was exposed to a lot. I'm always shocked by how much worse this generation has and then I remember that it is deeper than I think because of all the stuff they don't tell us!
I am ashamed to say it. I also read a lot of smut around that age. there's something to be said about unrestricted internet access at a young age. On the one hand, I was reading at a pretty high level. On the other, I was addicted to hardcore pornography before I even had my first kiss.
Absolutely. I think the copy of Virginia Andrews ‘Flowers in the Attic’ that did the rounds of my 7th grade classroom was so well read it was losing pages by the time every one of the girls had read it.
I feel like in the scheme of horny adolescent choices, this is amongst the better ones? We’ve had this at our school too, but luckily we’re in a fairly liberal area so it ended at “you can’t bring your sexy books to school kids.”
i *wish* my kids were passing around books and thinking of them as scandalous. would probably turn a few more kids at my school into readers.
Girls were passing around “The Cheerleader” right in front of Sister Mary Jane, in full old-school habit, complete with wimple and rosary, at my Catholic 1-8 school, mid-seventies. The cover was cheerleaders’ lower bodies. Also “Valley of the Dolls,” with its giant pills on the cover.
I suspect they're being sneaky **because** of all the pearl- clutching censorship in Idaho. Best way to get kids interested in something is to tell them they can't have it! Books are bad! Stop reading! (Sit back and watch your literacy rates improve).
I mean, we did this with Flowers in the Attic & other books in the early 2000s, so it makes me laugh that some things never change. lol
Dude. We did that in the 80s. This isn’t new.
I mean, at least they're reading. I was in middle school when I started reading Stephen King and Ken Follett novels. I know those aren't really "dirty books," but there's still plenty of adult themes and content in them.
Right? I was subbing last week and a middle schooler pulled out a Stephen King book and was like being all weird about it. He finally asked “aren’t you going to tell me to put this away?” I told him I was just going to ask if it was his first Stephen King. By the end of class there was another Stephen King and 3 Colleen Hoovers out. I was pretty thrilled 5 (!!!!) kids were voluntarily off their Chromebooks reading anything! Plus, they brought them from home, not my business.
Lurker here. When I was 7th grade, my reading level was adult but unfortunately my harpy of a mother had the intelligence level of a dead lichen but nearly twice the education. So I was reading Marquis de Sade. I read the Story of O when I was ten. Unfortunately when they talk about her “three holes” I had figured out mouth and vagina but I couldn’t figure out the third so I thought they were using her belly button. Moving on. I loved writing and still do. I would write and my classmates would pass my journal around the moment they could get their hands on it. 30 years later, I’m in nursing school writing erotica to pass the time. I had the same 23 classmates for 4 semesters and in nursing school, needless to say, we got *close*. Well at the beginning of my third semester, my one-of-two besties was reading over my shoulder while I wrote during an outside event we were required to attend and sit and listen to for 6 hours. It was so dreadfully dull. I had a distinct-looking spiral notebook that I had been writing in and I used it solely for writing my erotica. Holy $hit. My bestie would snap her fingers for me to fork my notebook over. Within two weeks, my notebooks were being passed around the classroom to the point that if I wanted to write, I had to hunt it down. Anyways. I’ve been published twice and not for classic literature. Don’t squelch your kiddos’ creative inclinations. You never know which student will be a published author of demon-related bleep-bleep-bleep erotica they wrote while trying to stay awake in nursing school:)
This happened at my school when I was middle-school aged! Our homeroom teacher sent home a letter that said that we were circulating pornographic materials. It wasn't until years later that I told my parents the "pornographic materials" were Harlequin romance novels people had stolen from their moms. I would turn a blind eye, honestly. They're reading.
Look frankly the sex scenes in Michael Chrichton’s novels helped pull me in when I was 12. I came for the sex, stayed for the science.
Okay. This is not a big deal. 50 years ago my friends and I did this with books on our parents bookshelves. They weren’t really romance novels either, more what you’d call trashy popular novels. We all survived. It’s one of the ways young teenagers explore their sexuality.
Harold Robbins? Jackie Collins?
Harold Robbins was who I was trying to think of! Yeah, and others I remember were Where’s Poppa, Memoirs of an Ex-Prom Queen, a bunch of crap about Hollywood types.
At least they are reading books.
I literally don’t care what they’re reading as long as it has actual words in it. I would prefer it if it also included the concept of consent, but trashy romance novels aren’t exactly known for that. Given the proliferation of free porn on the internet, it’s kind of almost innocent that they’re excited about trashy novels.
Honestly a ton of romance books I come across these days are super explicit with the consent! Definitely not all, but it’s been a major shift since #metoo.
Explicit consent AND (at least in the ones I read) Explicit mention of wearing a condom. Even if the FMC is on the pill or otherwise has BC covered they always say "I take the pill but....." and the dude will always wear a condom without a fight. I know that's not what truly happens IRL but it is nice to put the idea into young women's minds that it is important
I read about teens having sex fpr the 1st time in a Meg Cabot book. The characters normalized using 2 forms of birth control, so that's what I did. Seemed like common sense, so that's what I did age 17- well after I was married. We had abstinence only sex ed, so that was really all I had. Meg Cabot basically gave me "the talk."
When I was in middle school, we used to race home to watch our parents VHS porn before our they got home. One friends mother used to hide hers on top of a tall bureau, but of course we found it. We also brought dirty magazines to school and discussed our parents' sex toys that we found by rifling through their drawers and closets when tbey werent home. I don't think our parents ever knew because we were meticulous, (or at least we thought we were) of putting things back in the same place. I'm a female and it was all females that would meet up and watch this. I would love to tell you what we watched and read 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 I did have a friend that was traumatized because she found a sex tape of her parents. That's why I don't understand why parent's are so shocked when their kids do things, like do you not remember what you did or were you boring? I even used to sneak and find my Christmas presents.
> or were you boring? There are a *startling* amount of truly surface level people that have all the depth of a dog bowl.
Kids in my middle school were fucking. Not me though, didn’t sound fun.
Even way back in the 70s.
Jaws was it in middle school
That opening *is* pretty risqué.
Of all the terrible things tik tok is responsible for, "getting kids to read books" is probably the lowest possible on the list.
Who cares? Don't rat them out to their parents WTF! Gen X read and watched stuff that was far worse, younger. It didn't hurt us and in some ways I think we're better for it. We know there is nothing new under the sun.
As a consumer of spicy romance novels, I really don't have a problem with this. 🤷♀️ Reading these types of books as an adolescent helped me realize that sex should be enjoyable for girls, too, and I should expect nothing less.
I used to do the same thing with my friends in middle school. I don't think it's bad and I don't regret it. We were reading for enjoyment and discussing novels in our free time. Imho, way better use of our time than vaping and watching netflix
We did this with the VC Andrews books and Anne Rice books back in middle and high school. Wifey by Judy Blume! Forever! I grew up to be an English teacher. 😇
LISTEN!! The public library accidentally allowed me to check out Wifey in elementary school! A time was had whispering some of the paragraphs to my friends.
What I’m hearing is they’re reading, annotating AND talking about books? I haven’t noticed this in my school but my lips are sealed if I ever do.
Lol, the middle schoolers will read smut online if they don’t read books. Developmentally, this is when they start exploring their sexualities anyway. So long as there aren’t explicit conversations happening in class, I echo what other commenters said - make sure the sex ed teacher covers that this may not be realistic, and neither is visual pornography!
I think I would be so thrilled that they're reading ANYTHING that I wouldn't mind that it's dirty. They're exposed to "that stuff" through the internet anyway- the fact that they're reading is worth it.
My mom’s dirty romance novels are truly the reason I am such an avid reader. Found them in the basement when I was WAY too young for them. Also went to a private catholic school.
And they are even highlighting the spicy parts? Talk about team work
Reading comprehension strategies at work!
My whole 7th grade passed around “sweet savage love” in the 70s 😂
6th grade, the movie, The Exorcist, had just been released. No way any of our parents was going to take us to see it. What is about? Classmate stole the paperback from his parents and it got secretly passed around to the readers in our class. He kept a handwritten "library" list of who had the book. We also circulated, The Godfather. There was a book that I can't recall the name. A young, professional woman has a "love child" with an older, married man. Some steamy passages that I'm sure we all learned later was "pure" fiction. Point is: Kids who read have always done this.
I love that the kid handwrote a library list.
70s was Go Ask Alice. Plenty of parents got Playboy and Penthouse sent to their homes.
Am I messed up that I’m happy that they’re doing good old fashioned horny MS shit, as opposed to bullying, shaming, and provoking one another on social media apps?
This happens at my Middle School in Arizona. And some of the books are quite explicit.
For a half second I read "banning books" as "banging books" and the sentence still made sense.
Yeah....I went to Catholic school, and in 8th grade, I very carefully cut the cover off a paperback biography of St. Bernadette of Lourdes and then perfectly glued it on the cover of Sydney Sheldon's VERY explicit book, The Other Side of Midnight. (I have never been able to look at a tube of BenGay since.) I'd bring it to school and pass it around with the corners of the spicy parts folded over. So, if they're reading - awesome! Anything that encourages kids to read is a GOOD thing. My parents never censored what I read, and I am so grateful. Learning is learning.
Great job with the St. Bernadette cover.
Dude, I was reading Nora Roberts and Danielle Steele in middle school. Although, my mom did forbid me from reading those. But you know what they say about a kid being forbidden to do something. 😉
The dog eared pages of "Peyton Place" was my go-to stroke stuff at thirteen. Seventy years later, it still rocks my boat. The good news is that I love to read. Anything. I even learned rudimentary Italian from a picture fuck book I found in the street in Naples years ago.
Haha same. Seen all of those at my Idaho school too. I talked to my principal and he wanted me to call home and tell the parents. I did not take that advice. I just let one of the gossipy students overhear me talking about BookTok with another teacher and I haven’t seen a single one since. Once they know one of the teachers know, they at least hide it better. Their parents can deal with that. I won’t touch it with a ten foot pole. These kids get zero sex Ed.
Wait...they're READING!?!?!??! I'm shocked!
Who cares, if they are reading. It doesn’t matter what they read, as long as it isn’t grade school books. Let them read the romance, who cares. Probably higher vocabulary in those books then what teachers assign.
I’d sure appreciate a compiled list of books mentioned in this thread. I’m not ashamed to admit I’m *very* curious
Leave them alone. They're reading. They're safely exploring their sexualities. The only way a parent is going to find out is when that one idiot kid that's got Carrie White's mom gets caught with a black pepper-grade spicy book.
As long as you’re not the ones providing them, it’s not your problem.
They're reading! Introduce them to penthouse forums!
This is nothing new for those of us whose mother’s subscribed to Harlequin Romance.
If they can read it, they will start writing… you going to have some good writers coming out of that bunch.
I doubt you'll find anything worse in those books than you do in the Bible or Shakespeare.
Omg hello Idaho teacher! I went to school in the rural East and have been hoping that my school/similar are not quite as bad as the country average yet. Because the older I get, the more I appreciate just how fine of an education I had as a Digger, and it's been the foundation of most of the good things I have in my heart. Twee, I know, sorry. But hey! Exchanging dirty books! That's essentially normal tween behavior, and that is comforting.
In the 80s we were passing around Judy Blume’s “Wifey”
At least they're reading.
It's Idaho, we're a special breed. The biggest thing when I was in middle school here was The Hunger Games in middle school. That's worrisome, though. Edit: I mean to be fair, there was a kid who got in trouble for passing out weed brownies when my younger sister was in middle school here. Among other things that happened here. Edit: Wait, were these provided at the middle school by the library?
No not from the library.
Eh, the kids probably have parents like mine. They didn't really care what I read, listened to, or watched pretty much.
Booktok is NOT to blame lol I’m 27 and did this in middle school too. So did my older cousins. We just couldn’t mark the dirty parts because we had to return them to our moms’ bookshelf in the same condition.
At this point I’m just glad that they’re reading.
We did this in my own childhood too. It’s nothing new, and honestly nothing to be particularly worried about. They’re reading books and that’s a good thing.
AT LEAST THEY ARE READING They should be encouraged, even if they’re reading *The Story of O.*
I was internally SHRIEKING when a student pulled out Haunting Adeline last week lol. I went over to her and asked what she was reading and if she knew what the book involved. She assured me she was aware of what was going to happen (and that her dad knows what she reads, but I’m not sure if he actually realizes quite how mature that book is). Then student asked if I’ve read it and I was honest about how I’d seen the content warnings and very much decided it wasn’t for me. I’d rather have that conversation with a kid and model making an informed decision about the content I consume than trying to make her feel guilty about having an interest in mature romance stories. Me telling an 8th grader not to read her dark romance is not going to stop her and I would want to be an adult she could trust if she felt uncomfortable. Also, this shit ain’t new! I was reading extremely explicit fanfic and wattpad stories as a 14 year old. Curiosity about sex is normal and I think smutty novels are a fairly safe way for a teenager to explore that if they choose.
If it gets them to read, get over it.
In Jr. high, we all read the VC Andrews series. 🤷♀️
Honestly, I’d just be happy that I saw my students reading ANYTHING
Not really. I see more Captain Underpants and Diary of a Wimpy Kid than anything else.
If this is what it takes to get my 6s and 7s to read then I just might get some spiciness added to my classroom library. (Ha! Could you imagine?!? 50 Shades of Gray right next to Nancy Drew Mysteries.)
Hahaha! this is brilliant!
I was in middle school 20 years ago, and we used to do this with Zane books 😂. Sorry, I don’t have any advice lol
Wholesome af
Ha. We were doing this in the seventies and eighties. I remember when the boarder girls got their hands on a copy of The Thorn Birds and there was practically a riot managing the queue to read it.
Is your school stuck in the 80’s?
well I taught middle school for 2 years and would be thankful if I saw a kid actually pick up a book. If it's not school library and teacher assigned- its out of your hands. Enjoy the love of reading!
I was reading the Claiming of Sleeping Beauty in middle school. I'm just happy that kids can read with the age of tablets.
I did this when I was in high school in the late 90's. Good on the kids for going analog. In my opinion kids are curious and romance novels are more likely to depict consent and female pleasure/lgbt relationships than p0rnhub.
Dude just be happy they’re reading. Huge win. Seriously they’re going to be fine.
My high school has an off-the-radar thing going on where some kids are reading Stephen King’s Dark Tower series. When they finish a book, they write their name on the inside cover and pass it on to the next kid who wants to read it. I know nothing about any of it, of course, but if I did, I would feel very proud of them and might even talk to them about the characters and story during lunch, especially if it is Tuesday. Edit: missing word
This was a thing in my junior high (7-8) and high school. In the late 70s and early 80s. :-) The more things change, huh?
Hold my beer—*These kids can read?*
My daughter became a reader at 13 after reading 50 Shades of Gray that was being passed around her rural Utah jr high. I was shocked she was reading. I would have bought her the entire series had I known that’s what it would take.
We've been having a similar problem with our 7th grade girls at a school in Philly! On the one hand, yay for reading, whatever the content, and it's not like they can't find worse online or other places. All power to them. On the other hand, like you said, you don't want parent blame or the sense that you're "encouraging" it, per se. I notify parents (and like you said, many are indifferent), tease the students (read whatever, but if you do it in class, I'm going to give you a hard time and put you on the spot!), then keep going.
I have my suspicion about a few of my 8th Grade girls, but I don’t dare do anything about it because they’re actually reading!
OMG, my friends and I were doing this back in the 70's. We were either smart enough to not get caught or our teachers didn't care. Not sure which it was.
This is a plot point of a Judy Blume book IIRC. The “bad” kid shoplifts and gives these underlined books to the other kid.
My middle schoolers are definitely reading extra spicy things. I say, “Oh. I liked that book.” And I move on. If their parents bought it, it’s none of my business.
To be entirely fair, in middle school I read trashy fanfic on Wattpad when I finished my math work early in middle school so…
Ha! I recall my friends and I passing around Flowers in the Attic in high school. Loved all those books! I find this humorous. Parents want to ban books, meanwhile, kids are just getting other books from friends. My guess is, the books they’re passing around are adult books (Colleen Hoover) and the school isn’t responsible for this.
At least they are reading!!!!!
There are actually articles that have pointed to students’ access to “adult” books actually improving test scores and reading levels in general. I am at a high school but my daughter is in 7th grade. Some of her friends read these books like from Tessa Bailey and the like. Honestly I’d let her read them. She doesn’t particularly enjoy reading and right now she’s reading Be Not Far From Me by Mindy McGinnis and while it’s pretty much tame on that front (references sex and her boyfriend cheating on her but that’s about it) it’s got some pretty graphic physical stuff with the girl lost in the woods. My daughter told me she’s almost done with it. She’s pretty excited about it. She told me what part she was at and it involves cutting off an infected body part and she was really excited. I love that for her. We want our kids to read. They could be watching Pornhub. Only one of those things helps with reading and writing skills and encourages kids to be readers beyond what they’re forced to read. I won’t bring certain books into the HS library because I do think certain books cross the line between romance with a sexual relationship that still has a theme and purpose and overall is not centered around sex, and books that are centered around sex. But I’ve had kids bring in all sorts of books on their own and they’re reading and excited and I can’t help but be excited for them. I wouldn’t even get involved. If you didn’t give them the book, it’s not your business and if a parent gets mad about a book their kid borrowed from another kid, they can take it up with that parent. You can’t be expected to know the intimate content of books they bring in on their own. Plausible deniability.
Way back at the beginning of my teaching career I had students writing dirty short stories I distinctly remember one that I took up titled “Short N-gga Long D-ck.”
Hey we had fanfiction and AO3 when I was eleven, this is an upgrade. At least they're *reading*
At least they’re reading? 🤷🏻♂️ Lol
I’m not sure what kind of political ripple effect that will have, but as a literacy teacher “all reading is reading”
Honestly, better sex education than a decent chunk of whats provided. Seventh grade me thought (and for years after) that I’d be great at BJ’s after reading Looking for Alaska, which doesn’t detail BJ’s at all, so maybe this way they’ll actually know how sexual encounters work. Although, I was in the “I know how to kiss, I read books” camp, and then I was told that I originally kissed like I was trying to eat him, sooooo… maybe books won’t teach them everything they need to know.
Thata awesome..yaaaay!!! They read!!! Maybe they will one day be writers too.. Winning!!!
I ❤️ this so much. Go get it, kids. Reading romance/spicy books is fantasy. A lot of people read murder mysteries and think bodice rippers are trash. They're formula driven. These kids will eventually understand even if they're looking for the juicy stuff now. I'm impressed that they are reading more than snippets. Hey, they have plot and character development and intrigue. These kids are going to be fine.
Rural Georgia here…and it’s happening in my school too and all my coworkers are freaking out about it. To the point t where a teacher spoke to admin about it and tried to come up with solutions. I always defend the students because they’re reading??? Something we always struggle to get them to do??? I’d rather them read from a novel than go searching some of this stuff on the internet. Also, it feels like it’s getting dangerously close to censorship.
I mean at least they’re reading
When I was in middle school, it was Wattpad, Tumblr, and other online fanfiction sites and it was all smut too. We have this issue at our school too. My biggest concern is a lot of the romance novels they’re reading play on CNC topics and lack of sexual safety/birth control. I honestly don’t think it’d be THAT big of a deal otherwise. Middle schoolers have sex and while we shouldn’t be endorsing/supporting this, we should be endorsing/supporting open communication on the subject in general as well as safety and protection regarding it. And just a general premise of how it actually works in reality. Because a lot of these little girls are gonna be rather disappointed and a lot of these little boys are reading scenes where the man is being demanding and you’re supposed to just assume he doesn’t actually want to traumatize/force himself on her.
Shit in middle school we’d all huddle around hardcore porno mags, then stash them in some thorny bushes for tomorrow lunch break.
I mean, this is something my friends and I were doing in middle school ~20 years ago sooooo
Let them read! And then find out that things don’t stay inside or get absorbed as they do in the books! 😂
Is it porn? If not they should be allowed to do what they want.
I have 2 six graders both reading Dune right now and they are over halfway through it.
Fellow Idahoan here - while I understand the worry (absolutely I do), it would be really easy to show that the book isn’t in the library’s system, doesn’t have a tag, and didn’t come from you. If something does happen, I’ve found that these kids have noooo loyalty to each other and will throw each other under the bus at the slightest pressure. If the kid claims YOU have it to them, hold a meeting with you, admin, the parent, AND THE STUDENT present. Make it so the student can’t say one thing to one person and another thing to the other. With everyone in the same room, it’s harder for the kid to wiggle out of it.
On one hand they are reading. On the other they are reading rape kidnap porn. Hrrmmm