F word hysteria and censorship

According to Merriman Webster the F word can be defined to copulate or in the vulgar sense to mess with. It first appeared in the 14th century and has kinship to Dutch and Swedish words.

A Westport, Massachusetts teacher was put on administrative leave recently because she read a Margaret Atwood story with the F-word in it. A mother complained. Her daughter, as a high school sophomore, heard the word.

Did the child faint?

Throw up?

Develop anorexia?

Demand that the boys in the class sleep with her?

Stop sleeping.

Buy an AR-15 and shoot up the classroom.

I doubt it.

My mother, if she heard the word would nearly develop Victorian vapors at the horror of those four little letters making one syllable a nano second in the length. In writing her seeing the word in print,  a minuscule of ink would also produce an equal intense reaction.

I suppose it is to much to hope for the mother would show the kid how the word can be used

Lots of things in life are vulgar and that woman's little darling may already know some of them and if not, she will. Wrapping the young adult in a literary blanket will not stop the world that she will have to live in. 

This entire censorship trend hurts kids far more than the things censored. It prevents them from acquiring the skills necessary to exist in a world full of horrors far greater than a little four letter word, whose meaning describes what ever living creature on the planet does to guarantee survival of the species.

Kids need to know the truth of bad things. Kids need to know what humanity is capable of. Kids need to read more than fairy tales where the prince awakens the Sleeping Beauty. Somewhere in the prince and SB's future they may use the activity which the F word describes for their relationship.

Protecting kids from these things is promoting their ignorance and the last thing any country needs is more ignorant people.