One child came back from school with a copy of the dreadful Shirley Jackson story "The Lottery" in hand. Along with _Lord of the Flies_ it's a chunk of Cold War libertarian propaganda - so I promptly handed them a copy of Le Guin's "The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas". I don't know if Le Guin actually intended her story as a point-by-point refutation of "The Lottery" but it does a magnificent job of exposing the underlying ideology and challenging it, right down to the question of what is acceptable in literature for 12 year olds - "Omelas" overtly discusses sex and drugs, with gentle humour, and condemns violence, while "The Lottery" features prudes who practice ritual murder.
If anyone here is teaching "The Lottery" or has a child for whom it is prescribed reading, I heartily suggest Le Guin's antidote to cultural poisoning.

@yetiinabox "I heartily suggest Le Guin's antidote to cultural poisoning."

That (half-)sentence stands all on its own. The world would be a better place if more people read her.

@stonebear @yetiinabox I still can't believe I never heard of her before college. (Best Ethics & Values class ever, that - all the reading was sci-fi. Only non-elective class I liked more was my American History class, where we only got halfway through the curriculum because he would stop to show us how all the battles went.)