The banned-books issue in Texas is not all that surprisingly one that reflects the same political divides that separate most of the country these days. Lots of people on the left, lots of people on the right, and a much smaller number closer to the middle. Personally, I strive (it's not always possible) to keep myself as near the political center as I can on most issues, and that's where I find myself on this one.
I generally do not believe in banning books...period. But my conscious makes it impossible to be that far to the left on this one anymore because I do support limiting access to certain books to age-appropriate readers. There are some subjects no on will ever convince me that early elementary school children should be exposed to. Too, I think there are certain books simply too dangerous to be made available in public libraries, for instance, those that contain detailed information about bombs that can be built in the privacy of your own home. I realize that the information is out on the web, and that those crazy enough to want it are going to find it, but I draw the line at making it so easy for would be anarchists or terrorists to get their hands on the instructions. This leaves me trying to answer the question of whom, or what group, should be deciding appropriateness for the rest of us. Yet another nut to crack.
Anyway, I stumbled upon this video today that shows the rather creative approach one Houston man is taking to ensure that many - but not all - of the books recently banned by various school boards in the area are available to the young readers living in his own Houston neighborhood. The video shows how he has made a clever adaptation to the Little Free Library concept to get the books out there.
Now I'm curious to know if the optimism expressed here has survived the past three months, but so far I haven't found an update anywhere. If I turn one up, I'll come back to post a follow-up.
I worked as an elementary school librarian for one year, and our main guidelines (and only restrictions) as to what books we could buy was making sure it was age appropriate. So we didn't buy any YA or adult novels because the oldest kids in our school were 10 and 11, and the content in older novels wasn't really appropriate for them. And I agreed with that policy, while at the same time I don't agree with banning books. Because I don't want someone else determining what's okay for me (or my kids if I had any) to read.
ReplyDeleteSounds like we pretty much are on the same page here; it's such a fine line to walk, that it's difficult to be consistent and not hypocritical these days. I'm mostly concerned about the youngest students and how every kind of sexual issue or experience is being so aggressively thrust in their faces now. It just cannot be good for their mental health or their normal growing up pattern. A time will come for them, just not when they're so young and impressionable. It's too easy to confuse them and even pervert their thinking in unhealthy ways.
DeleteI agree; it has gottenso aggressive in the way people want to force their own ideas and agendas onto children and teens. And it's just not right.
DeleteHaving read Lark's comment and then your reply I'm on the same page as both of you. Book banning is not really a thing here in the UK and I'm with that wholeheartedly 'but' someone still has to take responsibility for what younger children pick up as there are some quite adult issues being discussed in YA books these days that are not suitable for, say, 10 year olds to read. We're already seeing the results of a lot of confusion in kids here in the UK. I really feel for modern kids I must say.
ReplyDeleteI feel for them, too, Cath, I have to admit that I was kind of a precocious reader at about age 10, and after I completely exhausted the children's section of my tiny hometown library, the elderly librarian took pity on me and opened up the adult shelves to me. Now, I realize just how much went right over my head, but books were not anywhere near as explicit as they are these days. It's like I was telling Lark; it's an extremely fine line we are trying to stay on and it's not easy.
DeleteI feel the same way as you, Lark, and Cath. The idea of book banning is detestable to me, but at the same time, I think young children need to be protected from some of the content that's out there. In my opinion, a school library should be a "safe" place for them to pick out books that are age-appropriate without parents having to worry about inappropriate content. Of course, like you said, that brings up the who decides issue, which is definitely a sticky one since everyone has different ideas and opinions. My kids' elementary school library decided to stock some YA books, but kids had to have a permission slip signed by their parents in order to check them out. Even still, there were titles that I didn't think should be in an elementary school at all, while the librarians were perfectly fine with them. It's a sticky issue for sure.
ReplyDeleteMy youngest is 14 and I'm still cautious with what I let her read. Even with how much I read, though, it's impossible to keep up with all the YA books that are being published. I've read some that are astonishingly inappropriate for teens (in my opinion), so I tread carefully.
Well put, Susan. It scares me sometimes at just how fast the world is changing. It's not that the changes are necessarily bad ones, it's more that it all seems to be happening at jet speed rather than at the more step-by-step process that used to be the rule. The world your children are growing up in is not the one you knew as a child - and you can imagine how different it is from the one I grew up in. At this pace, young people don't have the time to assimilate new ideas and make their own judgements about them; instead, they are forced by peer pressure to adopt the popular opinion or face life as an outcast. It's not fair to them, and the potential backlash coming from those of them who grow up and realize what was forced on them as naive children was wrong for them could be staggering. Children have a way of letting you know when they are ready to face some of the more complicated questions - they don't need to be brainwashed before they can possibly understand all the pros and cons about issues.
DeleteI don't think elementary school libraries should look like Middle School libraries - and I don't think that Middle School libraries need to match high school libraries book by book when it comes to content.
The only "censoring" I remember as a kid was my mother, without us talking about it, took away a book from my room. I even remember the name - Inside Daisy Clover. I just read this about it: "Lambert has a sharp eye for the Hollywood and Bohemian New York milieus, a good ear for dialog, and a sensibility receptive to a wide gamut of unlikely people," said LJ's reviewer of this title (LJ 3/15/63). It follows the ups and downs and ups again of a teenage movie star who falls prey to the lure of sex and drugs but who ultimately gets back on track. The novel is spicier than the 1965 Natalie Wood film version."
ReplyDeleteI was 15 when it came out. Makes me chuckle now, and I don't remember ever being angry.
I am not one for censoring, but I do believe in age appropriate. I don't think that more adult behaviors should be shown to or available to kids who are like 9 or so, and certainly not younger. But they could be exposed to things in school that parents may or may not ever know about. And kids also mature differently, one to another. My granddaughter still believes in Santa, and a woman I talked to said she has a friend whose daughter is in junior high and still believes!
All excellent points, Nan. I very much agree with what you say here because I am a firm believer that the parents are the best judge of what their own children are ready to read and learn about. They, and they only, know how the children are raised at home and what they have already been exposed to for the most part. I don't understand why so many people are willing to let the government steal so many of their parental rights from them in public schools. My daughters have spent their lives teaching in public schools, and now most of their own children are following that same path. My wife worked in a public school system for a decade. We know firsthand what is going on in public schools, and it makes us uneasy. Parents need to take their heads out of the sand and quit worrying about peer pressure and having to send the "right signals" in public and to their friends. It's time we all wake up and resist this dangerous trend.
DeleteThis is a difficult and interesting topic. I don't remember that my parents ever censored my reading. I do remember reading a couple of books that had come from my grandmother's house after she died, and they had some some elements related to sex that I had not encountered before. And maybe one novella length story in a woman's magazine that portrayed sex. I just though that they were interesting reading but I never looked for more like that. My parents probably never saw the books / stories themselves and nothing I encountered was available through a school. And I was always very naive anyway. But of course the banning of books that is going on now goes way beyond that.
ReplyDeleteThe banning of books today is doing way more harm than good. With the exception we've all discussed, I'm against banning them at all and I used to always point it out when I was aware of it. But these days it's one of those sensitive issues that I was almost afraid to bring up on my blog. Didn't want to step on that anthill without thinking about it first.
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