Anything Goes Thursday
Thursday. Whew.
I like Thursdays…kind of in the same way Jerry Seinfeld once raved in a standup routine about being “next” in line. It’s not “hump day;” it’s not “TGIF;” but that lovely in-between day where the end is in sight, but there is still time to finish projects and plan for the weekend.
So let’s make Thursdays – I dunno – different, let our figurative hair down a little and check out what is going on in the world at large – and in the world of writing.
A story in a local-ish newspaper I try to read daily discussed the demands of a parent to remove several books from school library shelves. The titles are “Finding Laura Buggs” and “Until They Bring the Streetcars Back” by Stanly Gordon West. She has also asked that “A Time to Kill” by John Grisham and “Mick Harte Was Here” by Barbara Park be removed.
The woman has gone so far as to go over the superintendent’s head to the State Department of Public Instruction – and – it being a legislative year in the state – she also sent letters to several state representatives.
This makes me nervous. As a former teacher, the literature my students dealt with included violence, incest, gang mentality, peer pressure, rape and murder. And the scary part was not the literature; the scary part was that the students’ lives were usually more dramatic than what they were reading for my class.
So who is to decide what books are on which shelves? Parents? Teachers? School Boards? State Legislatures? Kids? Or do we go with a “rating system” a la Tipper Gore vs. Dee Snyder and do for literature what that did for heavy metal? What would that do for sales of books? But more importantly, what would that do to the craft of writing?
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censorship, writing, literature, banned books, rating system
March 30th, 2007 at 1:17 am
I have read the John Grisham book as I have read several. I remember as a child in the sixth and seventh grade the books that were available to me were a great blessing. How can a woman, who doesn’t even have a child in school, demand such actions. Who decides what children can and cannot read? A woman who as no children in school? I find it rediculous and a tad censored. Children should have books available to them. Teachers and parents should monitor what they read, give them things that are age appropriate (as well as mentally) and leave the other books to those who are up to level in reading them. Pulling books isn’t going to help matters, people ultimately need to take responsibility for children and what they read not ban them.
*ok steps off soap box..:)*
March 30th, 2007 at 9:26 am
I tried hard to look at her point of view, but I’m still worried that the woman asking for books to be removed is going too far. Banning books? Yikes. That smacks of book bonfires.
As a parent, I’ve handed my 15 year old books like “The Chocolate War,” “Lord of the Flies,” and the Harry Potter books. And really, if we are going to censor, should “Romeo and Juliet” be taught or even be in the school library?
I’m going to try to follow this story, but it would seem that the school board and the state DPI is blowing her off. I’m not sure if they shouldn’t take her to task on it tho.