A recent article by Hannah Natanson in The Washington Post outlined the continuing issue of schools nationwide quietly removing books from their libraries, particularly books dealing with discussions of race, gender, sex, the Holocaust and LGBTQ identities. Some of the removals have been even apparently done outside the normal school board processes for book review and assessment. Many of the banned books include such classics as Toni Morrison’s “The Bluest Eye,” M.O. Yuksel’s “In the Mosque,” Zetta Elliott’s “A Place Inside of Me,” Kyle Lukoff’s “When Aidan Became a Brother,” Maia Kobabe’s “Gender Queer,” Jonathan Evison’s “Lawn Boy,” George M. Johnson’s “All Boys Aren’t Blue,” and Vladek Spiegelman’s Pulitzer Prize-winning “Maus.” The list goes on and on.
Yes, these are books that some would deem controversial, depending on the eyes of the beholders who hopefully have taken the time to actually read the books. Unfortunately, some parents have taken it upon themselves to engage in censorship, believing that today’s eight to twelve year olds cannot handle any discussion related to important societal issues. However, one has to ask, where does such censorship all end? Kind of reminds me of Ray Bradbury’s 1953 dystopian novel, “Fahrenheit 451”, which presents a future American society where books are outlawed and “firemen” burn any that are found. Bradbury wrote his novel as a result of his concerns during the McCarthy era aimed at so-called un-American activities indiscriminately directed at artists, journalists and others. He raised concerns about the potential threat of book burning in the U.S. at that time. Today, one might conclude that his novel may be somewhat prophetic.
No one can deny that parents are entitled to oversee the daily activities of their young children, including those in middle school. However, as a taxpayer supporting public school education in particular, one might feel taken aback by such censorship which would completely remove relevant books from school libraries. I would have no problem should parents choose to send their children to private schools, certainly those proposing to be faith-based. As parents who would like to see their children in public schools being allowed to address a number of issues in an intelligent and meaningful manner, their children should have free access to recommended readings. Banning these books is an infringement of the rights of these parents. The continuing harassment by some parents of school boards and librarians over the contents of their libraries and curriculum is totally uncalled for and inexcusable. As noted in the above article, one district adopted the permission-slip policy to allow parents to be the decision maker in what materials their children are reading and have access to, seemingly a reasonable compromise.
Young people are going to be naturally curious about numerous modern societal issues, be they about sex, race or gender. Taking into consideration age-appropriate materials, many of the controversial books alluded to would appear to be highly useful in opening discussions about a number of difficult topics. As the above article notes: “Psychologists, academics and librarians reached by The Washington Post said they see value in introducing children to books that contain challenging material, including of the sexual kind, provided it is done with appropriate context, care and tact.” Throughout formal education today, children will be faced with information and discussion about a number of difficult topics — where better than in schools. People need to place more trust in educators, who after all have extensively studied and researched many of these topics in compiling their curriculum. Misinformed and indiscriminate censorship doesn’t have any place in these processes, especially where educators and librarians unfortunately can end up facing daily harassment by fringe groups. Freedom of thought and practice should be the foundation of a public school education, while respecting the rights of all parents and not just a few.
FROLITICKS 