Book Attacks

In Will you be remembered for what you did right or what you did wrong? from Blue Skunk Blog, Doug Johnson shares,

“The depictions of Native Americans, Blacks, and Asians by beloved authors Laura Ingalls Wilder and Dr. Seuss are being criticized, and by implication, the characters of Wilder and Seuss as well.”

I have heard that some libraries are removing books by some of these authors and it pains me. By taking these books out of circulation, we are doing a major disservice to future generations. We are trying to change history by saying these books don’t exist anymore.

Instead, we need to be teaching our students values and acceptance. We need to teach them what happened in the past. If we think something isn’t acceptable, we need to teach them and explain. I remember when I was growing up, my parents didn’t want me to drink alcohol but they didn’t hide it and ban it from our lives. Instead, they explained the dangers of alcohol abuse and the consequences. By sharing their feelings and explaining things to me, I didn’t feel the need to rebel and sneak a drink.

I read many books where I don’t agree with some of the ideas or don’t like the characters in it. I have read murder mysteries that involve violence such as murder, kidnapping, and rape. Do we take all of those things off the shelves because someone is offended by violence? We need to stop having this knee-jerk reaction that someone might be offended by what the author is writing. What happened to free speech? If you find it offensive, stop reading it!

One of my favorite books is To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee. It has some offensive words in it but it was realistic for the time the story was set in. It shows the racism of the times but they weren’t the major themes of the story. I’m waiting for someone to say they will take it off the shelves because of this. This story helped influence where I wanted to go to college, move to after college, marry and raise my children. I wanted to move to a place where people knew each other and the community cared for each other.

When we are teaching students, we need to make sure they take notice of when the book was written. They need to know what society was like at that time. They need to learn how to put things in context at the time it was written. They also need to put in context the time and place of the story. We wouldn’t enjoy a story about the old west and the characters driving a car or using a microwave! Good stories get you immersed in the story and make you feel like you are there at that time and place.

I’m sure that a hundred years from now, society will have changed and many things we find acceptable now won’t be acceptable then. But do we want our time hidden or even ignored? Don’t we think we are doing many good things to make the future better?

What do you think about this new attack on books? Please share.

Photo by Susan Yin on Unsplash

Library Censorship is Disappointing

In this recent article Greenville librarian says decision to ban graphic novel wasn't made lightly, I was very disappointed in this librarian’s actions. She has decided to ban the graphic novel “Neonomicon" by Alan Moore.

I haven’t ever read this graphic novel but apparently a committee of library employees reviewed the novel and decided that the book should be kept. This librarian decides to overrule the committee and ban it anyway. She states that it was disgusting but doesn’t say it was pornographic or obscene. I feel that if one person makes this decision, it is blatant censorship.

I find it interesting that the library has several copies of Fifty Shades of Gray which some people might definitely consider pornographic or obscene. I haven’t read that book but not because it has been removed from the library but because I choose not to read it. I am an adult and I made this decision from reading reviews and hearing about it from other people. I don’t think it should be removed from the shelves because adults have the right to make this decision.

I’m afraid if we took out every book that one person found “disgusting,” we might not have very many books in the library.

During this time when less and less people are using libraries, I don’t think we should start censoring books that someone thinks is disgusting.

I resent the fact that one person can make this kind of decision. If it isn’t appropriate for children, then it needs to be categorized differently. Let adults decide if they want to read it or not but don’t make that decision for me.

What kind of message are we sending to our students? We are saying that as adults, we are unable to decide what we want to read and we need someone, who obviously thinks she is better than us, to make this decision for us. We are saying that if someone thinks someone else’s writing is disgusting, then no one should ever read it. How do we teach critical thinking this way? Do we want our students to become robots and only read what we decide is worthy of reading? (I’m sure I read many books that others might not think is worthy of reading.) Isn’t that a form of propaganda? We don’t want them to read anything that might be disgusting so they can measure good writing next to it? How will they know what is bad or good if we only show them what someone deems as a worthy book?

I don’t have the answers to all of the questions but I sure don’t believe that censorship is the way to go. I am very disappointed that my library would act this way.

What do you think? Do you think the librarian acted in the appropriate way? Please share.

Image: 'Against Banned Books (Please Spread This Pic+&+The+Text)'
http://www.flickr.com/photos/77512700@N00/44227093
Found on flickrcc.net

Unblocking Social Networking Sites

In Why Facebook is Unblocked at ISB from The Thinking Stick, Jeff Utecht shares an email from his department sent to a parent who was concerned about Facebook being unblocked at his school. Near the end of the email, it states,

“These sites have emerged as social areas that form a major significant part of many of our student’s lives. This socialization is near as important to this generation as face to face time with their friends and they maintain friendships beyond ISB to include international students from schools around the world. At this point we feel that by simply blocking these sites, we as a school would be missing an opportunity to educate students about how to use them appropriately…If students cannot manage their time on computers productively at school, then they would certainly not be able to at home. Blocking access has not proven to be effective in teaching students to use a tool effectively and wisely.”

I think part of the desire to block is fear of the unknown. When rock and roll first hit the scene, parents around the world were horrified and wanted this new type of music banned and hidden from their children. I’m sure that when the first automobile hit the roads, there was fear of how this newfangled thing would affect our lives. I believe as more and more parents become comfortable with social networking sites, they will less stressed about their children using them. Of course, as a parent, I would require that my child becomes my “friend” and I would have the password to my child’s account. If for any reason this password gets changed or if I’m blocked, I would delete the account and keep my child from using this until he/she matured more. But that is just what I would do.

I also understand the need to protect our children but by acting out of fear and ignorance is not the best way to protect our children. When we teach our children to read, there is a chance that they will read some inappropriate materials. So in our desire to protect, do we just not let our children learn to read or do we let them learn to read but only material we hand pick for them? When our children learn to drive, there is a chance that they may drive to an inappropriate place. There is a chance that they may get in an accident, get car jacked, or even pick up a hitchhiker. Do we not teach our children to drive, or only let them go places if we are with them?

When I was growing up, my parents did not allow me to date until my senior year of high school. I did not have a lot of social skills when dealing with the opposite sex. My only date happened to be my prom date and it wasn’t the highlight of my dating career. When I went on to college (800 miles away from my parents), I went boy crazy. I went out with some horrible boys as well as some nice boys. The problem was that I didn’t have any guidance from my parents to help me figure out which ones were which. At one point, I had a boy who became very possessive and started to stalk me but I didn’t know how to deal with it and I wish I had dated more when I was at home with my parents. Eventually my friends were the ones I turned to and they helped me get out of a bad situation. By the time I had children, I knew that I wanted them to have some social experiences while they lived at home and I could help guide them. I didn’t want them to make the same mistakes that I did.

I think it is so important to teach our students to become independent and learn the skills necessary to be become this way. Yet, we need to teach them how to use these skills wisely. We need to introduce them to the negatives as well as the positives. We need to teach them how to handle the tough situations they may find themselves. If we can help them while they are in a safe atmosphere, they will be able to transfer this knowledge when they are on their own. Let’s face it, these students are going to get on social networking sites whether we like it or not, so shouldn’t we give them some information on how to use it appropriately?

How do you feel about this? Do you think students should have access to social networking sites at school and why?

Original image: 'chapter 8 - community building through social networking'
http://www.flickr.com/photos/80994469@N00/2584489931 by: David King

Watch Your Words!

I recently read an article in the newspaper titled Proposed 'tofu' license plate deemed obscene which talks about how the highway department refused to give a lady this vanity plate because she loves tofu and wanted the plate to say ILVTOFU. Their excuse was "We don't allow 'FU' because some people could read that as street language for sex."

Are we beginning to censor things too much? I admit that when I hear young people around me using profanity as common language, it makes me cringe. Who determines what is profane and what isn’t? So much street language now can mean so many different things.

I remember when “bad” actually meant bad and not good, but only when it is used in certain situations. My students used to really have a hard time when we read books that said someone was happy by using the word “gay”. And if the word “breast” was in a story, the boys practically fell out of their chairs.

I attended Furman University to get my degree in teaching and at football games, the President of the university would get up in front of the stands and yell, “FU one time, FU two times, FU three times, FU alllllllllllllll the time!” Would he banned today from doing that?

What about words that people use for different body parts but are innocuous if used in other ways? I used to allow my students to use the word “butt” in my room rather than the other alternative but they would tell me that they got a detention from another teacher for using it in that classroom. I explained to them that some teachers had different feelings about words that offended them and this was a lesson in real life. When they got out into the real world, they needed to watch their language closely.

But when we start reading too much into this and trying to stop people from using words that might offend someone, aren’t we becoming too controlling? Are we overreacting? If we start banning words, what words will we have left? Will we have to describe something rather than using the actual word? And what if one of the words in the description is considered profane? My students had a hard enough time with expressing themselves appropriately but I hate to think of what will happen if we start trying to censor all of their words.

What do you think? Should this vanity plate be allowed? What message does this give to our students?

Original image: 'Cheesecake' http://www.flickr.com/photos/33529090@N00/678296933by: John Abell