Banning books takes away each student’s ability and RIGHT to choose what to read.
Not banning books but choosing what your own child can read is your right as a parent. I am sure every teacher would have an option, except perhaps in AP classes? I don’t know since that content is not decided at the local public school level. You’re welcome to remove your child to a regular class. But don’t impose YOUR will on everyone.
What is so difficult to understand?
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Seems like the local librarians are a good source in most places. Our school was well resourced and if they didn’t have the book, they’d order it. The only issue we ever ran into was around grade 3. My kids were reading 7-8 grade level and they weren’t allowed into a particular stack of books. There were other kids in the same situation. We ended up finding books for advanced readers that had younger content.
I don’t see a problem with someone going through whatever process the school has like at the Wake School in the library. And I personally don’t see “experts” as being the last word ( unless the school is set up that way). Follow the process and then follow the rules.
I had no idea before reading this thread that one could’ve their kid opt out of reading a book. Personally, I’d tell my kids to skip a section that was problematic. But then again, I think kids need to learn to work within a framework.
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I just recently stumbled upon Michael Lewis’s Against The Rules podcast. It is great!!!
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He’s really a masterful storyteller/explainer!
Part of what’s fun so far about this season of the podcast is getting a window into the way in which people don’t actually understand where the “experts” sit and what they know (within various systems). They are the oft-unsung professionals who do stuff we don’t know a thing about. It’s a cool listen!
FWIW, daughter is a HS librarian. Her masters of library science degree gave her the credentials to be a public librarian. In order to be licensed as a school librarian, she had to complete additional courses in school curriculum, etc., to receive her state school librarian license.
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You are imposing your will too. That’s the crux of the conflict. You want what you want and you think everyone should be happy with YOUR choice and yet you denigrate and dismiss those that don’t agree with you. Your choice is as much an imposition of will as the choice of the parent you’re berating.
And the flashpoint of a lot of this conflict is the opinion that parents should not have a say in how and what’s taught to their kids, especially in elementary schools and to a lesser degree MS.
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I would think that the “experts” could identify books for AP classes that would be acceptable to everyone. Because, separate and (un)equal is not really what anyone wants. Right?
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What parent is making a choice for your child at school? The state school system makes curriculum standards. The local school system then takes those standards and figures out how to apply them. Parents aren’t choosing books in the library. There is a small group who wants to make it that way- and it seems that includes you. If you would like to make it that way, then be ready to have other parents impose their will on your kids too.
Personal responsibility, if you don’t like a book, please go to the school and ask that your child not have the ability to check it out.
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You miss the point that we’re not limiting your child at all. You’re limiting ours, esp as it pertains to library books.
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I’m not missing the point. The point is imposition of will. You want what you want and other parents want something different.
And your kids aren’t being limited. Those books are all available from other sources unlike certain books, for example the Dr. Suess books, which are no longer being published at all.
Reading this thread, it’s obvious that things work differently in different parts of the country.
The school library at the public school my offspring attended was for grades 7-12. Kids could check books out of the library without parental permission. Indeed, as far as I know, a parent could not request information regarding the books checked out by their kids. So, once a book was in the library, kids had access.
I think there’s a difference between banning a book in a public library and banning it from a school library. I think that difference is important. I think parents have a right to control what their kids read. Moreover, I think there are books that are suitable for adults and maybe even kids 16 plus that aren’t suitable for younger kids.
Do you all automatically know what books your kids have checked out? Can you block them from checking out specific books? Of course, if they are really intent on reading something, they can just have a friend check it out for them. But, IME, I had no control whatsoever over what my kid checked out.
I made very little effort to control what my offspring read; movies were a different matter. Looking at the lists in this thread, I’ve only read 7 or 8 of the books. But if I were asked, I would not have wanted by daughter to read Lucky as a young teenager. I think it’s a great book, BTW.
If you’re not familiar with the book, it’s a non-fiction account of the violent rape and beating of Alice Sebold, the author of The Lovely Bones, when she was a college student. Her experience is horrific. It takes a while for her to realize the police don’t believe her at first. Her own father blames her–surely she could have fought off her attacker if she’d really tried? Her boyfriend breaks it off with her because he doesn’t want an “impure” wife. Back at college, guys assume she’ll sleep around because what’s the point of refraining from sex if you’ve already had it? Girls snicker behind her back. The criminal procedure, especially the line up in which she initially identifies the wrong person, is petrifying. The trial is worse. Eventually, the defendant is convicted. That didn’t stop the snickering or belief held by many that she “must have” done something for a man to attack her like that. For the following 10 years, Sebold fell into the abyss of substance abuse. Writing The Lovely Bones and then Lucky was her recovery therapy.
If there were ever a book that might convince a young woman who has been raped not to report it, it’s Lucky. And then there’s the real life aftermath. A couple of years ago, long after the rape, the man who was convicted of raping Sebold was exonerated–I think by DNA evidence. Yep, after all that, the system got the wrong man. Sebold has apologized to him and the book is no longer being printed. So, that makes some folks think the book should be pulled from libraries.
As to the curriculum, I certainly was never given the right to have my child opt out of reading a particular book. I was never told in advance what my child would be assigned. Sometimes you could figure it out because the teacher has assigned the same book a number of years running, but nobody ever said I could request that my child not read The Bluest Eye, Things Fall Apart, etc. or anything else.(For the record, I didn’t have a problem with my kid reading those books, but there were some not listed I did have problems with, but kept quiet about.) I suspect if I’d asked I would have been reminded that it was a magnet high school and I had the option of having my kid attend a regular public high.
One point I’m trying to make is that we don’t know–or at least I don’t know–whether Walton parents or parents in any community that has “banned” books are permitted to block their child from being assigned and/or checking out a particular book. And I think that makes a difference in how we view what they’ve done.
And asking that your child not be permitted to read a certain book is more difficult than you suggest. I certainly did not know the names of all the books in the school library and/or have access to a list. Even if I did, I wouldn’t know the contents of all of them! So, realistically, there was no way for me to do much about it if my kid checked out a book I would have deemed inappropriate if I had been given the opportunity to review it before they checked it out.
The second point is that even if most of us agree that banning a few of these books is just plain silly, that doesn’t mean that there are NO books on this list or unlisted which really shouldn’t be available to 9th graders or younger, at least without their parents’ consent.
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My kids are all beyond K-12. I never limited what they could read. However, I am supportive of parents having a voice in their children’s education.
Through the fault of no librarian anywhere. I’m not sure how that made it into this conversation.
And yes, getting rid of books in a library due to some parents taking offense is limiting to kids who want to read them. There’s no way to spin that it isn’t.
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The kids have options other than a school library. No limiting unless the book is literally removed from every source.
My kids would have to walk miles to get to a public library - and no sidewalks. A school bus took them to school.
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Do they have a phone? Honestly I’m bowing out. We aren’t going to agree and I’ve made my position clear just as you have.
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Up hill, both ways, in the snow? Sorry…couldn’t resist 
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Again- whose parental voice?
There is a group who is limited- low income kids. Just because your kids can buy a book, it does not mean that everyone’s can. You are limiting them.
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