I’ve found myself so interested in every article I’ve read, it’s been hard to pin down exactly what I want to say.
In my last blog I started talking about the First Amendment and how it affects us as librarians, but I wanted to delve into that a little more. Since I want to be a school library media specialist, I came across an article in Knowledge Quest that really struck me. First of all, the title, “Are We Lucky for the First Amendment? A Brief History of Students’ Right to Read” caught my attention immediately. Then, as I read I noticed myself nodding in agreement throughout the article.
Parents, teachers, administrators, etc. want what is best for their children/students, that much is very clear and absolutely acceptable. But perhaps some become overzealous in their attempts to “protect” children. I know I said I was amazed at people wanting to ban Harry Potter from bookshelves, but I’m even more amazed at people wanting to ban a Newbery award-winning book (The Higher Power of Lucky) based on a single word- "scrotum" (Kelsey, 2007, p. 27). Okay, maybe not a word I would choose to use in a children’s book, but there are many other choices that could have been much worse.
This brings me to the Supreme Court case of Board of Education, Island Trees Union Free School District v. Pico (1982). Never heard of it? Neither did I until the other day (if you have, well, you are more informed than I). In 1975, three members of the Board of Education took it upon themselves to remove 9 books from the high school and junior high school. These books were deemed by another group to be “objectionable” ("Education for freedom: Lesson plans for teaching the First Amendment"). At first, a New York judge sided with the school board. Then, in 1982 the Court of Appeals reversed the decision. When the case was taken to the Supreme Court, they said the school board could “remove materials they deemed ‘educationally unsuitable,’ or ‘pervasively vulgar,’ but that they may not restrict access to materials simply because they disagree with the ideas in them” (Kelsey, 2007, p. 28).
Ideas are meant to be expressed and children should have access to multiple sides of a subject if we expect them to become well-informed, participating citizens of society. Censoring ideas because one set of people disagree only leads to ignorance. “A balance must be struck between age and access, but on the whole, intellectual freedom is the overriding principle” (Kelsey, 2007, p. 27).
I truly feel parents should be the ones to decide what books are appropriate for their children- not a teacher, administrator or school board member. What do you think? Am I this gung-hoe because I don’t have children yet?
I promise, next post=new topic :-)
References:
Education for freedom: Lesson plans for teaching the First Amendment. Retrieved April 7, 2008, from http://www.freedomforum.org/packages/first/curricula/educationforfreedom/supportpages/L05-CaseStudyIslandTreesUnion.htm.
Kelsey, M. (2007). Are we lucky for the first amendment? a brieft history of students' right to read. Knowledge Quest, 36(2), 26-29.
3 comments:
I'm going to have to read this article. This will help so much for another assignment. Thank you for posting!
Here is my perspective. You are right on the money. I have my own children and work in a public library.Parents have to take responsibility to raise their own children--I certainly wouldn't want someone else to make that their job. We live in the real world, and you have to prepare you children for all facets of life. Don't we want to raise independent thinkers, who can make educated decisions for themselves? And really is the word "scrotum" going to do permanent damage? Nice post.
I do agree that parents should have the final say on what their children should read. Unfortunately, it seems that many parents have no idea what their children are reading. This leaves the teachers and media specialists to guide their students in selecting books appropriate for them. I also agree that a book should not be yanked off of the shelf because of a word like scrotum. Lee is correct. Parents need to start raising their own children.
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