The school book wars

 

The school book wars raging across the country are particularly divisive in Texas. This morning in the Star-Telegram Ryan Rusak, opinions editor, implied the controversy between parents and school boards is a fuss over nothing. I would agree it’s a fuss over nothing, but I do not think those threatening, bullying parents are merely “passionate constituents engaging with the elected officials.” They are totally out of line, and I need to put my thoughts in writing, even if in this blog I am preaching to the choir

From what I read, I gather most of those parents who are fighting are not highly educated and operate from blind belief or perhaps political affiliation. I doubt they’ve read many of the books. By contrast, library acquisition is done by educated, trained professionals with great care and awareness of the content of the books they are acquiring. They do not buy books by the cover or the jacket blurb.

Yes, parents have a right to monitor what their children read, but they have no right at all to dictate what books entire school systems can shelve. I don’t want the reading of my grandchildren restricted by someone else’s fear or religion or political stance. If a parent disapproves of a certain selection, they can discuss a specific title with the teacher and ask that their child be assigned another title. (Many of the titles, on Rep, Matt Krause’s list of 850 suspect books, for example, are not assigned but are available for free reading; on the other hand, some classics on the list are often found on SAT and other tests important to a child’s future.) If they disapprove of the entire curriculum, parents do not have the right in public education to alter the curriculum. They may withdraw their child(ren) to enroll in private school, where their demands may or may not be more effective, or they may home-school.

Threatening teachers and school board members and their families is absolutely not a choice. Anyone who issues such a threat should be immediately charged. Passion is no more acceptable in a school board meeting than it is in a murder trial—it is not an excuse.

But I worry about the children caught in the middle. What of the eight-year-old girl whose Uncle Tom, Dick, or Harry wants her to bounce on his lap. In a book she may learn that this is not okay, and it is not her fault. The fourteen-year-old boy who has strange feelings for a male classmate? He would find that a same-sex crush is a common part of the maturation journey through puberty. The seventeen-year-old girl who is being flattered online by an older man. Books can help her learn about pedophiles and grooming. Children often are reluctant to talk to their parents about sexual questions. If they find information om books, they can, in good circumstances, feel free to take the book to a parent or teacher. The book can spark a much-needed discussion. Children who are kept ignorant of life’s darker side are unprepared to deal with it. And children who are not challenged by books do not grow intellectually or emotionally.

It's an old trope that those who do not know history are doomed to repeat its mistakes. We are seeing that now in banning books and talk of book bonfires and in increased racism. An uneducated society is prey to authoritarian rule—was it not trump who said he loves poorly educated people? Was it not the Nazis who burned books?