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?
