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Objectionable Curriculum:

'Banned Book' Lists

 

Today's Snack: They say one bad apple doesn't spoil the whole bunch . . . but let's eat a GOOD apple for today's snack before it has a chance to go bad. Just as we try to keep "bad books" with a lot of violence, sex, profanity and substance abuse from impressionable minor children and teens, until they're mature enough to handle controversial content and themes, we know that it is wise to keep food from spoiling by keeping it out of the sun, wind and heat. True? True! So have some GOOD milk to go with your GOOD apple . . . pure, cold and unadulterated.

 

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You hear about school books that have been banned in various places, but they're usually classics like "Tom Sawyer" with really quaint objections. What's the deal?

 

            The vast majority of the books that parents and taxpayers have objected to for classroom and school library use are much, much different from classic books that have stood the test of time, like "Tom Sawyer." While it is true that in some places parents have objected to that book because of the use of the word "n-gger," and other books that are decades old and considered close to classics, such as "Catcher in the Rye," for mature themes, the truth is that the vast majority of books that have been objected to are NOT meaningful literature such as those books.

 

The books that parent groups have fought to have removed from classrooms and school libraries tend to be recently-written and not all that well-written to boot, on cutting-edge societal trends that tend to border on aberrant social behavior.

 

They tend to have little or no literary or storytelling value, but have more to do with graphic sex, violence and other controversies that the vast majority of parents, taxpayers and everyday citizens would object to strongly, if they knew those things were in the schoolbooks their kids are reading and their tax dollars are paying for.

 

The issue isn't "censorship." The issue is defining good educational judgment when it comes to the selection of books for kids.

 

The special-interest group, People For the American Way, calls complaints about books "censorship." Each year it publishes a list, "Attacks on the Freedom to Learn," a compendium of challenges to schoolbooks.

 

Much of the list is duplications of objections raised to the same heavily marketed books in various communities across the country. That pumps up the numbers deceptively.

 

            If you exercise your freedom of speech for the curriculum your tax dollars pay for and to which your vulnerable, captive, minor children are exposed to, you're the bad guy, in the eyes of PFAW.

 

            PFAW also wants to take away parents' rights to choose teachers for their children's schools. It exposes schools to unlimited legal harassment. It seeks to weaken protection for traditional family values and mainstream religious people and practices, and to strengthen protections for aberrant social behavior and non-mainstream and sometimes controversial and harmful religious people and belief systems.

 

            Here's what a thoughtful parent or citizen can do:

 

            Choose a book on the 2009 list of "most-frequently challenged books," shown here:

 

            http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/banned/frequentlychallenged/21stcenturychallenged/2009/index.cfm

 

Then go to www.pabbis.org (Parents Against Bad Books In School) and read the book review on that book, if it's listed, or use a search engine to find excerpts and background.

 

            Here's a mega-list from PABBIS that shows some of the most-frequently challenged books of recent years.

 

            Then make up your mind whether "Bad Book" lists are fair, balanced and intellectually-defensible First Amendment-protected materials . . . or, just as we keep junk food and cigarettes away from our kids, "junk" curriculum not worthy of the taxpayers' dollars and support, which should be removed in favor of higher quality fare for kids.

 

By Susan Darst Williams www.AfterSchoolTreats.com Reading © 2010

 

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