Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Banned books -- good or bad?

n/a

I think we all have the right to raise our children as we see fit within reason. If one chooses to censor their children's books, that is no concern of mine.

Having said that, I would never censor my children's reading. They are free to read what they wish, when they wish.

I think we draw the line at the point where "one man's fist meets the other one's nose." In life there are people who are always going to have different views, I hope to raise my children to be tolerant of others views, to appreciate their own beliefs as important, and how to engage in healthy debate (and what to do when debate goes wrong!)

I am ever grateful to the librarian who gave me the book "Johnny got his Gun" when I was in high school. She lent it to me from her personal collection and I will never forget the look on her face as she handed it to me. She is an incredible woman!

Some material is inappropriate for younger people.

Some material is inappropriate for all people (see child pornography, whether in textual or graphic format, for example).

And that's life.

Some books are only good for burning. The truly evil ones.

I do not support banning books, but I do support making parental decisions as to the appropriateness of particular books based on the age and maturity level of a child.

Some authors write books that they KNOW will offend some people and the intent is that it gets people to wake up and start discussing the topic.

All the greatest books in history probably offended someone and sometimes even got the author (or owner) jailed or even killed.

You can not lead or create change if you are afraid of stepping on some toes. At least, I can't think of any great leaders or creators of change who kept quiet and tried not to offend... can you?

I think that if we banned all the books that offended someone there'd be no books! I suspect authors write books knowing that some parts of them might generate a reaction - intentionally or otherwise.

My own background means there is almost nothing that offends me, though that doesn't mean there aren't things I don't disagree with.

In terms of dd, we have always been very clear with dd deciding what she's comfortable with. When she was very little and we read to her, if she asked us to stop a book we'd talk about why and either keep going if the issue was resolved or stop it all together. We re-try those things she finds confronting every now and again (she wasn't ready for Harry Potter when we first tried them, now she's on the 6th book). Now dd censors her own reading and will put aside anything she finds she is uncomfortable with. Having said that, I wouldn't bring books home from the library for dd that had significant violence, abuse, sex etc. But mostly because she just has no context for those things at 6 and so they'd be confusing and probably a bit scary.

If there are topics I disagree with in things dd is reading, I will always raise them with her.For example I have big issues with the portrayal of girls in lots of books (playing into gender stereo types) and so we talk those things through and I explain my point of view. I don't strop her reading them though.

Ultimately, like others have said, I feel like being exposed to different points of view is extraordinarily important.

And the problem is that people don't always agree on the definition of "evil," much less "inappropriate."

Well. Some books need to be banned depending on their age/maturity level. My DD (7 now) finished HP series and moving on to other young adult books. She was talking about the girl with the dragon tattoo before the movie came out. I checked the book and it has a lot of adult contents and had to nix her plan to read that book.

I wish they have rating system like movies.

Some book stores like B & N and some libraries have rating system depending on age (supposed ability) but it doesn't really apply for our GT kids.

No question, I would censor DS6's book selection at this point. We don't go to the town library often, and it's never come up there-- but if he were to happen upon, say, Samuel R. Delany's "Hogg", it would not be coming home with us. (Dear reader, resist your impulse to search if you have a weak stomach.)

We have a fair number of books in our home written for adults (many still in boxes after the last move which was not very recent ), but so far the ones he's picked out haven't been an issue. I also buy books specifically for him, which can include some challenging material at times, and he's free of course to choose among those. I would guess that I'm a fair bit looser than most parents would be in terms of restricting his access to content, but I still draw the line at certain topics, for example suicide (though self-sacrifice for others is fine) and sex (especially any mention of graphic or kinky sex, though characters kissing and winding up in bed with each other could be all right depending on the context).

When our daughter was young, I made sure that her books were not "scary". She was very upset by sad material. She is 14 now and I don't censor at all. She seems to be able to choose without getting freaked out.

As a librarian, intellectual freedom is a balancing act. Public libraries and schools have a duty and obligation to provide the widest amount of material for their communities, including digital information/technology, regardless of offending parents. What usually happens is that many librarians defy book selection to the parents or guardians instead of getting involved with banning books or book censorship.

The ALA (American Library Association) and other library organizations are often at the forefront of advocating intellectual freedom versus censorship. I wish they were stronger advocates for free or public domain online resources, but that's another issue.

Books can plant radical ideas into kids' heads or get them to think or question, which makes some parents uncomfortable. Book censorship has been an issue for hundreds of years; there's a number of websites and blogs relating to it. It's not going to end any time soon. It's only going to increase with the Internet.

If you're concerned about the content:
http://www.commonsensemedia.org/book-reviews - has a rating system for books. I can't say if it's good or not.

http://www.scholastic.com/bookwizard/ - gives reading level and description of some books

OR ask a librarian about the content.

As a parent, I try to vet the books before my eg/pg ds6 reads something. Lately, he's been reading Dahl books, some of which are dark and quite advanced for a 6-year-old, but I just want my son to enjoy reading period. I'm lucky that he's more interested in humor and rich visual imagery rather than that gory, scary stuff or something like The Girl with Dragon Tattoo.

Oftentimes books are banned by only a certain group or region, not everywhere, which brings up an interesting topic � how does one decide which books should be banned? Oftentimes the reason people want to ban books is for the book�s �inappropriate� content. Having said that, I think we need to create a greater emphasis on parents protecting their children from books deemed inappropriate � not banning books for all people. I believe that instead of trying to enforce books as evil, society needs to adopt a �to each their own� attitude about book banning.
A German Jewish poet Heinrich Heine once said, �Where they burn books, they will ultimately also burn people.� This is an important quote because banning books is similar to banning people�s imaginations and creativity. Without creativity it is impossible to live up to ones full potential. Some of the greatest books have been considered bad, or been banned, at one time or another. It has already been brought up that if we ban all of the books that offend people, there wouldn�t be any books left. Books can be very influential and I believe that it is important to give books that may be offensive or seen risky a chance.

Censorship is the action ignorance takes when confronted with freedom

Excellent summation.

I, personally, am appalled by censorship and regard the written word with a great deal of reverence regardless of my personal appreciation of the work (or lack thereof). But I respect that other parents want to control what their children are exposed to... as long as they don't remove things that they find objectionable on behalf of others, then I have no problem with that. Removing Huck Finn from a school library, however, is both rude and presumptuous in the extreme.

Banning anything* is probably 'bad' in my estimation. In case that wasn't clear.

* assuming that we are discussing materials in which fundamental safety and human rights were not being violated for the purpose of producing the work, I mean. So yes, child pornography is not "protected" here in my mind for that reason, nor is the portrayal of animal abuse or acts of terrorism staged for the production of the work in question.