Today, while visiting a friend, the chat turned to books as it often does with My Friend, who is a librarian ( dream job!). She was telling me about someone who did not want their child to read a book at school because their family did not appreciate the language used in the book. A certain word offended them. Evidently, the parents met with the school and an alternate book was found for the child to read. The book was read, assignments were completed, story is over.
Except that this family felt so strongly that they wanted to book banned from the school, not just for their child, but for every child present and future.
And, here is where I am conflicted.
Just because they feel it is not right for them, in their opinion, it should not be right for every other child. And that smells of censorship.
Oddly enough, neither of us, nor our high schoolers had read the book, so off to the bookstore we went to buy the book.
I have read about 29 chapters ( the chapters are numbered by prime numbers, so it isn't really 29 actual chapters...) and am fascinated by the book. And wondering why I haven't read it before...so many books out there, so little reading time!
So, just because Person A does not like a book, should they be allowed to influence a large public school system?
I say no, but that is just my opinion.
The opinion of someone who was required to read "The Catcher In The Rye" in the ninth grade. And, yes that book contains many, many words that can be offensive, but it is the language of the character, chosen by the author. I don't remember any parents running into Northside Junior High to ban the book. Maybe they did, maybe they didn't, maybe they were glad we were reading.
Happy Reading!
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