Seriously guys? "The Lorax"? Good grief. Not only that but The Giving Tree and Harry Potter. Okay I'll give them Harry, witchcraft and wizardry is dangerous after all. As are free-thinkers. Better just to get rid of books and shift our right arms so they are raised at a 45 degree angled, palm-down salute to our fuhrer. Wait, where are we again? Oh that's right America. Narrow-mindedness is a disease and there is a cure. It's called reading.
As my sister said in her blog (http://nikkimantyla.wordpress.com/), I do recognize the need for censorship for our children. But as she also said, which I feel a need to second, is that each parent should be able to make the individual decision for their children. I don't pretend to be an ultra liberal, I'm not even close. And while I don't believe that every facet of life should be explored and declared a form of art or literature I do believe that there is beauty and joy to be found unexpectedly in some of these books that we are banning. What is the point of a book like Catcher in the Rye? Maybe there is a teenager who just needs to know that something they're feeling is normal. And To Kill A Mockingbird? It teaches us to avoid prejudices and racism. Obviously somebody missed that point. And what the devil is wrong with The Lorax? Is it because we think they are tree-hugging liberals? Maybe we should kick all the liberals out of our country while we're throwing the book out.
My response is probably not as educated as some but I couldn't help ranting for a minute. I don't even usually write during the week but I couldn't help myself. Just let the kids read!
Interesting you should bring up the Fuhrer. Dave and I watched a History Channel special about the Valkyrie, and what stood out the most to me was that only the well-educated part of the German population recognized what was going on with Hitler and worked against him. They knew what was up because they were educated, which I take to mean well read.
ReplyDeleteWhen we "protect" our children from ideas, we're dooming them. The better solution, I think, is to be 100% open with our children, discussing all issues but doing so in an age-appropriate way. That way, if they come across something uncomfortable in a book, we'll already have a relationship established where they can come to us to talk about it.
When my 4 year old sees somebody doing something "bad" in a movie, he talks to me about it and we say, "Yeah, that wasn't very nice of him, was it? It's much nicer to ____." That way, rather than shielding him from anyone who ever does anything wrong, I'm teaching him the difference between right and wrong. To me, that's what parental involvement ought to look like.
ok i mut admit this is my first time reading the blog of ashlee draper! i love it. i am going to follow it and i am not family! ha love you ash
ReplyDeleteBanning books sucks.
ReplyDeleteJust thought I'd say that.
(P.S. I just saw your blog now through that status update on Hunger Games... but I didn't vote so I guess that didn't help too much.)