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Moms Against Libraries
The crusade to ban books has reached a fever pitch.
The crusade against public education is just the beginning.
“Parents’ rights” is Moms for Liberty’s rallying cry. But they don’t mean every right. https://www.motherjones.com/politics...ublican-party/
Moms Against Libraries
The crusade to ban books has reached a fever pitch.
The crusade against public education is just the beginning.
“Parents’ rights” is Moms for Liberty’s rallying cry. But they don’t mean every right. https://www.motherjones.com/politics...ublican-party/
As a principal I went through something similar with an Organization called PABBIS -- Parents Against Bad Books In Schools. Their tactics were deplorable (as if a principal would personally read every book purchased by a school library, for example) and often consisted of public shaming. However, there were occasional times I agreed with removing very select books from a middle school library...due to appropriateness for grade level concerns.
I agreed with removing very select books from a middle school library...due to appropriateness for grade level concerns.
When I was young and I could take out any children's library book without worry or supervision. Sadly, those days are done and children have lost of the freedom to around wander around a library's children section.
Fast forward thirty years, I guided my children's library & bookstore choices. No different than keeping a child off of bad/porn sites.
These women are over the top. However, if libraries hadn't changed, this would not be an issue. These women would still be home baking cookies.
Last edited by YorktownGal; 11-30-2022 at 08:23 AM..
When I was young and I could take out any children's library book without worry or supervision. Sadly, those days are done and children have lost of the freedom to around wander around a library's children section.
Fast forward thirty years, I guided my children's library & bookstore choices. No different than keeping a child off of bad/porn sites.
These women are over the top. However, if libraries hadn't changed, this would not be an issue. These women would still be home baking cookies.
Let me give you an example of where I think people need to use better judgement about such issues, regarding age appropriateness. This was an English teacher in the school where I was vice-principal at the time. He had as assigned reading a novel that included a graphic description of a teen girl being raped on a pool table. Assigned reading for 12 year-olds? The principal was too gentle with the teacher, who decided to go ahead with the assigned reading. I intervened and laid it out very clearly: "Require 12 year olds to read that book...get fired". End of story.
So when I ended up on a committee within the school system to decide such issues about school libraries, my focus was on what was age-appropriate, and a couple of times I voted down particular books for middle school libraries, saying that perhaps they were appropriate at the high school level. Censorship!! Bah! If anyone wants the book that badly, they can go to the public library, a bookstore, or online. There's a time and place...
If anyone wants the book that badly, they can go to the public library, a bookstore, or online. There's a time and place...
Exactly! Parents are free to purchase books. The library isn't the only option for books.
When my kids were young - about 10 years old, I gave them Edgar Allen Poe. It was considered advanced in reading level and in content/subject matter. It wasn't sexed up, but a nightmare level of scary. Same for Turn of the Screw which came later on. Even as an adult I find it very scary.
I have a real problem with sex/rape subjects in children's books. First, not all children mature emotionally at the same rate. Second, girls and boys physically mature at different ages. Girls mature much earlier than boys. Thirdly, why rush this? Children don't need to be adults or read about adult subjects at age 10 or 12.
When I was young and I could take out any children's library book without worry or supervision. Sadly, those days are done and children have lost of the freedom to around wander around a library's children section.
Fast forward thirty years, I guided my children's library & bookstore choices. No different than keeping a child off of bad/porn sites.
These women are over the top. However, if libraries hadn't changed, this would not be an issue. These women would still be home baking cookies.
Hardly.
In previous decades they were going after Judy Blume and To Kill a Mockingbird and any fantasy genre (on the inane basis that it was an introduction to the occult - Harry Potter, anyone? Before that, The Wizard of Oz, because it features a witch that is considered good!) and Fahrenheit 451 (a book about the perils of... banning books!) and Mark Twain - the list goes on and on and on...
In previous decades they were going after Judy Blume and To Kill a Mockingbird and any fantasy genre (on the inane basis that it was an introduction to the occult - Harry Potter, anyone? Before that, The Wizard of Oz, because it features a witch that is considered good!) and Fahrenheit 451 (a book about the perils of... banning books!) and Mark Twain - the list goes on and on and on...
You are talking about mainstream books. I don't see a list of books being targeted, anywhere in the article (maybe I missed it). But in any case, mainstream books are not the issue here.
Mother Jones is in a moral panic, not over specific books being targeted, but rather the idea that a group of conservative mothers dares to organize and concentrate their political power. That seems to be the thrust of the article.
You are talking about mainstream books. I don't see a list of books being targeted, anywhere in the article (maybe I missed it). But in any case, mainstream books are not the issue here.
Mother Jones is in a moral panic, not over specific books being targeted, but rather the idea that a group of conservative mothers dares to organize and concentrate their political power. That seems to be the thrust of the article.
Every last book and author I listed should be read by children. And by 'children', I mean everyone who can read and is in primary school, which normally goes up to age 18. Do you not have any idea what those in middle school and high school read?
This thread is very specifically about Moms for Liberty, a group that exists in order to excise content that offends their delicate sensibilities from schools. I mentioned Judy Blume, whose book Forever the group has sought to have removed from school libraries in Brevard, Florida, for example. They have repeatedly sought to have removed books by Vonnegut (who I read in 10th grade English in the 1980s) and the masterful The Kite Runner, a book about living through the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the subsequent Taliban regime, because it contains violent depictions (gee, in a book a communist invasion, a civil war, and an oppressive regime...). The group objects to anything that acknowledges the existence of LGBT people, or racism (because supposedly, even mentioning that there's ever been racism hurts the feelings of white students). They've challenged Toni Morrison. Tim O'Brien's magnificent memoir of the Vietnam War, The Things They Carried, Steinbeck (of course, just like in decades past) and Margaret Atwood. They tried to get removed books about Martin Luther King, Jr., and the memoir of Ruby Bridges, once the little black girl memorialized by the classic Norman Rockwell painting The Problem We All Live With depicting her under attack while being escorted by federal marshals to school.
So don't dismiss 'mainstream books' as irrelevant to this conversation, when such works are a normal part of any high school library and are specifically under constant attack by the very group this thread is about.
Any book targeted by this odious group of reactionaries should immediately be read by any student that can track down a copy.
Moms Against Libraries
The crusade to ban books has reached a fever pitch.
The crusade against public education is just the beginning.
“Parents’ rights” is Moms for Liberty’s rallying cry. But they don’t mean every right. https://www.motherjones.com/politics...ublican-party/
Every last book and author I listed should be read by children. And by 'children', I mean everyone who can read and is in primary school, which normally goes up to age 18. Do you not have any idea what those in middle school and high school read?
This thread is very specifically about Moms for Liberty, a group that exists in order to excise content that offends their delicate sensibilities from schools. I mentioned Judy Blume, whose book Forever the group has sought to have removed from school libraries in Brevard, Florida, for example. They have repeatedly sought to have removed books by Vonnegut (who I read in 10th grade English in the 1980s) and the masterful The Kite Runner, a book about living through the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the subsequent Taliban regime, because it contains violent depictions (gee, in a book a communist invasion, a civil war, and an oppressive regime...). The group objects to anything that acknowledges the existence of LGBT people, or racism (because supposedly, even mentioning that there's ever been racism hurts the feelings of white students). They've challenged Toni Morrison. Tim O'Brien's magnificent memoir of the Vietnam War, The Things They Carried, Steinbeck (of course, just like in decades past) and Margaret Atwood. They tried to get removed books about Martin Luther King, Jr., and the memoir of Ruby Bridges, once the little black girl memorialized by the classic Norman Rockwell painting The Problem We All Live With depicting her under attack while being escorted by federal marshals to school.
So don't dismiss 'mainstream books' as irrelevant to this conversation, when such works are a normal part of any high school library and are specifically under constant attack by the very group this thread is about.
Any book targeted by this odious group of reactionaries should immediately be read by any student that can track down a copy.
Odious is the perfect word for this group. And apparently they can’t control their children’s choices so they seek to control all kids. Idiots.
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