(The views expressed in this blog entry our my own, and not necessarily the library system I work for.)
A close friend of mine recently told me there was a book challenge at her son’s middle school in NYC. I won’t name the fiction book or the school, but I’ll write up my thoughts on her experience that she told me, and then go into a rant. A few other parents told her she should attend the school board meeting that would hear the challenge. It was open to the parents, and others. The book challengers circulated through email a few copied pages that they contested from the book. Their reason was the LGBTQ themes and sexualized scenes.
My friend asked her son if he read the book. He responded yes and he liked it. My friend read the book herself, and thought it was fantastic. They had a thorough and positive discussion about the book.
The scenes in question we’re kissing of two male characters, masturbation, and a brief sex scene. They were only a small fraction of the whole book. My friend thought these themes should be discussed by kids that age.
She went to the board meeting. Several of the main challengers who were uncomfortable with the book did not take the time to read the whole thing themselves. They based their challenge on the two or three excerpts from it. My friend told me one speaker stated her child brought up a question about sexuality and it was uncomfortable. Luckily some of the other parents read the book, realized its merits, spoke in defense of it, and the board dismissed the challenge. Afterwards the audience applauded.
A positive thing from this book challenge is that many of the parents read the book because of it and discussed it with their child. The disturbing things about the book challenge are the reasons behind it including homophobia, ignorance of diversity, and blindness to the challenges middle schools face in New York City, and elsewhere.
Until relatively recently school-book selections were heavily based on classics. I remember some of my library co-workers joked some teachers used the same book lists for decades. Updating and modernizing book lists is a good thing, even if it makes some people uncomfortable. One reason I’ll start with is reluctant readers.
I was a reluctant reader. I have no fond memories of reading books when I was a young kid. I think I had an ear surgery at a very young age. I had no interest in reading and wanted mainly to do things outside. In middle school I was in special ed classes. In middle school through most of high school I simply wanted to skateboard.
What got me into reading in high school was not assigned books. My dad is a fan of Robert B. Parker and we had most of his paperbacks in our house. I liked the grit of the stories. On Detective Spencer’s missions he got help from criminals to solve the cases. That taught me the world is more complex than a simple good versus evil. In high school the only stellar grade I got on an English assignment was when we had the option to paint a scene from Great Expectations. The teacher liked my painting when all my essays were marked up on almost every line. I don’t even think I finished reading that Dickens classics. My onset of schizo-affective disorder happened when I was 17.
Luckily my parents persuaded me to go to college as a commuter student. I healed and blossomed some then. I also became an avid reader. Reading an excerpt from Tracks, by a contemporary author, Louise Erdrich, fascinated me. The Native American mythology themes were so unique to what I read previously. Shortly after reading that I became an English major.
That’s my story, but with all young reluctant readers that eventually become avid readers some book needs to engage them for that to happen. Experts in school, libraries, and the publishing industry know that variety is key. A lot of classics are hard to read and can easily bore reluctant readers. New readers need something they can relate to or something different from their lives that opens their imagination. Diversity is important. In this country rural kids should read about urban kids and vice versa. There should representation of all races, ethnic groups, gender, sexual orientations, and religion in reading materials. For non-fiction the truth should not be altered to fit sensitivities.
In the last year or so a children’s book on Roberto Clemente was challenged in Florida because it talked about the racism he faced in his life and baseball career. I don’t think anyone should deny that was true. Clemente was born in 1934 and died in 1972. Racism is an ugly part of our country’s history. Trying to erase this fact is disturbing and does not help today’s problems with race. The question of what information at what age is appropriate is studied by teachers, librarians, and the book publishing industry. Regardless of what curriculum goes into each grade level, for non-fiction it should be the truth as reputable historians know it.
The bulk of recent school-book challenges are based on hatred, and misinformation about the LGBTQ community. A decade ago, through my work we got to have workshops with Planned Parenthood. It was informative, and a learning experience. This non-profit organization does a lot more work than their abortion services. They provide sex education to anyone. Their concentration is women’s health and teenagers. If less teenage girls got pregnant poverty demographics and more would improve. A teenager having a child affects her chances of going to college and puts a hardship on her family that needs to help raise the kid. Education, guidance, and access to verified information is a good way to improve this problem.
From the Planned Parenthood trainings, I learned people do know their sexual orientation and gender identity at an early age. Those that define themselves as LGBTQ face hardships from peers and in a lot of cases their own families. They should be able to read the books they want and get the resources they need. There is a good skateboarding documentary called ‘Leo Baker: Stay on Board’ (on netflix) that gives a good personal account of someone transitioning to himself. The emotions from his interviews are intense and I thought the ending video sequence was thought provoking.
There are a lot of misconceptions about gender identity. Here is a link to factcheck.org that debunks that claim that kids getting these gender transition surgeries are out of control. https://www.factcheck.org/2023/05/scicheck-young-children-do-not-receive-medical-gender-transition-treatment/ I plan to reread this for talking points. I’ve had many situations, mostly in bars, where people go off on this topic, and it would be good if I could clarify to these people the difference between the facts and sensationalized propaganda. Probably because I’m a white straight male people say this shit to me. I’d like to get more informed to be able to effectively teach them. This hatred stems from conspiracy theory social media that has brainwashed a large portion of our population.
Lastly, I’ll talk about the hypocrisy of many parents worried about reading material when their kids have access to modern day devices. I wish I had an iphone with internet in the 8th grade. Do the parental site blockers really work? Google tells me you can join instagram at age 13, I’m sure some kids can fudge their birthdate and easily to get an account before that age. Have you seen some of the reels of models on there? It is not pornographic but has tenfold the sexuality of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue we all waited for and only got once a year back in the day. Social media and the internet in general have a whole host of problems for parents. Bullying, misinformation, cheating on assignments, creating low self-esteem, and the fear of missing out are all really issues.
Book challenges to schools and public libraries have happened for older kids too. I read one parent was worried about what her 16-year-old son was reading. She should be more concerned what apps and contacts are on his phone. There is so much other trouble he could get into, let him read what he wants.
Compared to social media and the internet reading is overwhelmingly a positive thing. If you read The Autobiography of Malcolm X as Told to Alex Haley you learned Malcom X’s philosophies were self-taught by reading and studying in jail. From that and hard work he became a civil rights leader. Reading for fun and to learn is a fundamental way to progress. People should encourage others to read at all stages of life, even if what they read is against their beliefs. In the United States we have the freedom of speech, the press, and religion with separation of church and state. We’ve always had conspiracy theorists with mean spirited rhetoric and actions because of these liberties. But it’s a constitution that gives Americans freedoms that most people of the world are denied.
We are in a weird and challenging time right now. However, I’m optimistic things could get better if people vote across the board democrat in the 2024 elections. There are problems from the far-left spectrum but most of the bullshit is from conservative ideals. Book banning, trying to outlaw abortions, climate change denial, a general intolerance, and not making the AR-15 assault rifles illegal should be enough reasons to vote the Republicans out.
