Daily Dose of Common Sense

In the land of the free, it’s always surprising to me that any book would be banned. But, we’ve all heard stories about towns and schools that refuse to lend such books as Huck Finn or “Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret.” (We wouldn’t want young people reading tamer language than they hear on the street every day, or learning about those pesky women’s issues.) There are other books, however, than have been banned at one time or another that may surprise you.

Oh, like, THE DICTIONARY. Various schools have banned it over the years because of definitions that were deemed inappropriate for kids.

But, my favorite banned book story, by far, is of “Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?” by Bill Martin, Jr. If you don’t have kids, you may not know this simple children’s book that emphasizes color and animals. According to the Huffington Post:

This beloved children’s book was banned in January 2010 by the Texas Board of Education because the author has the same name as an obscure Marxist theorist, and no one bothered to check if they were actually the same person.

Really, Texas? First, how much of a threat are obscure Marxist theories? I’m guessing not much. Second, no one bothered to look at the book titles that were being banned? Way to go that extra mile for your school children!

NO book should ever be banned. Let them be read, I say! You can’t shield people from ideas, language, and images just because you don’t like them. That’s censorship, and it’s just plain wrong. Not to mention illegal in some circumstances.

The law requires that if a book is to be removed, an inquiry must be made as to the motivation and intention of the party calling for its removal. If the party’s intention is to deny students access to ideas with which the party disagrees, it is a violation of the First Amendment.

Hey school boards and libraries: Let parents, teachers, and students decide what books are appropriate for reading. Restricting access to a book only brings more attention to it anyway. And, if you think the kids aren’t sneaking and passing banned books around behind your back, you’re wrong. Instead of banning it, you’d be better off having a dialogue with your kids after they have read the book about why you disagree with the author.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 13th, 2010 at 10:18 am and is filed under Books. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.