Celebrate Banned Books Week with a Friend

I'm a card carrying "book-banner," all right. I'm looking forward to a good argument from anyone who thinks that children should be able to go to the school library and take out any reading material they wish, from Uncle Bob's Hustler Magazine to Marcel Proust's "Remembrance of Things Past."

Further Proof of Bona-Fide Book Banning:

Adding to my soul destroying damnation as a book banner, I wouldn't like to see Henry Miller's Tropics series in the elementary school library. I would also ban Jean Genet's "The Thief"s Journal" and his play "The Maids." While I'm in my best book banning mode, I'd ban "Maldoror" by Comte De Lautremont, and well....lots more.

Language Arts Teachers Used to be Called English Teachers

Are there Language Arts teachers in public schools who have not heard of the four authors mentioned in the first paragraph? Those writers are all prominent in the field of literature. Why aren't these books and writers on public elementary and secondary school library shelves? Could it be that the socio-literary crusaders in charge of the mess we call public education are also "book banners"?

Who Was Jean Genet?

Jean Genet was a former French Foreign Legionnaire expelled for homosexuality, a man who then becomes a criminal, vagabond, and male prostitute while writing in graphic detail about his encounters across all Europe. It's not "Fun with Dick and Jane," and neither is Lautremont's "Maldoror" which literally means "bad odor" and is a lengthy and lyrical praise of evil-doing. Genet's "The Maids" portrays the ritualistic sado-masochistic relationship between two women who fantasize about murdering their mistress. It would be the ideal book to push one of today's teens, the ones school psychologists call "self-harmers," over the edge.

Grandpa Brought Henry Miller from Paris to America

Henry Miller's books were actually banned in America at one point, mainly because of their purposefully shocking sexual content. I mention the Miller ban because there is a large difference between what the American Library Association calls "banning" and what real "banning" is.

We Are All Book-Banners Now

I could go on with my banned-book banned-author list for the elementary and secondary schools but I think those who have followed my argument so far know the harm which can be done by exposing children to certain material before they have the strength, understanding, and maturity to handle it. My point is that the people who accuse others of book-banning are book banners too, yet they insist on being the sole judges of what children read.

Emily Post Required Reading in South Philly?

It's ironic that the academic theorists who rail most against "book banners" do not mandate books or courses in manners, respect, or proper dress. Do they force inner-city high school students to read Emily Post or Miss Manners? In not mandating such courses, are they therefore "banning" books on proper dress, respect, manners?

When we educate our children in the public schools, we must ask certain questions. Who should get to make the choices about what children read? How much choice should parents have? How much power should state boards of education have? How much power should the school board have?

Witches and Warlocks Hate Book-Banners

The issue of harm must also be addressed. Stories of witches and warlocks can be laughed off by some kids, while unstable teens have become so immersed in the arcane that they have run away from home, joined cults, and worse.

Heather Has Two Mommies, a Parakeet, and a Teacher

Ultimately, the job of the public schools is to educate, not to inculcate. The guiding principle should be that the child should not be manipulated, ostracized, or harmed. In not harming, not manipulating, less is sometimes better and caution is always in order. Teachers shouldn't assume all parents will be thrilled that you've made your defenseless class of third graders read "Heather Has Two Mommies."