Debate rages on about book banning. I believe we can agree that adults in the United States have the freedom to read whatever they choose to read. Our minds are fully formed at about age 21, according to neuroscience.
Age-appropriate Reading
X-rated, R-rated, and M-rated movies would not be allowed in public elementary or middle schools because they are considered inappropriate for younger viewers. What is the objection if we apply the same standards to literature in public school libraries?
But let’s consider what reading material is age-appropriate for younger readers. We can measure reading comprehension. As students age, they learn to handle increasingly complex vocabulary and sentence structures.
What of content? Movies have ratings based on the subject matter, vocabulary, levels of violence, and sexual content. Lately, I’ve seen warnings in movies about smoking shown in them.
When my daughter was 13, she spent the night at another girl’s house and watched Psycho. She demanded to use the bathtub instead of the shower for six months. This tells me she was not mentally prepared to handle the level of blood and violence in that movie at that age.
I firmly believe our minds absorb what we feed them. Fear, violence, and the glorification of evil in all its forms affect the mind.
I support selecting books that match the reader’s age level. I strongly support banning books that rewrite history or condemn past cultures and civilizations. The past is the past; we can study it and learn from it, but not change it.
Cultural Trends
It is absurd to demand that historical novels portray the values of today’s society. They cannot. They reflect the values and conditions of their time. In fact, public outrage over Wilkie Collins’s 1859 book The Woman in White led to changes in British law to protect women with greater legal rights.
Let us educate young minds and encourage creativity and freedom of thought without burdening kindergartners to decide on their future sex lives or set their identities in cement.
Teach the Golden Rule–to treat one another the way we want to be treated–along with math, science, history, language, social studies, art, and sports.
Leave out the race-shaming, revisionist history, and vogue social agendas. We don’t allow religion in public schools, so how about if we stop forcing trending worldly value systems on kids?
We are falling behind other nations scholastically. Public school budgets are low. Public libraries are struggling. How about less indoctrination in schools? More basic education.
There are so many parents outraged over what is being taught in schools that goes against their family’s faith values that private schools are springing up in every town. Public schools are becoming less safe for students because ethics and values about treating others with fairness and kindness are being stamped out as “religious.”
We cannot succeed as leaders and inventors when we force children to think a certain way instead of teaching them how to apply critical thinking skills.
