Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this. The book sounds great and I had not previously heard of it. I’ve been really torn about this issue for a long time. Not because I’m in favor of censorship - I’m pretty close to a free speech absolutist. But I just see school libraries as a different animal from community libraries and bookstores. I just think school libraries are by their nature subject to limitations as to age appropriateness etc. and in my experience they are usually fairly small and can’t possibly contain everything. As an example, the Judy Blume book you reference was not in my school’s library , but we all still managed to read it and duly chant to each other about increasing our busts. 😉🤣.
I just feel strongly that the term book banning should be used to refer to an attempt to prevent anyone from reading a particular book. Ulysses was a banned book. Lady Chatterly’s Lover was a banned book. So for me it’s a loaded term that is being terribly over-applied.
School curricula and school libraries have become ground zero for a lot of culture war scraps and the left and right each seem to want to exclude books they don’t like and force into the curriculum books of which they approve. In my daughter’s high school, for example, there was some demand that To Kill A Mockingbird be removed from the curriculum. I don’t have the answers - just my concerns and frustration that the polarization in society at large has reached even into our schools.
I love the passion you bring to everything you write about!
My favorite book reading friend, it's great to hear from you! I get what you are saying about the definition of book banning--some of our school board members define it the same way. Here is where that argument breaks down in our school district. MCS is a Title 1 school system, meaning we have a large percentage of students who get free and reduced lunches. Some of our elementary schools are almost 100 percent on the free lunch program. A hefty proportion of our families don't have the extra cash to buy books and need their kids to have access to the free library books at school. Add to that our lack of an extensive public transportation system like you guys have up north, and public libraries aren't easily accessible to students without cars or who are too young to drive if parents aren't able to drive their kids to the library during library hours. Removing books from our high school library, which has somewhere in the neighborhood of 20,000 books, might not be a full ban under your definition on students from families with means, but it's a de facto ban for our students and families who don't have the means to buy books. Flamer is so popular right now in our county libraries--probably because the Cobb County school system, the large school system that surrounds us, banned it first--there is a 3-4 month wait to check it out. The best way to get teenagers to read a book is to tell them they can't read it. LOL.
There's a lot of local politics going on too that I didn't have the space to go into. Our school system has always been considered one of the most innovative in the state. State leaders came from all over Georgia to see what we were doing. We did such a good job keeping our kids in school and healthy during COVID that 60 Minutes came and did a story on us. Up until the last election, our school board was laser focused on student achievement and doing what was best for our kids and teachers regardless of what was going on in politics around us. They were not at all interested in the distraction of the culture war. Now we've got right wing culture warriors on the board and we are banning books. It's so disheartening to watch us go backwards after so much progress. Elections have consequences and all that. :(
Your school system definitely sounds different than anything in the area I now live (spread out suburban but fairly high socio economic area) or where I grew up (blue collar but completely walkable small town with sidewalks throughout). Public transportation is really a commuter thing and doesn’t help you get from town to town. So yes, your situation in Marietta is a very different one from up in my neck of the woods.
And fyi that copy of Are You there God… was my paperback copy that got passed around to so many girls it practically fell apart. 🤣🤣🤣
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this. The book sounds great and I had not previously heard of it. I’ve been really torn about this issue for a long time. Not because I’m in favor of censorship - I’m pretty close to a free speech absolutist. But I just see school libraries as a different animal from community libraries and bookstores. I just think school libraries are by their nature subject to limitations as to age appropriateness etc. and in my experience they are usually fairly small and can’t possibly contain everything. As an example, the Judy Blume book you reference was not in my school’s library , but we all still managed to read it and duly chant to each other about increasing our busts. 😉🤣.
I just feel strongly that the term book banning should be used to refer to an attempt to prevent anyone from reading a particular book. Ulysses was a banned book. Lady Chatterly’s Lover was a banned book. So for me it’s a loaded term that is being terribly over-applied.
School curricula and school libraries have become ground zero for a lot of culture war scraps and the left and right each seem to want to exclude books they don’t like and force into the curriculum books of which they approve. In my daughter’s high school, for example, there was some demand that To Kill A Mockingbird be removed from the curriculum. I don’t have the answers - just my concerns and frustration that the polarization in society at large has reached even into our schools.
I love the passion you bring to everything you write about!
My favorite book reading friend, it's great to hear from you! I get what you are saying about the definition of book banning--some of our school board members define it the same way. Here is where that argument breaks down in our school district. MCS is a Title 1 school system, meaning we have a large percentage of students who get free and reduced lunches. Some of our elementary schools are almost 100 percent on the free lunch program. A hefty proportion of our families don't have the extra cash to buy books and need their kids to have access to the free library books at school. Add to that our lack of an extensive public transportation system like you guys have up north, and public libraries aren't easily accessible to students without cars or who are too young to drive if parents aren't able to drive their kids to the library during library hours. Removing books from our high school library, which has somewhere in the neighborhood of 20,000 books, might not be a full ban under your definition on students from families with means, but it's a de facto ban for our students and families who don't have the means to buy books. Flamer is so popular right now in our county libraries--probably because the Cobb County school system, the large school system that surrounds us, banned it first--there is a 3-4 month wait to check it out. The best way to get teenagers to read a book is to tell them they can't read it. LOL.
There's a lot of local politics going on too that I didn't have the space to go into. Our school system has always been considered one of the most innovative in the state. State leaders came from all over Georgia to see what we were doing. We did such a good job keeping our kids in school and healthy during COVID that 60 Minutes came and did a story on us. Up until the last election, our school board was laser focused on student achievement and doing what was best for our kids and teachers regardless of what was going on in politics around us. They were not at all interested in the distraction of the culture war. Now we've got right wing culture warriors on the board and we are banning books. It's so disheartening to watch us go backwards after so much progress. Elections have consequences and all that. :(
Your school system definitely sounds different than anything in the area I now live (spread out suburban but fairly high socio economic area) or where I grew up (blue collar but completely walkable small town with sidewalks throughout). Public transportation is really a commuter thing and doesn’t help you get from town to town. So yes, your situation in Marietta is a very different one from up in my neck of the woods.
And fyi that copy of Are You there God… was my paperback copy that got passed around to so many girls it practically fell apart. 🤣🤣🤣
I had it in paperback and we passed it around too. Who knew a couple of book nerds like us were complete subversives as tweens??