And not with yarn. Apparently, the Blue Valley School District is on a mission to ban books. Books like “I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings”, by Maya Angelou, and “Song of Solomon”, by Toni Morrison. Now, I actually called The Buzz this morning because it got me so wound up. I didn’t get a chance to say much (and I didn’t get on the air), BUT, what I did say is this: Schools do not exist to legislate morality. That is the job of the parent. When parents step in and start telling schools to behave like parents, I go crazy. Of course schools should be safe. Schools are a public institution, open to everyone, regardless of class, religion or politics. I understand that these parents care, they care about their children, and they care about society, from their standpoint. But we are not talking about a school being able to furnish “Hustler” or “Playboy” to students. We are talking about literature that has stood the test of time! “Catcher in the Rye” for pete’s sake. I just keep thinking, “We have nothing to fear but fear itself.” Because these students, in this school district, are not going to get subversive or sexual ideas about life from these books. They’ve already gotten that from MTV, Hollywood, and even The Buzz. Hell, Abercrombie & Fitch. And if you’ve raised your children “right”, then they’re not going to fall prey to “subversive literature”. Stop being AFRAID of books & be responsible, instead. Here’s a wacked-out concept: read one of these “subversive” books WITH your child, and discuss it. You might find out a lot more about your kid, and yourself.
Exactly! As former public elementary, middle, and high school student who read such “terrible” books as THE GIVER, THE CATCHER IN THE RYE, TO KILL AND MOCKINGBIRD, and many others that are so “questionable,” I am here to say that these books are wonderful and important pieces of literature. I am now a 22 year old English major at a local University and I am extremely sad to see that these parents are trying to deny their children such wonderful literature as THE CATCHER IN THE RYE. If parents are finding these books offensive, and therefore think they should be banned, where are we going to draw the line. Is Shakespeare inappropriate? Romeo and Juliet deals with teenage sex and suicide, yet a school wouldn’t consider banning Shakespeare or even the incredibly dark Edgar Allen Poe. Okay sorry incredibly long comment. All of these news reports from Blue Valley, KS and Blue Springs, MO have just hit a nerve.