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Showing 3 comments
Robyn on
I’m against all book bannings, period; but the article concerning banned childrens’ books just cracks me up. Only here in Texas would idiots ban a book because the author has the same name as a Marxist theorist. Because you know, 5 year olds understand Marxist theories. Ridiculous.
mary on
@Robyn,
I completely agree! Book bannings is an ignorant solution. If you do not want your child reading a particular book than by all means don’t allow it in your house. But I caution you, this could back fire on you. If your child is old enough to make their own judgments and decisions, , say like 16, hope that your beliefs have been installed and they won’t want to read them. But if they do, do not judge them. I have a 16 yr old who loves to read Neal Gaiman, J RR Tolkien, Friedrich Nietzsche, Alan Moore, Gorge RR Martin to name a few I am always asking about the book of the night, what he thought about it, why he likes or dislikes it, whom the author is and so on. Get involved don’t discourage any child from reading!
In my children’s former elementary school they had a program called ‘book points’ each child depending on age and grade and reading level had to read a certain amount of books in a given month and pass a written, over the internet test based on that book. If you did not read or take that test than all extracurricular activities were suspended until all book tests were passed. (Also if you don’t have enough points you may not get your 8th grade diploma either! Stupid I know!) I personally thought using this extreme was a punishment. For one of my kids they loved to only read history and science books and of course there were no such books on our book pts program. The other loved harry potter and such books like that. Our school is a Christian school and when Harry Potter came out it was banned from our reading list. I was appalled and my husband went up against the board and explained that we need to encourage children to read and to use their imaginations and in order to do this we must not ban books. Well it worked and no books are banned now and the tests include history and some science books! But the narrow mindedness of some is baffling. BTW we no longer attend that school or church!
I know for some kids it doesn’t matter how hard a parent tries they will not like reading. But encourage your child throughout their adolescents. Look for things they are interested in.
To me, reading (and math) are very important. I am passionate about kids reading! (No matter what they are reading!)
alicejane on
I think it’s such a shame when books are banned. Shel Silverstein was a staple in my family growing up; the copies we had are still floating around somewhere in my immediate family and those books are worn right down. I can still remember some of my favorite poems of his.
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