Freedom to Read

I was reading the newspaper today and I came upon the article talking about Freedom to Read week. I checked out the list of books and magazines that have been banned from public school libraries because of their "inappropriate" material. Some of them I agreed with, but others I was appalled at the reason behind the ban.

A few of the books are Harry Potter, the Golden Compass, To Kill a Mockingbird, Underground to Canada.

The way I see it is that how can you educate children about equality and acceptance of other races and of homosexuality if you do not allow them to read about how it used to be and how things should be changed? Parents believe that children are impressionable, (and don't get me wrong, they are) but I'm sure that reading ONE book is not going to change their attitudes towards a race or religion or change their sexuality. I also believe that it would be better to inform our children of how things used to be, and for them to gain more information about prejudice and other past societal views than it is to shield them from it. How are we ever going to learn from our mistakes if we do not accept them and continuously view them? As someone once said (sorry for the missing citation) "Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it".

To think also of how nowadays people believe we are so accepting of gays and lesbians, but we won't allow children to read books about homosexuality because we are afraid that it will influence their beliefs. Do people not realize that homosexuality is NOT a lifestyle choice, but is biologically driven? And that by reading books "endorsing" homosexuality will not change their sexual preferences?

I was also surprised to see that Harry Potter and the Golden Compass made the list. Apparently, according to some parents, Harry Potter was inappropriate because of the magical themes (come on! It's for entertainment!) and how the Golden Compass is promoting atheism. As I said before, reading 6 books on that specific theme will not influence their religious beliefs because children do not delve that deep into the meaning behind books, most children only read them for entertainment. In comparison, you don't see any bans on Disney movies because of "magical themes", especially in the older movies (Fantasia, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, etc.).

I do agree with banning some books, and I believe that there should be an age restriction on books, especially those like To Kill a Mockingbird. I believe for a book like that, it should be read by children who are old enough to understand that it is inappropriate now to say the "n-word" but it was part of the culture from that time period.

I think parents are just making a big deal out of nothing because they want to control their children's beliefs for as long as possible. I believe it's better for them to be informed as early as possible so that our world can continue to move towards a less prejudiced place.

I say, support Freedom to Read week by reading all of the "banned" books, which can be found in a list on this website: www.freedomtoread.ca.

Happy reading!