What are the Real Issues? What is Censorship?
It is only the small number of required textbooks that classkc.org has questioned at the Blue Valley school district. classkc.org supports the overall goals of Blue Valley Communication Arts classes which include helping our children develop excellent reading and writing skills as well as a general love of reading. Because we support excellent literature choices, we have questioned some of the low quality, f-word-laden, and sex-filled textbooks. It is not only our right, but also our responsibility, as parents and taxpayers to see that our public school is providing the best education possible, in full compliance to their own policies, and with full disclosure to parents.
Regarding "censorship," the truth is that librarians and teachers constantly censor what our children read. This is required by their jobs as educators, by Blue Valley policies on media and Internet use, and also because they are simply acting as responsible adults. No school can afford to purchase all 15,000 books that are published each year. Librarians censor which books, magazines, movies, and other materials come into the libraries. To a much greater degree, teachers censor out the vast number of books that could be used as required textbooks. To make a statement such as "I am against all censorship" is idiotic. Without censorship, a book such as Madonna's Sex would be just as available to minor children as Stevenson's Treasure Island.
But what has been the response by many educated media, library, and educational "professionals" to our concerns? Disingenuous name calling -- book banner, book burner, and censor. Do they really not understand the truth? Or are they just trying to obscure the discussion of the real issues? We'd prefer to discuss the real issues listed below.
First of all, the debate IS NOT about:
- removing books from the Blue Valley school libraries.
- preventing children from checking books out of the Blue Valley school libraries.
- limiting any child’s “right to read.”
The REAL ISSUES (that the current BOE has mostly refused to address) are:
- what constitutes excellent and age-appropriate literature for required reading assignments.
- using decent and non-sexually provocative literature for required reading assignments
- making parents proactively aware of the 'education' their children are receiving by reading these books, a responsibility that Blue Valley has not owned up to
- holding the school district accountable to their own internal selection policies and patron promises
- getting clear answers to simple questions such as:
- WHY were these books selected in the first place?
- HOW did Blue Valley deem each of these books to be age appropriate?
- WHO in the Blue Valley school district thinks these books are the best choices for these kids?
- WHAT IS SO IMPORTANT about the content in these specific books that they cannot be replaced with hundreds of other rigorous, yet not morally repugnant titles?
- WHEN is the Board of Education going to enforce their own policies that state that books shall be absent of gratuitous sex, violence, and profanity?
Also please note:
- All novels at the ClassKC Books link are listed because they are in use or have been recently used by the Blue Valley district. This list is NOT intended to be misconstrued as books ClassKC wants removed from the curriculum. Some are great books, others are poor choices. Most have been rated by parent reviewers according to the sex, language and/or violence they contain.
- The 14 books patrons are petitioning the school board for replacement with higher quality literature assignments are:
- All the Pretty Horses
- Animal Dreams
- The Awakening
- The Bean Trees
- Beloved
- Black Boy
- Fallen Angels
- The Hot Zone
- I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
- Lords of Discipline
- One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
- Song of Solomon
- Stotan
- This Boy’s Life
The people behind classKC.org are avid book-reading, book-loving Blue Valley parents and patrons. We have nothing to personally gain by doing this. We simply feel that many of the required reading assignments are far from the common sense standards of decency that most Blue Valley parents want for their children, and expect from their school. Why WOULDN’T we ask for the highest quality literature choices for our children??