Banned Books Week: Banning Alternatives

For information on Banned Books Week and what you can do, please visit the American Library Association’s page on Banned Books right here. 

Between the censorship, name calling, and dark issues, we’ve had a lot of fun this week, haven’t we? Banned Books week is important, because it draws attention to what I feel is an important issue: the censorship of books. Removing a book from a classroom or a library, getting it out of the hands of people is censorship. Flat out censorship. 

It’s the censorship of ideas. The thing is, the more you try to censor an idea, the more you try to fight an idea, the more powerful it becomes, until it’s mythic status. There’s a great episode of South Park related to censorship(handled in true South-Parkian fashion) where the kids read a book that’s banned… and are angry. They read the whole book and can’t understand why anyone would want to ban it! It’s the same way: if you treat something like a big deal, surprisingly, it’s going to become a big deal. 

Typically on Fridays of Banned Books week, I tell people how they can take action against books that are banned, or that are in danger of being banned because they are challenged. But I’m going to take a different route today. I know I probably don’t have too many people left following this who are on the opposite side of the fence… the ones that want a book banned from the classroom or a library for whatever reason. But today, I want to address you.

When momma Bad Shakespeare and Papa Bad Shakespeare were raising me as just a Little Bad Shakespeare, they reminded me that the world is full of unique perspectives, and they’re going to run contrary to my own. They reminded me that even though someone doesn’t think the same as I do, they are human, with their own thoughts and feelings and even if I do disagree with them, it doesn’t make them “wrong” and they still deserve some respect. (They’re presumably human. If cats ever figure out how to censor books, we’re all screwed. But I’d like to remind them that they’ll need influential bloggers to recruit people to toil in their underground tuna mines.) 

What I want to address are actions you can take rather than banning a book for everyone. Actually, everyone should be doing these things in some way, because it will make learning a co-operative process.

1. Actually read the book. Too often, when I do hear of a book being banned or challenged, the reasons are vague. My personal favorite: The Hunger Games is being challenged for it’s “anti-family values.” The Hunger Games is a fun book to study, especially in this day and age, when you have so many reality shows and the whole thing is about basically, that. However, it has strong family values: the father dies working to feed his family and the book is set in motion when Katniss doesn’t want her sister going to the Hunger Games. She then forms a bond with a character who reminds her of her sister. To me, that’s the epitome of family.

I also see people who just count the infractions without really giving any real context to it.  Let’s take one of my favorite books, Huckleberry Finn, which is frequently challenged for using the dreaded “N-word.” Now, how many people have read the book? (This is a required one, so I suspect many.) How many people understand that Mark Twain, when writing the book, is actually making fun of those that would insult, hurt, or otherwise damage Jim? So, in the context it’s showing people that this is bad. Maybe that’s a good lesson.

Speaking of language, I do see some instances of people counting the bad language as if 39 “Fucks” is somehow better than 40. Please stop. If you are really concerned with language, go to a high school cafeteria for a few days. I did. The language in some R-rated movies is more tame than what I heard, and I’m not prude when it comes to language. 

2. Talk to your child about what they are reading. I know I read some things my parents really didn’t approve of. Most of it was old-school comedy/sci-fi/fantasy books, back in the day. Again… tame compared to what I see now. But they talked to me about it. They let me know what language was unacceptable in their house. 

They also talked to me about their values. So, even if I read something that went counter to what we believed, I still knew what they believed. I was always encouraged to keep an open mind, but nothing was so taboo that I felt we couldn’t talk about it. In this vein, you should also encourage your kids to ask you questions about what they are reading. Then you can address it. You shouldn’t talk so little to your kids about their beliefs or your beliefs that one sentence in a book is suddenly going to change their entire worldview.

You can’t act like you’re afraid that this book is going to change something deep inside of them. Then the desire to read it without your knowledge only becomes more intense, and they won’t have a place to talk to when they have questions.

This is a big point I keep making: THINK CAREFULLY ABOUT WHAT YOU ARE SAYING WHEN YOU WANT TO BAN A BOOK. Speak is a difficult book about rape, and people want it banned because it is about rape. Are you telling your child that they can’t come talk to you if something like this happens to them or someone they care about. It's a topic that's "bad" and therefor they can't speak of it, ever? Then where do they turn? 13 Reasons Why is a book about suicide, and how our actions affect others. Are you telling your kids that they can’t come talk to you if things are really bad? Are you telling kids that their actions don't matter? You are your kids’ first defense when it comes to questions. Kids should be able to talk to their parents without being afraid. Hero is about coming out to your parents, but people want it banned because of the gay issues… do you not want your kids to be able to talk to you about this?

Talk to your kids. You’ll be surprised.

3. Talk to the teacher. And I mean really, really, really talk to the teacher. Don’t walk in with an agenda and suddenly get angry when they don’t adhere to only what you want. 

Fun story, back when I was a Little Bad Shakespeare, I was a lifeguard. (I mentioned this… I also attempted this as a Bigger Bad Shakespeare, but that’s a more embarrassing story.) I remember one day I was sitting in the stand, as Lifeguards do, when I was approached by a woman who was having a party, and her kids weren’t strong swimmers, so they wanted part of the pool roped off. Of course, I was in the stand, and she probably should have gone to the guard in the office, but didn’t mention that to her, I said, “Let me see what I can do.” 

Those were my words. “Let me see what I can do.” We were busy, there weren’t many areas to rope off, and I was in the stand and I couldn’t, legally, get down without clearing the pool. That’s why I had a guard in the office, to handle this, so I needed to see what he was able to work out.

Her reaction was to walk away in disgust saying “That means you aren’t going to do anything!” 

I was taken aback. Fun fact, later, her kid that she wasn’t watching, actually needed to be rescued. That was kind of an awkward exchange later. 

But, the message is the same. Don’t be this lady who just says “That means you aren’t going to do anything!” when the teacher doesn’t immediately bow down to your whim. Remember what I said before: Teachers, when choosing texts, already have one hand tied behind their backs, and are aware they won’t make everyone happy with their choice. Come in with a list of questions, like what you feel this book is going to teach them, or why was this book selected. Ask them how they are going to address the content you find objectionable. 

Now, before I get slammed with suggesting extra work, remember that the teacher has already done this work, and you are the one with the concern. If you have a concern, you may have some extra work. 

If you still feel strongly about it, ask if there is an alternative assignment. Ask if there’s another book your child can read. Be reasonable about things. Shouting, throwing temper tantrums, and going right to the school board takes up valuable time, and just continues to disrespect teachers. Respect they need to teach your kids.

4. Understand that your way is not the only way of thinking. It may sound glib that I’m throwing this in, and believe me, I’m not. This is difficult to get over. We ALL need to learn this. However, I throw this out there because I do understand that part of the reason anyone wants a book banned is not because you’re so evil super villain making the finger pyramid of evil and scheming to make someone’s life difficult. You just want to make things better. But your “better” may not be someone else’s better. The teacher wants to make your child “better” by reading a book they think is interesting. 

But remember, at some point your kid is going to go out in the world, and they’re going to encounter other people, and their way of thinking. How are they going to interact with them? Sticking their fingers in their ears until they go away? That makes the world a smaller place. Teaching them early how to deal with things they don’t agree with is going to make things easier for them. 

This ends my week long coverage of Banned Books Week. I promise next week we’ll go back to movies, my quest for College Professordom, and all of the other fun usually associated with Bad Shakespeare. (I mean, this weekend alone Kevin Smith turns a guy into a walrus AND Liam Neeson runs around Liam Neesoning. HOW CAN IT GET ANY BETTER FOR MOVIES? Take THAT, Guardians of the Galaxy.) But this is something I am passionate about. This is the 21st Century. Just today I downloaded an album, watched a movie, and read a book all from the same location because I was able to access everything. We can’t cut off access of books for kids because we think something is that “wrong”. We need to give them an opportunity to speak, and opportunity to think, and an opportunity to read. As one of my very favorite professors and now friend says, “Student Voice” is the most important thing. Let’s not ban books and take that voice away. Thank you all for reading this. I sincerely hope I made an impact. 

Banned Books Week: "Challenged Books"... Not Quite Banned Enough For Some

For information on Banned Books Week and what you can do, please visit the American Library Association’s page on Banned Books right here.

Yesterday I mentioned that I had two issues I wanted to address when looking through blog and the thoughts of the people that wish to ban books. One was the lack of respect for teachers and kids. The other one is today, and that’s the word “challenged.”

"Challenged" is a fun word. It can mean many things. It looks like a powerful word. And Banned Books week champions (another fun word) books that are banned or challenged. But few people have jumped on that word in a specific kind of way that makes me a little sad inside.

This is not a direct quote, but sort of a paraphrasing of what I saw when I was doing research on Banned Books week and trying to address those that wish to Ban Books. There were many variations of this line: “Banned Books Week raises it’s numbers by showing not just books that were banned, but books that were ‘challenged’. Challenged doesn’t mean that it was banned, just that people were asking questions.”

Oh, that’s my favorite new phrase, Bad Shakespeare readers. “I’m just asking questions.” I don’t mean it in the sense that you should actually ask questions, but a lot of people have been hiding behind this phrase in scary ways. “I’m just asking questions.”

I’m going to pause for a moment and say that asking questions can be a good idea, when you want to learn something. I believe that everyone should be informed. But there’s a difference between, say, asking a question to learn something like, "hey, what's so bad about this book that you want it to be banned," and "hey, why do you hate all kids and America as well by allowing this filth to be strewn about our schools." One wishes to know an answer. The other has an answer already in mind, and doesn't want to learn anything. In this case you aren't asking questions, you're being a jerk.

“Challenged” books need love, too. Sometimes, it’s just one vote that stands in the way of a book going from “challenged” to “banned.” For Challenged books, someone did take the time to highlight the passages that they didn't them, then took it to the (hopefully proper) place to get it removed. Sometimes it just means that one person found a problem, found a group sympathetic to their cause, and sent out a form letter asking for everyone to support a book ban. Such in the case of The Diary of a Young Girl, by Anne Frank, which was once challenged by a group that once said, and I'm not making this up (apologizes to Dave Barry) "I heard it's a real downer."

Challenged still means that someone wanted it removed from the curriculum or library. Even if it wasn't successful once, it's on the radar now.

It bothers me a little bit that someone would want to exclude challenged books. Yes, they were successful in stopping a ban in some places. But that doesn’t mean they are teflon, and can never be banned again. How many times has Huck Finn or Beloved been banned and unbanned? It’s been a lot. So many to the point that I remember we had a discussion of banned books when I first read that one, oh those many years ago. (This was back when the internet was in its infancy, and Wikipedia was housed in large buildings called “Libraries.”)

Because a book is challenged in one school district doesn’t meant that something won’t happen in a another, and the outcome will be different. It’s important to keep those books on the lists, so people can know what is out there being challenged, and people can stand up for it. It’s not “raising the numbers” or trying to promote some kind of scare tactic, it’s addressing the fact that these books will possibly at some point become one of the banned ones.

Yes, wins on the side on the right to choose what you read are important. But they can be fleeting, and there’s a matter of time before they are challenged again.

Challenged books are the very close cousins of banned books. Very close. To the point that they stay over on Friday nights and everyone in school thinks that they are actually siblings. You know those cousins. Everyone knows some cousins like that. And if you don’t, well, then, at least you have my cool analogy to go off of.

Challenged Books aren't suddenly safe. It doesn’t mean that some final battle was fought and the book will never be challenged again. It just means that in one instance, the book wasn’t removed. And that’s not just raising a number as a scare tactic, challenging books so they can be removed from a curriculum or a library is part of the problem, and not one we should face in America today.

Banned Books Week isn't some great plot from the ALA to drum up awareness for a fake issue. Including Challenged Books is important; it shows that the struggle is very real. To even suggest a book should be banned is a dangerous one, it removes ideas from the classroom. Very real ideas and issues that may need to be explored. When I was in Teacher-School, one of our lessons was a reminder that the assumption that we all come from the same place with the same values is a bad one. We took half an hour in this class on this issue, because one person couldn't grasp the fact that someone might not be rich enough to have their own car, and thus we couldn't assume that they would have access to one. Banned Books Week is a little like that. It's a reminder that we are all extremely unique, and we can't ban that uniqueness from the classroom because it's unpleasant. We can't challenge it because we think it's wrong.

Let kids read. Let kids learn.

Banned Books Week: Trusting Teachers, Parents, and Kids

For information on Banned Books Week and what you can do, please visit the American Library Association’s page on Banned Books right here.

It’s the time of year again. That time when I dust off ye olde soap box and pull out ye olde megaphone and start dropping some awareness and knowledge about something that’s near and dear to my heart.

That’s right, everyone it’s Banned Books Week. Depending on where you stand on this issue, It’s time to bring out the pitchforks and torches, or to bring out the high fives and supermodels. Either way, it’s going to be an interesting week.

Since I first typed out the first few pages of Bad Shakespeare, I’ve talked about Banned Books, not just during this week, but whenever I find a particularly amusing story about book bans (or attempted book bans… more on that later this week) that have gone through for whatever reason. And the response has been interesting….

I have been called names. I have been emailed and attacked. I’ve bee called names that I personally thought people who wanted books banned didn’t want to use. But, I’ve been told that I’m doing a good job. i have been told this is an important issue, and I’ve been told that I’m bringing awareness to something in an amusing way.

What can I say. They all hit up my ego, so I’m going to keep going with it. But I’ve already said a lot about Banned Books. I’ve said a lot about which books are banned that I felt shouldn’t be banned. I’ve said things about the ways some of the bans go about. So never fear, loyal readers, I’m going to do my best to repeat myself too much.

Disloyal readers, feel free to browse the archives. Also, I’m not going to really apologize to you because I feel if I repeat myself to you, it’s at least new.

You see, because I was raised not to just believe something and then roll with it (Thanks mom and dad) I actually don’t just do research by finding the five people who think like I do, read what they have to say, then congratulate myself on a job well done. No, I actually do research and I’ve heard some of the arguments in favor of banning books. Some of them are reasonable. Some of them are downright terrifying. And while I can respect the point of view of some of the book banners, I’m afraid we’ll have to agree to disagree.

In any event, there are two arguments I read on pages of people who wanted to ban books that I wanted to discuss. One I’m going to discuss today. The other, I’m going to discuss tomorrow.

For today, I want to discuss the go-to for people who want to ban books (and one of the things that I’m really passionate about) and that’s “We just want the book pulled from the classroom, not from the school! The other students can read it in the library.”

I’m going to pull the curtain back for a second, and get real with all of you for a minute. (If this were a movie, this were the point that I’d prop my leg up on a chair, non-menacingly to let you know that I’m your buddy while you roll your eyes because I’m not your buddy.) I want to explain one of the frustrations I had while trying to get my teaching degree.

Imagine you’re at work. You worked very, very, very, hard to get where you were. Now, imagine that your job requires you to take extra training. In fact, part of your training requires you to do the job itself while being evaluated by three different people and not getting paid. When you’re done with your training, and you get a job in a field that’s rapidly losing funding, you have to re-new your training once every couple of years.

With all that training, including the current stuff, you should consider yourself pretty knowledgeable.

Now, one day, someone comes into your work and tells you that you can’t do something. The have no training, and their knowledge of what you are doing is limited to a few TV shows, some things they read online, and maybe a form letter they were asked to fill out. They don’t know what you do. They just want you to stop doing it, because it offends them.

That’s pretty much what it’s like to be a teacher in some places, especially ones where a book is being removed from the curriculum.

Teachers already have a limited resources when they pick a book. Is it a book being used in the county/state/area? Are there enough? Has it been through a vetting process already?  Which teachers are going to use that book? That doesn’t include the fact that books being used in the classroom, even if they are approved through everything else and being used, have to be justified to the school board, and plans to use the book have to be made well in advance.

But people want these books pulled for a variety of reasons. And (I’ve made this point time, and time, and time again) rather than discussing these reasons with kids, some parents just want to bury their heads in the sand. They want to yell at teachers. They want to teach their kids that teachers aren’t to be respected, and then wonder why test scores go down or kids act out in class. That’s what it comes down to. Respect, or lack thereof, that a teacher who has been through this training is unable or unwilling to pick a book “correctly”.

People (not just kids) need to be challenged. They grow and prosper when new things are thrown at them. But here’s the thing: It’s ok to disagree. It’s ok to sit your kids down and say, “we don’t use this word because…” or “we don’t believe this because…” Any GOOD teacher will take that into consideration when assigning a final assignment or grading. If there’s a problem with a teacher mocking your kids’ beliefs, THEN you should get involved. But what’s wrong with having some kind of challenge?

There’s also some book banning based on the “appropriateness” of the content. The thing is… who decides what’s appropriate for all students? I still laugh when I think about the documentary Bully that was rated R, keeping kids (the target audience) from seeing it… because of words that the kids used in the movie! If you want to teach your kids what is appropriate, then why not use this as a jumping off point? “That’s not something we do.” Discuss. Don’t bury.

Plus, remember the point I keep making: don’t teach your kids to disrespect teachers, and that’s what you do when you say, blow up at  school board meeting because the kids are reading something you don’t like. Don’t teach your kids that teachers are the enemies, then sit around and wonder “why aren’t they learning?” or wonder what happened to test scores or the American Education System.

Bottom line, rather than being reactionary when it comes to books, why don’t you try to work with your kids through it? Why don’t you trust not only teachers to teach, but kids to understand it? Why don’t you trust your skills in raising your kids to let them know what you believe is right or wrong? Don’t make kids fear something because it has a dreaded sex scene, or because it may contain… the F-word. (gasp.)

Trust and Respect. Important things to remember.