Greetings. I am a voting constituent in rural west Texas.
I gotta say…judging from recent hysterics regarding objectionable material being taught or read in our schools has got to be one the greatest head in the sand moments I’ve ever observed.
Specifically, to choose one crazy example, the 1992 Pulitzer Prize winning Maus. A graphic novel about the author’s parents’ experiences during the holocaust recently banned by a Tennessee school board because it contained some swear words and a naked illustration.
This is ludicrous, puritanical, irrelevant thinking in today’s society. Our children are exposed daily to anything and everything whether they want to be or not.
But in the guise of saving our children’s souls, the history of one man’s family experience, lived during a time where 6M were systematically killed, was deemed offensive.
This is 19th-century thinking imposed on 21st-century reality. You would have to be living in an intellectual vacuum of your own choosing to think that this sort of self-serving action makes a whit of difference.
Get on the internet sometime. Search for the most vile thing you can think of. It’s out there.
And we all know the young are way more educated on all things technology than we’ll ever be. So I expect there’s lots more than meets the casual eye.
This current push to ban books to discourage critical thinking has got to stop. We’re already on the road to becoming the shallowest country on the planet. Kids should be reading more. Not less.
Swear words and one naked illustration. If that makes you clutch your pearls you need to get out more.
