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Recently schools in Bedford County, Va. have pulled two books from school library shelves due to complaints from parents of inappropriate material.
A book about a gay teenage boy titled "Totally Joe" was pulled from one elementary school, and a book titled "The Making of Doctor True Love" was pulled from a high school library.
The parents complained that the books included too heavy of material, and extremely sexual wording, respectively.
Both books are not in circulation in any Bedford County school library or public library.
Only a few books are pulled from shelves a year. Bedford County's process for pulling books begins when a parent complains about a book's content.
Then a media specialist reads the book to determine if the complaint is a substantial claim and if the book should or should not be pulled from the shelves. If the media specialist decides that the book should stay in the library, then the parent may write a formal request for a committee to review the book.
In a world where people hold infinite opinions and viewpoints, it seems a little extreme to pull a book due to one parent's opinion. Each book received only one complaint before it was pulled from the shelves.
For every parent who does not think material concerning homosexuality is appropriate for elementary school children, there is a parent who is comfortable with his or her child reading "Totally Joe."
Likewise, for every parent who finds the content in "The Making of Doctor True Love" too graphic for high schoolers, there is a parent who thinks teenagers have the right to read what they want.
It seems that the school boards are too quick to please one parent without considering the parent community as a whole. Instead of making a decision based on one complaint, perhaps the issue should go to the Parent-Teacher Association where parents and teachers who are in direct contact with the students can vote on what would be in the best interest of the kids.
It seems that the parents and teachers could make a better decision than someone who is labeled a "media specialist." What exactly are the qualifications for someone to become a media specialist, and why is he or she more capable of making the correct decision regarding a book's appropriateness?
While the de-shelving process needs work, the parent who complained about "Totally Joe" in the elementary school has a point. A book about homosexuality may be too mature for a seven year-old.
However, what material is too graphic for a highly sexual teenage generation? Teenagers who are old enough to drive and have jobs are old enough to read a book maturely and make their own decisions on whether or not they want to read such a book as "The Making of Doctor True Love."
There are legitimate arguments that can be made against books being available in school libraries. If such an argument is made, then it should not be the responsibility of one person, or a committee not directly connected to the students affected, to decide whether or not a book should stay in the library for students to read.
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As I see it, libraries exist in schools primarily to provide the research materials necessary to support that school's curriculum first, and to encourage individual reading second. But let's face it: school libraries are usually pretty bad, and there are plenty of books, both graphic and not, that they don't have in their collection simply because they don't have money to buy everything. While the process for banning a book does seem flawed, so many other books are lacking from their shelves that you should come to expect that you'll have to supplement a school library's books with those from a good public library or bookstore to get the most diverse reading experience.
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These low expectations you speak of Jason T, wouldn't be so bad if libraries didn't even waste any time acknowledging "complaints". Sure libraries have other problems, like when a professor is able to designate a book as "2 hour loan period for specific class members only for the entire year and half of summer", but the problem outlined in the article is one with an easy solution.
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These low expectations you speak of Jason T, wouldn't be so bad if libraries didn't even waste any time acknowledging "complaints". Sure libraries have other problems, like when a professor is able to designate a book as "2 hour loan period for specific class members only for the entire year and half of summer", but the problem outlined in the article is one with an easy solution.
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The only easy solution I see is to carry only books that are directly relevant to the school's curriculum and use the money saved from not carrying anything else to fund some other initiatives in the school. Then if a parent has a complaint, it has to go through the curriculum developers since all books available in the library would be a part of the required curriculum. Also, I'm talking about secondary school libraries, not university libraries. A university library system is much more extensive than secondary, and I don't see the problem with professors placing books on reserve for the people who are being graded on the books' contents.
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