Let’s go back and look at what we read growing up. Let us then ask the question: are we damaged? Have we done harm to others? Have we been unable to raise our children with kindness and empathy? No. We have done an awesome job raising them.
So let us ask why. Did we grow up slowly learning about love, but also hurts, anger, naughty people? Yes. Absolutely.
A FAMILIAR STORY
I was a kid and I was sick. I don’t remember what I had, but my brother, three years older, brought me some books to look at while I lay in bed. One was THE FAMILY OF MAN. If you aren’t familiar with this book–it is all photographs by Edward Steichen from an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York–the exhibit then circulated around the world, the beloved Chicago poet, Carl Sandburg, writing an introduction for the book:
THERE IS ONLY ONE MAN IN THE WORLD and his name is ALL MEN. THERE IS ONLY ONE WOMAN IN THE WORLD and her name is ALL WOMEN. THERE IS ONLY ONE CHILD IN THE WOLRD and the child’s name is ALL CHILDREN.
But I wasn’t reading that. I didn’t GET THAT.
I’m a kid, probably six or seven. (And if I watched TV, it was cartoons and Disney.) So I’m opening the book and wow, being shocked. Why? The photographs are amazing, but also photos of people naked and kissing; a baby being born; a mother nursing a baby with her breast exposed. Keep turning the pages and I am now in countries where people don’t dress like Americans, don’t look like them–they are dancing, singing, eating, crying…and dying.
I closed the book. Had my brother made a mistake? Was I really supposed to see these things? YES!!
Because it is all about context. Ten years later a close friend and I picked up a pornographic magazine found on a street corner. (Nudity can be art and not art.) We looked, then immediatly tossed it away. Instinct. But we were learning about the world. No parent can keep a child from reality, though as we all know, there are wonderful ways and sordid ways for children to become worldly. We learn to evaluate. We learn to understand. Because we live in the real world. If you were sheltered to the extent that life was all sweetness and light, at what point did you realize that it wasn’t? And if so, how did you deal with that realization?
BOOK BANNING
Heidi Stevens, mother, writer, like most of us reading this…had a recent column in the Chicago Tribune: BOOk-BAN MADNESS.
“The first is Florida’s obscenity law, which prohibits distributing to minors ‘any picture…which depicts nudity or sexual conduct, sexual excitement, sexual battery, bestiality, or sadomasochistic abuse and which is harmful to minors.”
Thus, Jennifer Pippin, chair of Moms for Liberty, “claims the law prohibits all nudity in school library books.”
“The law actually only prohibits nudity that specifically harms minors, Popular Information points out, which legally means that it appeals primarily to prurient, shameful or morbid interests, is patently offensive, and is without serious literary or artistic merit for minors.”
But in an interview with Popular Information, Pippen said she worries that if a “5-year-old picks up this book and has never seen a picture of a penis…the parent wouldn’t be able to discuss this with the child.” So officials suggested the school district draw little clothes on the characters. Which they did. And now the books are back on school library shelves!!
WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?
I had brothers. My younger brother and I ran naked in the hallway after our bath. Innocent! Also a way to learn about boys and girls…they are different, no getting around that. THIS IS LIFE. So why not use a children’s story book to “point that out”, some pun intended. Check out the pages above from story books.
DRAW ME A STAR by Eric Carle….”Draw me a man and a woman” the book reads and Carle provides a drawing. A child can see there is a difference. A child can ask questions, learn what a penis is, learn what a vagina. So many parents have struggled with this, making up silly words that alienate the child from THE TRUTH, that make the child early on believe there is something wrong, dirty etc. And how about Maurice Sendak’s THE NIGHT KITCHEN? Why would anyone be offended by a baby boy and his penis? When you get all wild and crazy about nudity…THAT IS WHEN KIDS THINK IT’S BAD. It’s not bad. It’s human. That’s how we were made and nothing is going to change that.
WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?
Stevens writes that some libraries have a best practice plan for challenged books. A parent can fill out a form stating what they believe is objectionable and whether they have read the entire book. The book remains on the shelf while the challenge is being considered. Monica Harris, member of the Illinois Library System encourages parents alarmed by the movement to contact local libraries and offer support. “…the best thing they (parents) can do is get involved and voice their support.”
Thus Stevens ends her article: Our kids are listening. Panic and shame shouldn’t be the loudest things they hear.”
Over to you…have books you once loved and read to your children been banned in your library? Can you find these books in you local book store? I am proud to write that my grandchildren own all of them and more!!
4 Responses
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My main book sources growing up were the New York [City] public library and the Scholastic books monthly catalog distributed to my elementary school class . I was allowed to buy one book a month (I suspect it was a financial limitation as my father didn’t make a lot of money) and I was NEVER, EVER prohibited from reading anything I wanted to read. So. I found out about American slavery and the Holocaust from Scholastic. True, those books shielded children from the full horrors but they didn’t shield me from the fact that these things happened. I could roam the library shelves at liberty. In fact my 8th grade homeroom was my school’s library! (we were overcrowded but that homeroom was perfect for me.) I am both saddened and angered by what is happening. School libraries are so important, as are public libraries.
Thanks, Alana. I’m with you. We had magazines in our home that presented what was going on in the world. But often
children are shielded from information. And that can be good and bad. Living in poverty for some is real. They feel SEEN when
someone notices and protests. In Chicago, we had riots which had a purpose. One of my students warned me that there would be upheaval at an assembly. He knew the riots would happened and he didn’t want me to be hurt. He was right, but also kind.
Hi Beth! Wonderful blog. I can see and comment 🙂