This week’s readings about intellectual freedom have made me think more about parents’ rights and children’s rights as well as parental responsibility. PABBIS brings up some good issues when it states that it is difficult to be informed about every piece of information that a child will be exposed to. PABBIS does a good job with their section with excerpts from commonly challenged books. A parent might find that helpful. I would hope that the parent would also find out why the book was being used in the classroom, or why it was included on a reading list, or why it was on the library shelf. I also find it important for parents to protect their own child and not assume that all parents feel the same way. Unfortunately, not all parents are involved with their children’s reading and viewing habits. In that case, it is important that children are taught how to make good decisions on their own. I’m not a parent or an educator, but I see evidence of these issues at my job at a video store. There are families that come in together and choose movies and video games that meet the approval of the parent. Other times, children come in alone and choose for themselves. In these cases, I sometimes have to make a judgment calls. Some parents state on their membership files what ratings their children are allowed to rent. Other times, I call the parent to get their permission. (It is store policy to make sure parents approve rated-R movies and rated-M video games.) Most children know what their parents will say. I’ve only occasionally had a parent not give permission. I can relate to librarians who err on the cautious side. I have seen a parent get irate and cause a scene in the store because her teenager rented a rated-R movie. In this case, I would think the parent should be more concerned with the child’s judgment. It would be an opportunity to discuss why the movie was or was not appropriate for the child. In most cases, movie ratings are not law. Again, it is up to the parent to protect their children and educate them about decision-making. Librarians can protect themselves the most by having written policies in place and following guidlines such as those found in part 5 of the Intellectual Freedom Manual.
References
American Library Association, & NetLibrary, Inc. (2006). Intellectual freedom manual. Chicago: American Library Association. www.mpaa.org/FilmRatings.aspwww.pabbis.com
www.pabbis.com/listoflistsintro.html
Oh how easy it is to fall into a group mentality. As I was viewing the powerpoint available on the PABBIS site, I found myself agreeing with many of the points made by the organization, then I asked myself a question. Just what are the schools teaching? When I hear "bad book" I picture a romance bodice ripper book, I doubt these types of books are part of the curriculum for any school. As I went through the list there were a lot sex, language, drugs, suicide, violence, etc. So what? These books are good as a whole not just what is written on page 53. But we do have our First Amendment rights and this includes freedom not to read. It should be the parents right to censor their own child not the one next door. I have censored my own children when reading them bedtime stories; I will leave out a word or change a word but I would never think of officially challenging a book because I found something offensive. All that to say I agree that parents have the right to censor, but they need to do it with care and respect. They need to know why they are censoring and they need to respect the rights of others to read what could be called offensive.
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