Photo by Ben White on Unsplash
The recent push to ban books on “difficult” subjects is criminal.
I am not a parent. I can’t tell anybody how to raise a child. But I have been one. I’ve also been a student, hungry to learn about the world beyond my own experiences — like every other kid who knows at some point they’ll have to leave home and make a life of their own.
We need to give children an equal opportunity to succeed. This can’t happen if we don’t give them an equal opportunity to learn.
If we turn over this important task to parents, there is no way to ensure each child receives the same education. True, some children are officially home-schooled, which requires training and a well-defined curriculum that meets national standards. Those feverishly calling for banning books that contain information they find objectional are welcome to follow the procedures needed to qualify to home-school their kids — but they have no business telling teachers what books should be taught in the public school system.
Some parents feel differently, no doubt. Terry McAuliffe lost the Virginia governor’s race because he had the audacity to say that teachers, not parents, should decide what students learn in schools. Granted, he didn’t choose his words very carefully. If he had admitted that parents have reason to care, that PTA meetings and parent/teacher sessions are designed to gather their feedback and their feedback should be taken seriously — as it always has — he could have stated his case without sounding like his message was “Screw you — you don’t know enough to teach your own kids.”
What made McAuliffe’s comments particularly egregious was the context in which he said them. His audience consisted of millions of parents who spent the last year or more struggling to do just that. COVID made teachers of every parent — and McAuliffe’s tone-deaf comments were an insult to those parents. I get it.
Still, his intent was legitimate. The problem we have with Republicans these days is they react far too quickly to perceived slights and opinions that don’t match their own.
They’ve forgotten what it means to have a dialogue.
Anybody who has ever been in therapy can tell you that having a safe space to relive painful events is critical to overcoming the trauma induced by those events. In the same way, learning about difficult subjects in school — also a safe space — allows children to assimilate information without damaging them.
Well-meaning parents who do everything they can to shield their children from reality aren’t doing them any favors. If we go back in time to when women learned nothing about sex before they were sexually active, it was a disaster for them. Confusion, fear, and often life-long psychological problems were the most common consequences of this enforced ignorance.
The recent move to ban books with content some feel is harmful does exactly the opposite of what its proponents pretend to promote. Rather than protect their children, they are handicapping them.
When we fail to educate children to understand our history they will fail to learn its lessons. Likewise, if we fail to provide them with a wide variety of viewpoints, exposure to various cultures, and insight into the lives of people different from themselves — whether it be a difference in race, sexual orientation, or sexual identity — we are preventing them from learning about the world in a safe environment.
Children will grow up. They will encounter various situations that will challenge their ability to process their emotions and respond in a healthy way. Books can go a long way toward preparing children for these challenges. Books can also provide insight into what life is like for people whose reality is quite different from their own. These are critical to a child’s ability to function in the world.
The current movement to remove from school bookshelves the very books most able to provide this essential education to children is insane.
You can’t blindfold someone then expect them to find their way in the world.
Some parents take specific exception to books that mention slavery — as if by not teaching them about it our history will evaporate and the obvious and long-felt trauma of those descendent from slaves will simply disappear. It won’t.
Blinders do not change the world. The only way to lessen the harm done by past injustices is to acknowledge them and do what can be done to make amends. I don’t have all the answers, but I know how important it is to ask the questions. And I know one thing that never works: denial.
Similarly strong reactions have come from parents regarding books that portray other forms of abuse, such as rape. I agree that this subject may be too emotionally fraught for elementary school students, but every high school student needs to understand what being raped does to a woman.
I wonder, did Brett Kavanaugh get a lesson in sexual abuse and how it can traumatize a woman for life before he got drunk and climbed on top of Christine Blasey Ford? Probably not.
If nothing else, books that allow kids to see how much alike we all are despite superficial differences can go a long way toward erasing prejudice. When we realize that what we share is so much greater than our differences, we take a huge step towards equality — something we should all appreciate.
It isn’t their children these misguided people are trying to protect — it’s themselves. Fear of change and unwillingness to discuss difficult subjects is rampant in the Republican party. If we allow ignorant parents to determine the education available to children today, we will encourage another generation of fools who will be incapable of solving the problems of today.
This is not a fight reserved for parents — it’s one we all have a stake in.