It isn't time for me to comment on this yet. I found out about it on Friday, but I have few details yet. I have read the book. I have heard from Dr. Hatrick. I am studying the relevant policy. I just want you to be aware, and I want you to know that I am aware.
You may also find interesting the American Library Association's Intellectual Freedom and Censorship Q&A, or information on Censorship in the Schools.
Is the "C" word too strong? The ALA's definition:
Censorship. A change in the access status of material, based on the content of the work and made by a governing authority or its representatives. Such changes include exclusion, restriction, removal, or age/grade level changes.
Not everyone will agree that this is censorship. Some will say it's just good judgement. More to follow.
I'd say more like absurd judgement.
ReplyDeleteSexuality from a morality standpoint is so steeped in religion and culture that government via public schools cannot properly teach it without stepping into first amendment issues.
ReplyDelete(I ordered the book because I think that perhaps the sexual morality is so subtle as to be missed entirely by children and even adults not clued in by activists in the cultural wars.)
I always wondered why those most concerned about expression of homosexuality in schools from a parental rights/religious freedom standpoint are also the ones most active in promoting religious indoctrination by displaying "In God We trust" posters in the schools and having a mandatory pledge of allegiance which says we are all united under a single God.
If children can be harmed by hearing about homosexuality from schools can't children also be harmed by schools merging god and country into a civil religon at school?
A balance between how the schools handle homosexuality (no mention at all) and how they handle civil religion (coerce all children to participate) is needed. I suggest that the motto posters and the pledge should, like books that express a view of homosexuality, be restricted and available only to those children whose parents don't mind giving up moral authority to government.
Ed's right, and that's why parents can choose to opt their kids out of FLE. This is a book about family and nurturing and devotion. It's not about sex of any kind.
ReplyDeleteEd, what you said at Equality Loudoun about sticking to factual information is right on. This book is based on a true story, and it also illustrates a truth about humans that kids can readily see for themselves: Some kids have two dads or two moms. That's factual. As you yourself pointed out, pretending that families like this don't exist is not truthful.
Parents can freely choose to talk to their own kids about this book, or not. They can say "Roy and Silo are like Uncle so-and-so and his partner; isn't that neat?" Or they can say "sometimes two men raise a child together like this, and that's unnatural and they're going to hell" if that's what they want to do. Nobody's first amendment rights need be trampled.
If we start allowing books to be restricted because in somebody's opinion they express a view of something that someone finds offensive, there won't be any books left.