Quote:
Originally Posted by JSWolf
I think it's up to the parents and not the prudes and politicians to decide what kids can and cannot read.
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Exactly. But it's not up to those of loose or no morals to decide either.
If a book is considered inappropriate by by some (meaning a reasonable group, not just one individual), then it should not be available to any (in the same age range) without parental involvement. Explicit parental knowledge and consent being the lowest level of involvement I'm talking about here. Yes, there will be some "what about this fringe case?" things that my generalization above won't apply to, but I'm talking "general case" not one-off oddball cases.
If the parents of little 7 year old Johnny are OK with him reading about and looking at pictures of how this interfaces with that, when other 7 year olds don't even know what this and that are yet, Johnny's case should not dictate what the other kids are given unrestricted access to. But "Johnny sets the goalposts" seems to be what some people are arguing for, while saying anything less is restriction of speech and ideas. I disagree. I don't think this and that books belong in elementary school libraries. Or even middle school libraries. High school libraries are probably OK - given that parents are notified that it will be happening and have options to protect and guide their children as they see fit.