Eve's Fan Garden

I don’t get outspoken very often, but when I do, it is likely about censorship. I don’t like it, I think it’s a problem, and it tends to make a whole group of people look bad, when actually, it was the actions of a select few. However, I guess I hadn’t realized that sometimes, people don’t completely understand what I mean when I say censorship.

I recently wrote a blog entry about censorship and had several parents voice their concerns that they didn’t want their kids reading certain materials and didn’t think it was irrational to feel that way.

And it absolutely isn’t.

I am the mother of three young children and, if I had to qualify myself, would say I am moderate with conservative leanings. In my religious group that makes me a flaming liberal and among my professional peers I am usually the most conservative. However, more easily quantified is that I am a mom.

I believe in a parent’s right to raise their children the way they see fit—within legal and ethical bounds, of course—and that includes limiting what your children read. Telling them, “No, that isn’t appropriate for you.” That is a parent’s decision and they have the right to make it.

When I talk about censoring, I am talking about making that decision for other people. Other children, teens, even adults. Deciding that what is inappropriate for your child, should also be made unavailable to other children. For example, there are many YA books out there that use *foreboding music* the F-word. You as a parent have every right to tell your teen that they cannot read a book with that kind of language in it. (Whether or not you should is a whole different blog entry.:D) Censorship is when the parent (teacher, librarian, homeless guy off the street) then tries to have those books removed from the library so that no other teens can read them.

That should not be your right!

Having a variety of texts available at a library is both a privilege and a challenge. But just as no single genre will please everyone, no one set of moral codes is going to sit right with everyone. If your daughter comes home with something you consider “filth,” then by all means, take it away and return it unread! But another girl down the street might find the message in that book to be exactly what she needed, and her mother is fine with her reading it. So let her! Just because you find language/drug use/sexual content/unicorns/the color yellow offensive, doesn’t mean that everyone does. (Seriously, try bringing up one thing that you consider blanketly unacceptable in a book among a group of ten people and getting them all to agree. Not going to happen!)

But back to parents’ rights. Some things that are NOT censorship:

-Asking that your child be given an alternative book for a class reading assignment if you find the book unacceptably offensive. Your child and only your child. (And even then, pick this battle carefully and make sure you have read the book, not just listened to gossip about it.)

-Informing the children’s librarian that the PLAYBOY magazine was probably mis-shelved in the children’s picture book section. (After all, let’s not be ridiculous!:D)

-Being involved in your child’s reading selections and asking them what their books are about. Better yet, reading with them! (You might find, like many moms out there, that you like the books your child is reading!)

-Talking to your child about what you feel is appropriate and not appropriate in their reading material and expecting them to choose wisely. (Responsibility for the WIN!)

Taking a stand against censorship does not mean allowing your child to read any old book someone throws at them and being afraid to speak up. It is simply about recognizing that—like in so many other ways—people in the world are different. You are neither better or worse, but neither are they. Respect that. We are taught to respect diversity in so many ways, and our standards of reading material are no different. Stealing the twist on the old phrase as I know many, many others have done before me, I may not like what you read, but I will defend to the death your right to read it. And if I don’t like what my kid is reading, well, that’s a whole other story.:D

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Aprilynne Pike is the author of New York Times best seller Wings and it’s sequel Spells.

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