Censoring Schoolbooks

Are our children on loan to us while in grades K-12? It seems that the state feels that it is the ultimate authority when our children’s educational future is at stake. For as long as my son has been in public school, teachers and administrators have begged parents to become involved in the educational process. Well, in the Hacienda/La Puente School District, we did. We became involved against the system and automatically we were labeled “book-burning fundamentalists.” Yet the group of parents who formed an efficient and successful organization was varied in religious affiliation and ethnicity.

Educators claim that children are bored. The question is whether reading curriculum is to blame or that teaching methodology is suspect. If the curriculum was so terrible, then I would not hold a master’s degree in English. Neither would others of my generation be the functioning professionals they are today if “Dick and Jane” had not lead to a thirst for more challenging material--which was always provided. That leaves the educational process itself as the culprit. Only the self-motivated children do well in school today. Our educators have failed to motivate their charges.

Parents must share the blame, though. How much easier it is to plop down a preschooler in front of a TV and have letters, numbers, and concepts dance and sing for them.

The article also contains comments by the publisher. I would suggest that the argument is totally fallacious. It is true that many of the series books have excerpts from classic literature. But those selections are surrounded by material that is neither literature nor classic. In no way are the darker (to be mild) selections comparable to traditional fairy tales. The material contained is much closer to the contemporary horror genre, in which evil usually triumphs.,

Finally, the challenge is not to “stop this censorship wildfire,” as Michael Hudson contends. The “censorship wildfire” is nonexistent. True, a few “wackos” are burning books. But an overwhelming majority of evangelicals would be as appalled as I at any such action. The challenge is to raise our children to function and thrive with intelligence and character in a rapidly changing global society. In this matter, the parents are the experts.

GARY S. BLINN

La Puente