This post is going to be about libraries and book banning. I realized that I haven't really covered that area in this blog yet and I'm quite shocked at myself for not including it sooner. This is going to be a summary on an article that I read a few days ago from TIME titled, "Banned Books: A School Librarian's Perspective". Now, most of you probably thought about public libraries when I mentioned the word above, but school libraries are the ones that are more likely to ban books because, while public libraries do have a big percentage of children, schools (excluding colleges and universities) are for children exclusively. With schools like elementary, middle/junior high, and senior high, comes teachers and a school board that are very concerned with what their students read throughout their years at the school.
She had arrived at her new teaching job to find that the library was in a cage… well, the books that were part of the library were locked in a cage inside of a study hall. The library was only ‘open’ for about two days out of the week. She was a bit… shocked to see that the school had literally locked the books away in a cage and she was also shocked because the kids didn’t have much access to the books that the school had. They only could look at them on maybe two days out of the week.
When Banned Books Week arrives, she thinks about how much her school library has been censored. The books that are in there are there according to the school district’s policy which states that “books must be age-appropriate and related to our school district curriculum”.
Sharon Coatney also has had to ban books as well as expand the school’s collection. She doesn’t call it banning though, she refers to it as ‘selection’. She has to look after the well fare of all of the children who go in and out of her library and make sure that they are protected, but not sheltered.
She also talks about whenever a parent asks for a book to be removed from the library. She states that seeing as the parents are paying for the school in some way and that their child attends the school, they do have a right to ask for a book to be banned. All school libraries have a procedure that is followed when this query comes up and she describes it as a very civil process that I respect. Too often you hear about the banning of books that doesn’t really end in a civil way. It could end with a teacher being fired or the school being sued or something else that is equally wrong.
When a book is removed it can be because of many reasons, the initial criteria wasn’t met, the school board doesn’t deem it fit, and other explanations like that. Mrs. Coatney does go on to say that some parents complain about a book, (she mentions Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson), that they actually think about the entire situation and not just their own personal situation. If they don’t want their child to read it, they stop and think about the other children.
After reading this article, I’ve realized that some people have to ‘ban’ books in order to maintain that natural order the schools need and want. I still believe that everyone should have the right to read anything they want to read, but I do understand that in certain situations, you need to hold off on certain reading materials for certain people.
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