I had no idea what to post in current events – my current event was surviving another week of full time teaching, completing my autobiography assignment and making blackberry jam. Then I went to Google reader and checked in. The list of blogs I am following came from my last course I took with Joanne. I admit that there are A LOT of unread posts there. BUT there was also the perfect current event: THIS IS BANNED BOOKS WEEK. Check out http://blog.schoollibraryjournal.com/afuse8production/2011/09/25/video-sunday-18/ for a great list of sites to visit about banned books week. There are some great posters on the banned books week page at http://www.bannedbooksweek.org/. There is even a Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/bannedbooksweek . One of the comments on Facebook reflected my own thoughts when I began to consider banned books week. How does this idea of intellectual freedom relate to web sites? Why is censoring our students’ access to reading on the web so much more acceptable than censoring paper? I still remember the excitement in my high school English class when our teacher handed out Catcher in the Rye and told us that it had been banned when he was in school – we couldn’t wait to crack the cover! I still remember that book and the feeling that my teacher believed we were ‘grown up’ enough to read it. While I believe in intellectual freedom in principle, I find myself in gray areas sometimes as an elementary school librarian. Where does freedom to read intersect with age appropriate? Did you know that Maurice Sendak’s In the Night Kitchen has been challenged multiple times? (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_the_Night_Kitchen).
PS. Freedom to Read Week in Canada is February 26th to March 3rd.
Photo Credit: Florian B. (Aug. 2005). Against Banned Books, Retreived from http://www.flickr.com/photos/florian_b/44227093/ Creative Commons attriubution license.
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