The American Library Association's Intellectual Freedom Q & A defines intellectual freedom as: "[T]he right of every individual to both seek and receive information from all points of view without restriction.
We discussed Intellectual Freedom in class on Thursday.
I decided to conduct an informal survey. I asked some parents, relatively young, educated, open minded, and liberal so I thought, would they object to a book like Uncle Bobby’s Wedding being available to their children in their local library.
Three of the seven parents, I asked said they would strongly object, and would ask the library to remove the book. (Clutched my pearls and gasped).
It was interesting to hear how some of the parents felt, one parent said she believed her daughter did not to be exposed to this topic at a young age. She further went on to say she did not want to “confuse” her 5year old daughter. The father of the same little girl shared similar beliefs, although he said he would not write a letter to the library.
Another parent, objected strongly, and insisted that those topics should not be included in children’s book and not available to children.
My sister, a parent of two, said she did not see anything wrong with the book in the library; however a book like Uncle Bobby should not be part of a school’s curriculum.
Hmmmm. Perhaps, that will be the next topic of my informal survey.
We discussed Intellectual Freedom in class on Thursday.
I decided to conduct an informal survey. I asked some parents, relatively young, educated, open minded, and liberal so I thought, would they object to a book like Uncle Bobby’s Wedding being available to their children in their local library.
Three of the seven parents, I asked said they would strongly object, and would ask the library to remove the book. (Clutched my pearls and gasped).
It was interesting to hear how some of the parents felt, one parent said she believed her daughter did not to be exposed to this topic at a young age. She further went on to say she did not want to “confuse” her 5year old daughter. The father of the same little girl shared similar beliefs, although he said he would not write a letter to the library.
Another parent, objected strongly, and insisted that those topics should not be included in children’s book and not available to children.
My sister, a parent of two, said she did not see anything wrong with the book in the library; however a book like Uncle Bobby should not be part of a school’s curriculum.
Hmmmm. Perhaps, that will be the next topic of my informal survey.
to be continued....
1 comment:
hey denise, it is always shocking for me to hear people i think are open minded say conservative things like this.
this reminded me of a personal story, maybe its not exactly related, BUT, when I was a kid my mother told my dad not to teach me spanish, because she thought it would "confuse me", but learning a second language at a young age is awesome! and now i don't speak spanish! I guess the more you know - the better (NBC PSA?)
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