Some people never learn, including some who unsuccessfully run for the local school board.
The voters last year rejected Eric Grow’s candidacy for Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp. board, but Grow remains on a mission. Grow recently shared a list of 400 or so books on what used to serve as the Facebook page for his school board campaign. He thinks maybe we ought to ban or restrict books in BCSC’s libraries.
Grow’s list of books contains checklists for categories of naughty bits or ideas that don’t align with his world view, so that in one way or another, they are rendered objectionable. By Eric Grow.
This kind of thing is exhausting. You would think Grow has better things to do than try to control what can be read by children who are not his. Our schools have professional librarians who abide by standards and answer to the school board Grow wasn’t elected to, but he still knows better than the voters and kids’ own parents, apparently.
“Unfortunately, some of the books available in BCSC libraries are a cause for concern and highlight the need for improvement in the review process for library materials,” he said in a story reported Sunday by The Republic’s Jana Wiersema. “This is a pressing issue that deserves the attention of our community, and I hope we bring it to the forefront of public discussion.”
OK. Let’s do that. We’ll start with this: Who appointed Grow to be the arbiter of anything? It sure wasn’t the voters.
If Grow wants to be a busybody, that’s his business, but that doesn’t make it anyone else’s. When Grow says about books in school libraries, “this is a pressing issue that deserves the attention of our community,” we say baloney.
Let us state without qualification that we have never viewed a kid reading a book as something to fret about.
We are concerned, though, that too many people in this community and this country condemn others for what they choose to read, or want to take books out of the hands of kids because they don’t like something about them. That is the “pressing issue that deserves the attention of our community,” because frankly, such attitudes are un-American.
Fact is, some of the books on Grow’s list are masterpieces. Let’s talk about just one of them, “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee. This book has been taught as American literature to generations of schoolchildren from grade six on up, depending on student readers’ comprehension and maturity levels.
On Grow’s list, though, the only remarkable thing about “To Kill a Mockingbird” is that it contains “sexual content,” “violence” and “derogatory terms”.
To which we say, so what? Great works do. The Bible does. Life does.
“To Kill a Mockingbird” is a story about standing up for what is right, among other things. It’s also about how innocent children view the corruption of the adult world. It’s also about the human tendency to vilify those unlike us.
We encourage anyone who can read and understand “To Kill a Mockingbird” to do so.
But we can’t understand why anyone would want to restrict the reading options of children who, with parental and qualified school guidance, are mature enough to read, comprehend and choose for themselves.
For heaven’s sake, how else do we expect young people to learn and grow?
