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| Yes | 38% | 106 votes | Total: 276 votes | |
| No | 62% | 170 votes |
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Add to FavoritesShould public schools allow adult reading materials for their students? My answer is and always will be no. Public schools are suppose to aid in the development of young minds, by aiding them in becoming productive members of society! They should not be allowed to corrupt, and contaminate their impressionable young minds.
1) In a previous article concerning the effect of cartoon violence on children, I conducted with my fellow classmates an at home assignment. Mrs Sculler told us to record the number of times the cartoon characters committed violent acts. The violent acts committed by them was very numerous.
2) In a Reader's Digest article, they discovered that people who continually watch violence over television were more likely to commit violent acts against society than those who did not several years latter.
3) It is a well prov en fact: people who have access to both soft and hard core pornography through Internet sites, magazines, books and adult entertainment and stores are much more likely to become sexual predators. The vast majority of sexual predators are not able to become rehabilitated and are much more likely to become repeat offenders according the Department of Corrections and law enforcement agencies.
4) In Oregon there was a debate between Christian and non Christian parents about allowing Harry Potter books in their public schools while banning religious material. The Christian parents lost-those in favor of Harry Potter won. God is banished from the public school system while Satan is accepted with wide open welcome arms!
5) Filters on television and the Internet can only go so far. If a talented young person wanted to bypass parental blocks they probably would be able to do so. Parents and educators should not have any material in their private residences or public schools that contain adult material. To do so would send a mixed message to our children: "Do as I say, not as I do."
6) Other Helium writers have argued that public libraries mean public access. Currently children are allowed to check out inappropriate adult material. Parents cannot be every where at once, neither can instructors. However they can be guided by parents and librarians to the children's section of the library.
7) Television advertisement for the home instruction material for younger children do not offer adult learning material for them. They appeal to parents' inner needs to make sure their children are properly educated. Leap Frog and Hooked on Phonics are two very popular learning materials being offered by companies that specialize in the constructive development of young impressionable minds. Shouldn't parents and educators follow their examples?
8) A young mother wrote on Helium about the cartoon adult sexual material being offered to her young children at her school. Although the teacher never read the material herself, she deemed it acceptable. Her daughter did not and her fellow students were probably shocked. The book contained sexual activity between two young teens!
9) Another Helium parent and educator found the book fat boys always win to be an endorsement of the homo-sexual life style. What ever happened to the reading material that I and other children grew up with? When I was younger subjecting us to adult material was not considered.
Yes, we had classes in sex education: in junior high not grade school. The teachers tried to warn us about drug abuse and the consequences of having sex before adulthood.
10) Movies have various ratings: General, Parental Guidance, and PG 13, and R rated movies. Yes, I am aware that young children and parents watch such objectionable movies. But at least they have rating systems: books, and records, and magazines etc. should also contain warnings.
11) Educators and parents should ask themselves: What type of mixed messages are we sending our children? Do we want them to contribute to society or become institutionalized behind closed doors? Do we want our children to think that entering the World of Harry Potter and other occult material is safe and harmless? No, of course not!
Learn more about this author, Roxanne Dubarry.
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No
I tend to start most of my articles contesting the debate in hand and this one is no different. I think my primary reason for answering on the NO side is that I do not really understand what 'adult subjects' might be. Everyone's idea of an 'adult subject' is of course different. If we are discussing pornography books with explicit pictures then ok, that's a bit too far, but if we are discussing novels with themes that are controversial - racism, homosexuality, sexism and similar political issues - then my answer is most definitely NO. The point is that what I deem as appropriate another person may deem as inappropriate. Therefore the schools will never be able to satisfy all parents.
I have written other related article debates in which my conclusion is nearly always the same; discussion over censorship. Children should have the right to choose for themselves what they read. If the subject is complicated or complex then adults or teachers should discuss it with them. For example, I read George Orwell's Animal Farm at school for my GCSEs (aged 15-16). I would deem this material as dealing with adult issues i.e. political revolution, communism, fascism etc. Does this mean I should have read it when I was 18. Of course not, I learnt a great deal from reading the book at that age. In fact I would encourage my own children (when I have some) to read Animal Farm when they are even younger, maybe even ten. I look forward to discussing the issues with them and debating what we think about them.
The whole point of schooling children is to educate. Educating happens through discussion, debate, understanding, critiquing etc. There is no point in trying to protect a child from the big bad world of adults' because one day these children will be adults. The more they understand the issues being contested in the books they read, the more the will be able to confront the world of adulthood when they reach it.
Another belief of mine is that children should grow up forming their own opinions. As a parent I would be fully ready to admit that my beliefs are principles are not universal. In my own childhood my sister and I attended church with my mum. Despite going to church every week my parents gave us the room to form our own decisions and due to this I made my own choice that I don't believe in God. Being honest I think that schools do not introduce adult subjects' early enough. Introducing complex situations to young children (in a manner appropriate to their age group) will help them become mature and responsible adults.
Adult life is about choices. When you are a child you officially' have none because your parents legally can make decisions for you. When you become an adult you are immediately faced with choices about where to live, whether to go to college or university, when to settle down, what job to get etc. For a young adult to understand how to make choices they must have had some experience at making them as a child. Censorship takes away the right of choice. Saying you cannot read that book because it is blasphemous, because it involves slavery, because it's about a gay couple and so on takes away the child's ability to develop the complex decisions involved in making choices. However if those books are available and are then discussed the child practices the art of choosing whether they believe in the issues the book raises, who they think it is aimed at, why the author chose these issues and so on. If a parent does not think a child should read something but they want to I would say let them and simply dicuss with them why you would prefer they didn't. If it turns out they did not deem the book appropriate for themselves after reading then they will learn for next time they choose a book. The key words here are discussion, maturity, choices and learning. Censorship devalues all of these vital things needed to be a responsible adult.
Learn more about this author, Helen Abbott.
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