by J. Brown

Created on: September 08, 2009

No, books should not have ratings applied to their content. In every form of media rating, systems will be different depending on who is rating them. One cultural sphere will not find certain material offensive that another may think absolutely inappropriate. Having a rating system for books and their content in this way would cause conflicts that are unnecessary and can be easily avoided by not applying a rating system at all.

Rating systems are particularly unnecessary when applied to books because authors don't traditionally write about subjects or include content in their novels with the intention of being offensive to anyone. While parents may not want their children reading about certain material, it is not necessary to make this the main point of focus when deciding which book to purchase. That's why there are sections included in nearly every bookstore specifically for children and young adults. They try to make it easy for you.

Any experienced and careful parent knows how to exclude potentially harmful literature from their childrens' collections without the use of a rating system.

Finally, the material included in any given novel that could be deemed "offensive" or "inappropriate" can often be part of the author's strategy for the reader to better understand the underlying ideas they want to relate to their audience.

Instead of looking at the world as a parent and saying, "What can I keep away from my child?" perhaps we should encourage the question, "How can I discuss this with my child to help them better understand?". This not only helps the child be more knowledgeable about the world in a positive way, it helps strengthen the parent-child bond and establish the parent as a figure of positive authority open for discussions and communication. In stopping the flow of communication we are also discouraging learning and discussions.

In order to raise a healthy person with honest informed opinions on a variety of subjects discussed on a deep level, the parent has to be the example first. A world where children learn to cut things out of their lives for fear of communicating uncomfortable subjects and viewing potentially offensive material is a world where humans are less understanding and accepting. That is a world where "different" and "uncomfortable" are censored out instead of being discussed and accepted as another viewpoint that does not need to be accepted by everyone.

Looking at literature that pushes boundaries a little is a start at looking at and being tolerant of other things that push cultural boundaries a little like homosexuality, different cultural practices and systems, and most importantly different points of view about "touchy" topics that cause a good majority of conflicts in the world today. Dealing with these issues are dealing with the issues of the world today.

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