Posted on 06/06/2006 5:57:12 PM PDT by wagglebee
During the lazy, long, hot days of summer, which activity would you rather see your son or daughter engaged in – playing a video game or reading a book?
A silly question, right? After all, nearly every parent will say, "Reading a book." But whether that's truly the better activity depends on what book your child is reading. And as I've told readers of this column before, plenty of books designed for today's pre-teens and teenagers undermine the traditional moral values most parents struggle to teach their children.
This time of year, kids of all ages come home with the oft-dreaded "Summer Reading List" from which they make their choices. Many of the lists are created from the recommended reading lists of the American Library Association.
The first time I pulled such a list from my son's backpack, I was struck by the lack of classics, or even recognizable authors or titles. Today's lists are even more bothersome – you'll be hard-pressed to find a classic by Mark Twain, Jules Verne or Charles Dickens on an ALA list, but on the ALA's "2006 Notable Children's Books" you can find "Totally Joe" by James Howe. "Joe knows he is gay," the ALA notes. "During his eighth-grade year, an English journaling assignment helps him express his growing self-awareness."
Many of the books from the recommended lists are filled with perverted "love" stories, sexual activity and crude behavior – anything and everything, it seems, to get our kids' hormones heated up for the summer (as if they need any help). Of course, if you're going to challenge authorities or librarians about the appropriateness of such material for kids, as one of my readers did, be prepared to be labeled a "right wing crusader."
If you decide to forego an ALA list and instead head to your local bookstore for a selection, awaiting you front-and-center in the "Teens" section you'll find the "Gossip Girl" series by Cecily von Ziegesar. She's written more than a half dozen volumes, which offer, according to one blurb review on the back covers, "'Sex and the City' for the younger set." Readers see the characters "drown in luxury while indulging in [their] favorite sports – jealousy, betrayal and late-night bar-hopping." In one volume, "I Like It Like That," the cast is on spring break, heading to Sun Valley "for plenty of après-ski hot-tub fun" and gossip about "who's sleeping where."
As for whether to remain a virgin, a main young female character admits that's a toughie: "Do we do something about it now, with a boy we've known for years? Do we get rid of it over spring break? Over the summer? Or do we settle into our dorm rooms just as we are, bold but innocent, and ready to lose it with the first campus player to say, 'Come hither'?"
I wish I could say such books are exceptions. Unfortunately, "Gossip Girls" is one of the nation's hottest-selling series for young teen girls. And, popular or not, unsuspecting parents and students just trying to use their time wisely settle in with other titles just because their school made the recommendation.
As I note in my book, "Home Invasion," we parents have to beware. As Annabelle Corrick Beach, author of "Illusions of Spring," reminds us, "It is parents who are on the front lines and need to commandeer their children through the maze of choices that they face." Too many educators, writers and moviemakers have abdicated their responsibilities, she said, so "the burden on parents is much greater than it otherwise would be."
This heavier burden is no accident, according to Beach:
While working for two and a half years in a K-12 school library system, I attended ALA-sponsored workshops in which children's librarians were encouraged not to make any value judgments about the content of materials. Children were supposed to have the "freedom" to read whatever they wanted to read. In my library for emotionally challenged students, we knew better than that. Books containing violence, aggression, foul language and explicitness were not selected. The books previewed in the library meetings, however, often contained those negative elements. From what the students told me about the books and movies they'd been exposed to previously, it was obvious to me that those types of materials had not been entirely beneficial. They really wanted to know that someone cared enough about them to present them with positive materials.
So if your children prefer books to video games, great – but monitor what they read. Contact the Association of Christian Librarians or the Christian Library Journal and view their recommendations. Talk with other parents who share your values. And, for goodness sake, spend the extra time to preview books before handing them to your impressionable young children.
Don't forget that your child notices what you read, too. Throw out the trashy women's magazines and sleaze novels and opt for material you'd be comfortable for your child to stumble across. If you're into love stories, I highly recommend Beach's "Illusions of Spring." Beach proves that modern romance novels can be exciting, mysterious and moral – all at the same time. What a novel concept!
DISCUSSION ABOUT:
Beware teen summer-reading lists
A must read for parents!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To be included in or removed from the MORAL ABSOLUTES PINGLIST, please FReepMail wagglebee.
To be included in or removed from the HOMOSEXUAL AGENDA PINGLIST, please FReepMail either DBeers or DirtyHarryY2K.
HOMESCHOOL PING
"plenty of books designed for today's pre-teens and teenagers undermine the traditional moral values..."
And "Grand Theft-Auto" does not? Get real. I'd rather have my kids reading any day.
People need to reorganize their priorities, stop supporting democrat voting UAW workers by buying new cars and pay for private school tuition instead.
Get 2 jobs if you have to, anything but subject the children you love to the insane socialist perverts at your local public school.
Son is getting Ann Coulter's new book tomorrow. He is actually upset I ordered it online rather than getting it in the local store so he could have it today.
Does that count?
(Although he will have it read by the end of the week).
I went to a Catholic high school, and ever summer we had about 6 or 8 books we had to have read by the time school began again in September. We had to choose them from a larger list. I had a good friend whose mom read each book before she let my friend read them. She didn't even trust the nuns!! Well she had the right idea.
Perhaps we should dust off the "contributing to the delinquency of a minor" statutes and apply them.
The other title that sticks out? "Angels and Demons" for the 12th graders. Hmmmmmm.
TS
(Oh, just remembered "Inherit the Wind" was ther for 11th grade. She read it in class a month and a half ago in 8th grade.)
"Are you there God? It's me Margaret."
The American Library Association gives out awards each year (including the Newbery Medal) that are very influential with teachers. Particularly in the past few years, awards have gone to books that really are unfit. Keep in mind that the people giving out these awards are the same folks who refused to cooperate with the Patriot Act. As a group, they are liberal mutton-heads.
Okay, now you got me. What the heck was his name on that show? It wasn't Kinch, it wasn't LeBeau...
Newkirk.
Thanks! I could never have come up with that!
And, oh, back to the theme of the thread, young teens who love action and suspense should read the Alex Rider novels (starting with STORMBREAKER) by Anthony Horowitz.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.