Okay, I finally had a chance to speak with my principal about the banned book, Blubber. As I expected, she listened carefully and agreed with me that we can't remove a book every time a parent complains. I explained the need to develop a district wide selection policy and a uniform method of handling complaints.
When a parent complains about a book in the library, the A.L.A. recommends that we listen attentively to the parent. After all, parents are taxpayers and have a right to air their opinions. Then we give them a copy of our selection policy explaining the criteria used in selecting books for the library. Finally, we give them a complaint form to fill out. Usually the complaint form asks for the title, author, if the person represents a group or sect, has he/she read the entire book and, if so, could he please summarize it. A reconsideration form should also ask the complainer to explain what he didn't like about the book, why he feels it should be removed from the library, if he's aware of what the critics had to say about the book and so on. Usually a reconsideration form is too much bother for most people. In fact, when the complainer gets to the question about whether or not he's read the entire book, he usually stops. The truth is, most of the people who have complaints about library books and materials haven't read the whole book. They usually stop reading when they reach the part they don't like.
Funny, I learned that most of the upper grade teachers (grades 3-6) have a copy of Blubber in their classroom library and, in fact, our school Prevention program uses Blubber when addressing issues of bullying.
Anyhow, I am relieved. Yay for intellectual freedom and First Amendment rights!
5 comments:
Yay! Good for you! I have to confess that I started laughing when I read all the questions they had to answer. It's so obvious that most people wouldn't get past the "have you read the whole book" question.
Very clever (and deliciously sneaky, too)
I'm new to this discussion but...bravo to you! I also like the "have you read the entire book" and "please summarize" part of the questionnaire.
Double-yay! Congratulations--for talking to the principal about the book and for having her agree with you.
I love the "reconsideration" form.
Thanks! Reconsideration forms are actually standard procedure for dealing with potential censors. It's just that our district didn't have one, hence the problem. All school libraries need to establish a standardized way of dealing with complaints otherwise you leave the door open for trouble.
very interesting. It's good to hear from someone in the front lines so to speak in this kind of experience. I wondered how it worked.
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