Rou

Maybe it will go away?

That seems to be the logic behind one mothers crusade. In my ongoing coverage of the “Think of the Children ™” campaign, we have this latest entry. A mother in Daytona Beach is upset at the required reading for her child’s class. Now, to preface this, the teenager is in 11th grade. Makes her 17 years old or so. Keep that in mind. She’s in the International Baccalaureate program at her high school. Basically, the really smart kids, k?

They were assigned a book written about the caste system in 1940’s India called "Cracking India". It’s a fairly autobiographical account of life in India during that period. It's critically acclaimed and thought to be very fairly provocative on many levels, if not always entirely historically accurate.

Over 4 pages, there are two passages that really bother our little censor of the year candidate. Apparently one passage talks about a girl being propositioned for a blowjob, which she refuses to give. And the other describes the characters teenage fantasies. Both are slightly graphic in nature, though neither offers anything that could be considered stimulating, particularly given their brevity.

Apparently, mother-may-I seems to think that qualifies the book as instant pr0n, and is raising a cry to have the book banned from school. Now, first off… if you really believe your 17 year old honor student hasn’t at some point figured out what a blowjob is… kill yourself because you’re a bad parent. 1 child out of billion may grow up that innocent in this day an age. In fact, doesn’t your school have sex-ed? They should have taught the kids about sex then. My school did it in 9th and 11th grade. They probably mentioned giving head at some point in there.

Secondly, it’s not like this is hardcore sex or anything. It’s 2 passages that span a total of less than four pages. Maybe you need to re-evaluate your definition of pr0n, k?

Third, it’s an INTERNATIONAL book. I know this may come a shock to your puritan family values or whatever, but the rest of the world doesn’t consider sex to be evil. In fact, many of them consider it natural and beautiful. Think about that for a second. Now, consider you’ve enrolled your child into an INTERNATIONAL Baccalaureate program at her High School. Think the two might be related?

I just don’t get this sort of thing. Banning books from schools is like drawing the blinds across your child’s eyes. I suppose some parents would like that, but you’re just crippling a child’s education for very little gain. Its crazy. You want your child to make good informed decisions? You have to let them learn. Trying to pretend sex doesn’t exist doesn’t make it go away. Nor does it make it more likely that your 17 year old daughter doesn’t already know about the concept of a blowjob. Leave the books alone.