Book Banning

I never thought that I would have to write letters against book banning in my own community, but this is the second time within six months that I have had to voice my objections. I stand firmly against book banning in my professional world and in my family life.


Dear School Board Members:


I am writing to once again express my dismay and to object to the removal of a book from the high school curriculum. After reading about the pulling of "Water for Elephants" from a high school intercession program in the local paper and after reviewing the offending passage online, I am concerned about the education this public school system is setting up for my elementary school student. "Water for Elephants," like "Nickel and Dimed," is a best-selling book for which a place in the curriculum easily can be argued. As I wrote in my first email to you in December, it is vital that our kids are given the opportunity to read as much as they possibly can. By the time boys and girls are teenagers, we are (or should be) preparing them to deal with the realities of the world and not sheltering them as we did when they were elementary school students. Great literature has always described sex, war, poverty, religion and other subjects that some may find objectionable. Such books give us a broad scope of the world to increase our understanding of the activities of mankind so that we may make well-informed decisions grounded in knowledge of diversity. It is a parent's job to discuss things they consider objectionable with their children and it is the school's job to introduce materials that make students think.

Please stop removing books from the curriculum, aborting our teachers' capacity to broaden our kids' horizons. Please stop curtailing my child's right to read.


Melissa Mannon