Strollerderby : censorship

Heather Has Two Mommies = "Adult Content"?

Miriam Axel-Lute — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 19:30:00 GMT

"Protecting" children (and adults with paper-thin sensibilities) by hiding/filtering/censoring content deemed "adult" has a long history of not working very well. My mother was a children's librarian for a long time in a town in Essex County, NJ, and remembers when the filtering software blocked searches of kids trying to research their county government.

But it takes an ambitious effort to fail quite as spectacularly has Amazon has in its attempts to remove the sales ranking from books deemed "adult." (via Jezebel). (Sales ranking determines placement in searches and inclusion in the recommendation alogrithms, which is why it matters.)

If this just covered hardcore porn DVDs, there would likely have been not much outrage. But the curious decision-making process determining what is labeled adult appears to be (1) wildly broad, yet inconsistent and (2) extremely anti-gay. Petitions have been started and customer service lines flooded. The charge of it being a "glitch" has been dismissed outright.

Parents, in particular, may be surprised and troubled to learn that while heterosexual porn (books of Playboy pinups, for example) and sex toys have not been affected, the classic children's book Heather Has Two Mommies, a history of gay rights written for teens, and a book about anti-gay bullying in high school were disappeared (at least for a while — as of this writing, Heather's sales rank has been returned. It seems the ranks are coming and going with some frequency).

But never fear, The Parents Guide to Preventing Homosexuality has so far stayed ranked and available.

What do think? Is this a well-meaning algorithm gone wrong, an underlying problem about tagging everything GLBT with "sexuality," or flat-out prudish homophobia? Have you been afraid of what your children might find on Amazon? And now, how about what they might not find?

More by this author:

Steve Martin Funds Banned High School Production of his Play

Brett Singer — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 03:40:00 GMT

I always liked Steve Martin. One of my first R-rated movies was "The Jerk," and I listened to his comedy albums "Comedy Is Not Pretty" and "A Wild and Crazy Guy" over and over again. (Two words - cat juggling.)

More recently, Steve (he lets me call him Steve - well, we've never met, but I think he'd let me call him Steve. Maybe.) has written a few plays, including "Picasso at the Lapin Agile", which ran Off-Broadway for awhile and has since had many productions around the world. Students at LaGrande High School in Oregon were rehearsing the play when 137 people signed a petition protesting the show. In a bold move, the school stopped the rehearsals.

So Steve (for now, I'll just call him Steve, OK?) offered to pay for a production off campus, far from the reach of the long arm of the educational law.

What was the perceived problem with the show? It features "people drinking in bars, and treating women as sex objects." Now, far be it from me to tell a local high school what they should and should not allow on their stages. But any Shakespearean tragedy features murder. Does that mean it can't be performed? How about the perennial high school musical favorite "The Pajama Game"? Unions. And we all know that "union" is code for "communism."

Steve wrote a letter to the local paper defending his work.

"Because of the controversy, I recently reread the play, and, frankly, I could understand how some parents might object to certain lines if they were to be delivered by a 16- or 17-year-old. Yet I do believe that the spirit of the play and its endorsement of the arts and sciences are appropriate for young eyes and minds.
"So while the question of whether students should perform the play at their high school remains something to be determined by the community, I firmly believe that seeing the play will bring no harm to them and might well uplift them — and acting in the play, if they are permitted by their parents, would also bring them no harm, and may help them to understand the potency, power and beauty of the arts and sciences."

The fact that he decided to go the extra mile and go all "Hamlet 2" and rent a theater off campus is kind of amazing. On the one hand, why should he care? On the other hand, if he believes in freedom of expression, why not put his money where his mouth is?

I bet the students are pretty excited. I know I would be.

Source: The Onion AV Club

GMA Tweets Details On Levi Johnston And Son

Oprah Gets It Right On Chris Brown

Letting Kids See Watchmen

RENT Too Risqué For Some Schools

Brett Singer — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 18:30:00 GMT

"Milk" may have won two Oscars (Sean Penn for Best Actor, Dustin Lance Black for Best Original Screenplay) but homosexuality is still a taboo topic at many U.S. schools. Case in point: "RENT: School Edition", a toned down version of the hit Broadway musical that closed last September. Three productions have been canceled due to "objections about the show’s morality, its portrayals of homosexuality and theft, and its frank discussions of drug use and H.I.V." In other words, gay people still make folks uncomfortable.

Growing up in New York City and attending the High School of Performing Arts, my view of the world was a bit skewed. It's easy to forget how intolerant some parts of the country can be. What, pray tell, is everyone so afraid of?

Then there is the question of artistic merit. Do these people really want to sit through an amateur production of "High School Musical" at their local high school? The real thing is unbearable. Imagine "Getcha Head In The Game" sung by squeaky voiced adolescents who are just entering puberty. At least "RENT" has some terrific music. And they already toned down the naughty bits! C'mon folks. It's a new age. Give "RENT" a chance.

Source: NY Times

Image: Amazon

Cookie Monster Cupcake

Kid Forced To Stand In Public Square For Bad Grades

VIDEO-Obama Kids Say DC Schools Are Wimpy

Brett Singer — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 23:30:00 GMT

That's not exactly what they said… well, actually it kind of is. And as a New York parent (formerly a New York kid) I think I even agree. (In a joking way, of course. More on that later.)

The President, during a light-hearted moment at a meeting with business leaders the other day (this was before he spoke out against Wall Street bonuses; I doubt the mood would have been so cordial if it was after that), made a comment about Sasha and Malia's school being closed:

"As my children pointed out, in Chicago school is never canceled. In fact my seven-year-old pointed out that you'd go outside for recess. You wouldn't even stay indoors. So, it's--I don't know, we're going to have to try to apply some flinty Chicago toughness."

In one of my first posts for Babble almost a year ago, I wondered if my children would ever have a snow day. The answer, sadly (sad for them, good for me), is that they may never experience the joy of "NO SCHOOL TODAY!" But while part of the reason could be global warming related, some of it is just that New York schools rarely close for weather.

Note: obviously, I don't really think that DC schools are wimpy, and I don't think the President does either. The President's comments were not warmly received by many in the DC area, but I really think he was making a joke. (Kind of like me saying "warmly" received. Get it? G'night, ladies and germs.) And of course it snows a lot more in other parts of New York State.

Also: I hate to keep repeating myself, but I'm still impressed at how at ease Obama seems to be, and how much like a "regular dad" he is. Granted, if his kids have to stay home from school, he's not the one who has to hang out and play board games with them. But he's not exactly removed from the situation either. He appears to be a parent who is involved with his kids. I like that.

Aside: what's the over-under on how many comments are left before someone posts something about Obama's birth certificate? One? Two?

Source: Politico

Paging NY State Education: It Snows There

Babble Podcast for January 26, 2009 (now with a working player)

VIDEO: O'Reilly Upset About Two Year Old Bashing Bush

Morning News - Obama, Limbaugh, Cheese

Sasha and Malia Get Bored

Obama Wants Kids To Have a Normal Life – Good Luck With That

Sasha and Malia Beanie Baby Dolls

Morning News – Drunken Jokers With Bionic Limbs And Flying Cars

Brett Singer — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 14:00:00 GMT

Happy Friday, everyone!

Comments on yesterday's Morning News got pretty heated. I considered doing nothing but stories about puppies, rainbows and sunshine today, but decided that was no fun. And as it turns out, the "Crossfire"-esque commenting has morphed into an interesting back and forth between persons of differing political persuasions. Thank you to everyone from both sides of the aisle who weighed in; check out the debate here.

Diane Sawyer appeared to be drunk during the Inauguration coverage on ABC. Was she celebrating Obama's victory? Is she a McCain voter trying to forget? No one knows. While it's not completely certain that she was nipping at the sauce, this video makes a darn good case for it.

Caroline Kennedy (Schlossberg) did indeed bail on her quest to be a Senator without the hassle of actually winning an election. The New York Times is reporting that "Problems involving taxes and a household employee" were uncovered during the vetting process, so she bowed out. Whenever information like this is "suddenly" discovered, I always wonder how it is that nobody knew about it until it was too late. As in, Ms. Kennedy (Schlossberg) must have known that she had a tax issue, right? Also, it's still unclear if New York Governor David Paterson would have picked Kennedy (Schlossberg) or not. Um, it kind of doesn't matter anymore, folks. Let it go. Paterson will reportedly announce his choice today; convention wisdom says Andrew "HUD? What's a HUD?" Cuomo will get Hillary Clinton's old seat. (Hillary is now officially Secretary of State, by the way – she started work yesterday.) UPDATE: I was wrong, wrong, wrong -- the Times is reporting that Governor Paterson has selected Kirsten Gillibrand as Hillary Clinton's replacement in the Senate. Ms. Gillibrand is a congresswoman from upstate NY who is mother to two young children and has been endorsed by the National Rifle Association, according to the Times. I'm mentioning the mom thing because this is a parenting web site, and the NRA endorsement because that makes her a potentially controversial choice, since most Democrats aren't big NRA folks. (Gillibrand's official bio page is getting jammed with web traffic, but here's Google's cached version.)

Interesting tidbit about the Roberts Oath Flub (Flubgate, anyone?) – a certain Senator Barack Obama voted against the Chief Justice's confirmation in 2005.

In business news, the Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating the "conflicting reports" regarding Steve Jobs health. First he said he wasn't that sick, then he said he was leaving for six months, blah blah blah. Personally, I thought "hormone imbalance" sounded pretty serious when it was first announced. If only the SEC had been equally diligent about Bernie Madoff, poor Kevin Bacon wouldn't be reading the script for "Footloose 2". (I'm only joking about "Footloose 2." I hope. Kevin is looking for work though, so if you hear of anything, give him a ring.)

A very cool medical story from England: 19-year-old British college student Evan Reynolds now has a bionic hand. Reynolds lost his appendage three years ago, and can operate his new prosthetic limb by thought. ''It's so sensitive I can grip a bottle of water or a paper cup without crushing it and even swing a racket," he says. ''All I have to do is imagine picking something up or gripping it and the fingers and thumb move automatically." Like I said: very cool.

Oh, and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced the nominations for the 81st Academy Awards. Some were surprised that Heath Ledger got a Best Supporting Actor nod for his performance as The Joker in "The Dark Knight", but the real surprise to me was Robert Downey Jr.'s nomination for "Tropic Thunder." Not only is it a comedy, it was also a controversial one as I recall (that whole "retard" thing). Personally, I think Ledger will win. If he does, it won't be undeserved -- he gave an incredible performance. Brad Brevet says that Kate Winslet's nomination for "The Reader" is "fishy"; I admit that I couldn't read the full post, which actually quotes Academy voting rules. I was surprised that Clint Eastwood didn't get some love for "Gran Torino," but hey, you can't win 'em all.

The mother who named one of her children Adolf Hitler wants her kids back. "The parents insist they're not racists and want only to honor the heritage of the Third Reich," says the Daily News. What can one say to that?

Finally, someone has actually made a flying car! Terrafugia, the company that makes the vehicle (called the "Transition") calls it a "roadable aircraft," which doesn't exactly trip off the tongue. It goes 500 miles on a full tank of regular unleaded gasoline, and features folding wings. Bottom line: IT IS A CAR THAT FLIES. It also costs $194,000 and probably requires a good-sized garage with access to a ready supply of fuel. So it's not exactly ready for mass consumption. However, IT IS A CAR THAT FLIES. Did I mention that?

Have a great weekend!

Image: Times Online

(Late) Morning News: Finally!

Sasha and Malia Get Bored

Live Inaugural Tweets From A Working Mom, And Video

A Prom? At the White House? Awesome!

Video and Pics: Lego Inauguration

Malia & Sasha Obama Sporting Some Recessionista Style

Obama/Spider-man Comic Book Sold Out, Reprint Planned

Sarah Palin Says Leave My Kids Alone

Obama Wants Kids To Have a Normal Life – Good Luck With That

Sasha and Malia Beanie Baby Dolls

Morning News - Obama, Limbaugh, Cheese

Brett Singer — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 14:00:00 GMT

Hello and welcome to Morning News! I'll be your Morning Newsperson for today, and possibly for tomorrow as well. Madeline will return after that.

I don't know if you heard anything about it, but we had one of those peaceful transfers of power on Tuesday. We do it every four years whether we want to or not. This time around there was a tad more pomp and circumstance, with 10 Inaugural Balls. I only saw the Neighborhood Ball, where Jay-Z had the most powerful performance of the night; Sting also sang well but looked like he slept in an alley. Note to Gordon Sumner: if you are performing at a public event of this magnitude, at least TRIM the beard, 'k?

Adorable first daughters Sasha and Malia spent the big night watching "High School Musical 3" and getting a scavenger hunt-tour of the White House; the final clue led them to the real-life Jonas Brothers, who were hiding in a closet. So much for that normal childhood thing. Today it's back to school for both; they were allowed to sleep in on Wednesday.

President Obama did not take the day of and got right to work on Wednesday, signing executive orders to close Guantánamo Bay "within a year", and also putting a freeze on salaries for many White House aides. Smart move -- in this economy, he's not likely to lose anyone to the private sector.

Speaking of the economy, the financial markets ended the day up slightly after a big drop on Inauguration Day. Some say this is because "the market" doesn't like our new President, others blame "macro forces", and use big scary finance words that I don't fully understand. Bottom line: the economy still sucks, and it's going to take time for it to recover.

Folks who thought Sarah Palin would shrink from view after the election were wrong, wrong, wrong. The AP has an article about how the Alaska Governor would like some privacy for her children and the L.A. Times reports on a new energy plan she is proposing in the Alaska State legislature. Bonus: if you read the comments you will see that Palin still has plenty of supporters out there. Palin 2012, anyone?

In other political news, Caroline Kennedy may or may not have withdrawn from the race to replace Hillary Clinton as the junior Senator from New York. (Is it a race if its just one guy deciding who wins?) The New York Post (an ultra-conservative tabloid owned Rupert "Fox News" Murdoch) is reporting that Kennedy (what happened to "Kennedy Schlossberg?") pulled herself out of the running because she heard that New York Governor David "SNL Hasn't Been Funny Since John Belushi Left" Paterson was going to pick someone else. BUT the New York Daily News (a less conservative tabloid owned by Mort "I Gave My Money to Bernie Madoff and All I Got Was This Lousy T-shirt" Zuckerman) is reporting that sources close to Caroline whose last names are also Kennedy say that she hasn't dropped out at all. UPDATE: NY1 is reporting that it is indeed official -- Caroline Kennedy will not take Hillary Clinton's place in the Senate. Whether or not she will start using the last name "Schlossberg" again has not been determined. In the words of the great Kent Brockman, only time will tell.

Glenn Harlan Reynolds writes in the Wall Street Journal that he appreciates the "tone" our newly minted President has displayed; Reynolds says that by "reaching out to conservative columnists, and by going out of his way to say that he thinks George W. Bush is 'a good man,' Mr. Obama has made some efforts to transcend the nastiness that has emanated from much of the Democratic Party over the past eight years." Hey, if Obama can be gracious about Chief Justice Roberts messing up the Oath of Office, I think he can be kind to just about anyone. (The President re-took the Oath, by the way. Can't be too careful these days.)

Speaking of nastiness, conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh isn't hopping on the Peace Train. He says that he has four words to describe how he feels about the leader of the free world: "I hope he fails." No really, that's what he said. Listen in:

And just to get away from politics and all things Inaugural, we leave you with this: French officials are investigating a possible scam by a woman in Paris who was selling "magic cheese" that she claimed could be used as cosmetics. Those French. Always good for a laugh.

Read more:

(Late) Morning News: Finally!

Sasha and Malia Get Bored

Live Inaugural Tweets From A Working Mom, And Video

A Prom? At the White House? Awesome!

Video and Pics: Lego Inauguration

Malia & Sasha Obama Sporting Some Recessionista Style

Obama/Spider-man Comic Book Sold Out, Reprint Planned

Sarah Palin Says Leave My Kids Alone

Obama Wants Kids To Have a Normal Life – Good Luck With That

Sasha and Malia Get Bored

Brett Singer — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 20:00:00 GMT

One of the things I've grown to like about the Obamas is that I find them relatable as a family. Barack and Michelle take the kids to school in the morning. They appear to be involved in their daughter's lives in a positive way. The girls give their dad a hard time. It's very sweet.

Adding to their overall normalness, Sasha and Malia got bored at the HBO Concert on Sunday. From NYMag.com:

"…while our president-elect, seated stage right, showed steely resolve by nodding and singing along through even the most terrible performances, heroes Sasha and Malia Obama bravely broadcast their non-enjoyment by looking completely bored (Malia) or falling asleep on their mom's lap (Sasha)."

New York Magazine even calls the First Daughters "America’s Adorable New Statler and Waldorf." Cute.

In other Sasha and Malia at the HBO Concert news:

- Sasha was seen "squirming and then having a chat with Michelle before they both disappeared for the duration of John Mellencamp’s 'Ain’t That America.' We’re guessing potty break." (It also doesn't appear to be a song that she cares too much about, although both are reportedly "big fans of Beyoncé, Usher, and Kal Penn.")
- Denzel Washington waved to the girls after his speech.
- "Michelle tried unsuccessfully to get Malia and Sasha to sing along" to Garth Brooks’s censored rendition of "American Pie" ("good ol' boys SINGING whiskey and rye"? I don't think so.) NYMag says, "Think it’s a little before their time?" Maybe, but my 3 year old knows that tune.

Anyway, for the moment, I can't get enough of these two kids. It'll fade but let's enjoy it for now.

Source: NYMag (1, 2)

Inauguration Coverage Information

Linda Ellerbee Says Kids Should Skip School To Watch Inauguration

Parents Criticize Schools for Celebrating Inauguration

Obama/Spider-man Comic Book Sold Out, Reprint Planned

Obama Says His Kids Are Cooler Than He Is

The Obama Kids First Day Of School

Sasha & Malia Had Their Own Ball on Inauguration Night

Principal Censors Pro-Gay School Paper

JeanneSager — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 13:34:00 GMT

Two male students holding hands and a pro-gay editorial got a school paper yanked by administrators at a South Carolina school last month. Somehow, the principal is still claiming the school encourages diversity.

Apparently you can be different - just don't tell anyone.

Students at the Academy for Arts, Science & Technology near Carolina Forest have traditionally printed their paper on their own, using funds from ad sales to cover the cost of printing the quarterly paper. But when administrators, including Principal Ronnie Burgess, saw the picture of two male students holding hands and an editorial advocating for same-sex marriage, they told the kids the paper couldn't be distributed. They offered $500 in school funds to reprint the paper - without the editorial and picture.

Burgess said he was afraid the original paper would be "disruptive."

"I had some concerns about the content of the article and how it might impact students here and what the community concerns might be when the article was distributed," he told the Myrtle Beach-based Sun News. I'm not surprised that an administrator is afraid of community backlash (even homophobic, small-minded backlash), but what floors me is the rest of Burgess' statement to the paper: "At the academy we encourage diversity, we don't look to silence student voices, we hope to facilitate their expression."

So you encourage diversity, by telling gay teens they can't be pictured in the school paper? Sadly, this message hurts not only the gay kids but every student at the academy who is being provided with an example by the authority figures they're supposed to look up to and follow of "making the gays disappear." The move tells the kids of the academy that differences of opinion should be responded to by putting up money to make them go away.

The staff of the school paper is fighting adminstration on this one. They've cried censorship. Unfortunately, the teenage students are serving as better examples of who their peers should "grow up to be" than school administrators.

Image: Myrtle Beach Online

Tell Obama to Overturn the Global Gag Rule Sooner Rather Than Later

The Longshots: Girls Can Play Football . . . and Make You Cry

Ethnic Unity 101: Coming to China's Schools

Breastfeeding Moms Fighting Facebook Ban

Will Our Kids Be Allowed to Say Merry Christmas or Happy Hanukkah?

Kids and Music: Where's Your Line?

Kelly Mills — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 21:20:00 GMT

I must have mentioned my very "Footloose" upbringing before: We weren't allowed to listen to the radio because our parents were worried about our exposure to sinnin' lyrics. The result was that my sister and I were glued to the radio whenever we went to a friend's house. And because of this, I probably err in the opposite direction, letting my kid listen to just about anything with an abandon I don't have when it comes to movies and television.

But even I paused when my seven-year-old child (incorrectly) sang some Fergalicious the other day. "I am easy, I am sleazy..." "It's 'ain't' easy!" I lamely cried.

One of my favorite activities with my kid is to put on music and have a dance party in our living room. But now that I'm enamored with this song (don't ask me why) I start to think, "Maybe I don't want her co-listening to this one." And I've been hesitant to introduce other artists I love because, well, I don't really want her to learn the n-word right now.

Look, I could care less about straight profanity in songs, and I seriously doubt she gets most of the sexy stuff or the drug references. At least I didn't when I was her age, and I'd rather have her discuss it with me than absorb this stuff at a friend's house. But you know, even though I'm clearly free and easy (but I ain't sleazy) I do have some limits.

Where do you draw the line? How do you---or do you---censor popular songs, and at what age do you loosen up?

Ten Songs You Never Want To Hear A Little Kid Singing

Five Movies You Shouldn't Watch While Pregnant

UPDATE: Mom Says She Won't Burn Library Book, Still Wants it Censored

JeanneSager — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 19:33:00 GMT

The Portland area mom who prompted an outrage over her plan to burn the book her thirteen-year-old son borrowed from his high school library has relented. She won't burn it, but she's still calling for the book to be censored.

Taffey Anderson said she was angry when she made her inflammatory (only teeny weeny little pun intended) comments. She told a Portland newspaper she'll return the book, but she's still making her case for keeping the Book of Bunny Suicides out of the hands of "less mature" students. She wants it held behind the desk in the library for the librarian to decide who may or may not borrow the book.

Isn't that still censorship?

Original Post below:

Remember all those banned book posts on Strollerderby a few weeks back? How mediaval all those book burners sounded? Turns out she's alive and well and living in the Portland area.

Yup, an Oregon mom is threatening to burn a book her son checked out of his high school library.

The Book of Bunny Suicides is actually the first in a series of three graphic novels by British author/illustrator Andy Riley, a guy who's been dubbed the British Gary Larson. Subtitled "little fluffy rabbits who just don't want to live anymore," the book is black comedy at its best. Each page shows a hand-drawn bunny in a position that could very well end in his death - although that's never actually seen, and often the means to an end aren't immediately apparent. Take page ine - a line drawing of a bunny with a rope around its neck, and the other end tied to the minute hand on a giant clock tower.

So, no blood and guts. No sex. No drugs. No cursing. And it makes you have to think . . . bad for kids, definitely bad.

Taffey Anderson's now holding hostage the book her son borrowed from the Central Linn High School in Halsey, Ore. She wants the issue reviewed by the school district, but she won't even hand the copy over for the principal to view. Instead, she says she's going to burn it. The school principal says that's too bad - the school will have to buy another copy and fine the family for the cost. If Anderson doesn't pay, her son will lose the privilege of taking books out of the library. His mother has already warned she'll burn the school's second copy.

Let's review the list of things she's teaching her son: Borrow things and don't give them back. Destroy that which isn't yours. Threaten and blackmail when you don't get your way.

And a book of cranky bunnies is going to warp this kid?

Image:

Banned Books Week: R.L. Stine's Goosebumps

Banned Books Week: Shel Silverstein

Hey Sarah Palin, Make Your Kids Go to School

Do You Tell Your Kids to Fight Back?

Pit bulls and kids: Scared or Perfectly Comfortable?

Banned Books Week: R.L. Stine's Goosebumps

JeanneSager — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 13:32:00 GMT

Before a boy wizard bounced him from his post, R.L. Stine was once the best-selling children's book author of all time. And while his scary stories reigned supreme in kids' hearts, they sat at number 16 on the American Library Association's most challenged books of the 1990s.

The kids loved him. The parents loved to hate him. To be honest, I've never been a fan. He's been writing teen and child books since the the mid-1980s, so ostensibly I could have picked one up at the library over the years. I don't remember any. I do remember picking up a Goosebumps paperback a few years ago - my Harry Potter obsession serving as a gateway back into childhood literature in my adult years. What struck me wasn't how clever the book was or how I couldn't put it down - I could have left it just as quickly as I'd taken it - but that I finally understood why my little brother always had a tough time getting these back to the library on time. It was right up any preteen boy's alley. Which is exactly what makes people's attempts over the years to have them removed from library shelves such a travesty.

Getting kids to read as they enter the tween years - especially boys - can at times be like pulling teeth. A study funded by Scholastic in 2006 showed 40 percent of kids between the ages of 5 and 8 are "high frequency readers" who read for fun every day. That number drops to 29 percent of kids in the 9 to 11 range and even lower as they get older. Separating the genders, the study found boys are three times more likely than girls to say reading for fun is "not at all important."

Ironically, one mom speaking out in an 1997 CNN story about a parental movement to get Goosebumps pulled from the shelves at her local school admitted her son only read for school reports before he started picking up Stine's novels. "And I had to force him to do that," she said. Excuse the Homer Simpson moment, but . . . DOH!

If you want to encourage kids to read, you let them do it. You give them books or magazines that interest them. They can be reading absolute drivel and still learn vocabulary, sentence structure, grammar. Yes, they're a little scary - which is why they've been challenged over the years. But a generation of boys growing up without books on their shelves is enough to give me nightmares.

Image: Amazon

Banned Books Week: Shel Silverstein

Banned Books Week: Kama Sutra for Kids

Banned Books Week: Little Women

Banned Books Week: In the Night Kitchen

Banned Books Week: Sarah Palin

Banned Books Week: "And Tango Makes Three"

Banned Books Week: Sarah Palin

Amy S.F. Lutz — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 19:33:00 GMT

In honor of Banned Books Week, it seems appropriate to investigate how the woman who may be a heartbeat away from the presidency stands on the issue of banning books. Many of us have received the emails going around listing all the books Sarah Palin allegedly had banned from the Wasilla public library. But is that list real?

According to my favorite urban-legend-debunking-website, Snopes.com, the list is not real. Palin never actually banned any books from any library. However, according to the Anchorage Daily News, there is evidence that Palin was considering it: "In December 1996, [city librarian Mary Ellen] Emmons told her hometown newspaper, The Frontiersman, that Palin three times asked her - starting before she was sworn in - about possibly removing objectionable books from the library if the need arose."

The article also states that Emmons was completely opposed to the possibility of removing any books from the library, and the matter seems to have ended there. When she was questioned about it, Palin claimed her comments were "rhetorical."

Sure. Completely rhetorical. The question voters need to ask themselves is, does it matter if Palin wanted to censor certain books, even if she never actually did so?

Banned Books Week: Smother the Fire and Read a Banned Book

Banned Books Week: In the Night Kitchen

Banned Books Week: Karma Sutra for Kids

Banned Books Week: Little Women

Banned Books Week: Shel Silverstein

JeanneSager — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 16:33:00 GMT

His A Light in the Attic and Where the Sidewalk Ends were my first introductions to poetry, his The Giving Tree one of the first hardcovers I bought for my daughter's library. But Shel Silverstein is one of the authors whose books have been repeatedly yanked from the shelves of local libraries.

Which is not to say that I hesitated a second when I placed them on my daughter's shelves. In fact, the reasons two of his books have been censored in America top publisher Harper Collins' list of the Top Ten Silly Reasons to Ban a Harper Collins Children's Book delve right into silly themselves.

A one-time Playboy cartoonist, Silverstein is a scary looking guy - I'll give you that. I've been tempted to remove the book jackets from all four of his titles before letting my daughter take them to bed (as she likes to do with her books - kind of reminds me of her mother). But I still refuse to judge a book by its cover, even one with a bald-headed guy with a full beard and some strange wooly thing wrapped around his neck.

Because inside, his books of poetry are full of hilarious nonsense. There are few rhymes and plenty of made-up-words. There are simple line drawings paired with poems that let kids explore the questions they're dying to ask, from why a babysitter doesn't sit on the baby to what you'll find where the sidewalk ends. In fact Silverstein pretends every child's dream can come true, which is why I remember late nights with my books of poetry in bed as a kid, giggling over the mustache grown 100 inches long just so you won't have to use a rope or board for your tree swing.

So what was so awful about his books? On page 12, A Light in the Attic "encourages children to break dishes so they won't have to dry them" according to the folks at the Cunningham Elementary School in Beloit, Wisconsin back in 1985. Oh, the horrors. In fact, the poem How Not To Have To Dry The Dishes is like most of Silverstein's itty bitty ditties. It's a total of eight lines about an "awful, boring chore." A chore, he supposes, "maybe they won't let you" do anymore, if you drop one of the dishes on the floor. Which I'm sure the kids will be debating once they finish considering the poem on the facing page - how someone could have possibly stolen someone's knees.

Apparently Silverstein should steer clear of Wisconsin. Where the Sidewalk Ends was pulled from the shelves at West Allis-West Milwaukee, Wis. school libraries (1986) because the book "suggests drug use, the occult, suicide, death, violence, disrespect for truth, disrespect for legitimate authority, rebellion against parents." Shhhhh. Don't tell the kids there's real life beyond these four walls. Of course the poem Dreadful from Sidewalk really takes the cake, or should we say the flesh? A mention that "someone ate the baby," prompted people at the Central Columbia School District in Bloomsburg, Pa. to yank Sidewalk, lest children be encouraged to consider cannibalism. This was in 1993, folks.

I'm willing to risk my daughter's rebellion, the fact that she may one day want to take a bite out of my arm and a broken dish or two in favor of some creativity and the fact that she likes a book enough to take it to bed. Come to think of it, maybe it's time to introduce her to Silverstein's contribution to class rock and roll. You know, life ain't easy for a boy named Sue.

Image: HarperCollins

Banned Books Week: Smother the Fire and Read a Banned Book

Banned Books Week: In the Night Kitchen

Banned Books Week: Kama Sutra for Kids

Banned Books Week: Little Women

Protesters and journalists arrested in China (video)

Brett Singer — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 14:00:00 GMT

While we wonder whether or not the Chinese gymnasts are the age the government says they are, there's some other stuff happening over in China.

First up, British protesters were arrested for unfurling a "Free Tibet" banner (video below):

Second, and perhaps more disturbing, is this video of a British journalist being detained for covering said protest (video below):

But hey, what about that Michael Phelps? He won another medal, right?

Source/image: Daily Telegraph

It all started when Mary needed a laxative

When playgrounds attack, the sequel

Volleyball hasn’t come a long way, baby

Shawn Johnson more mature than her coach

Should Countries be Allowed to Ban Women from the Olympics?

Jon Stewart Tackles Olympic Controversies

Olympics Opening Uses One Girl's Voice, Another Girl's Face

Bored games

Kids Listen To Music Full of Drug References

Kelly Mills — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 23:37:00 GMT

When I was a kid, I wasn't allowed to listen to the radio. (Yes, I essentially lived Footloose, people.) Even as a kid I remember thinking this was dumb--I mean, if I sang "Seduce me tonight" from the Flashdance soundtrack, it wasn't like I really meant it, I just liked the song. I thought of this when I paused, hearing my six-year-old warble, "Don't you wish your girlfriend was a freak like me" the other day. But perhaps I ought to be listening harder for the drugs, man.

A new study found that a third of popular American songs today have references to drugs, alcohol, and tobacco, and two-thirds of those are positive references, associating substances with good times. Oh yeah, and rap was number one in this, and country was number two. In fact, the lead author says, "It's not going to be feasible or even desirable to censor these messages. Probably a more empowering approach is to teach kids to analyze and evaluate the messages for themselves." So there you go. Talk to your kids, don't go Footloose. You heard it hear first.

By the way, are you worried?

Where the Tame Things Are: Children’s Books Censored

makeitadouble — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 15:04:00 GMT

One of our oldest son’s favorite books when he was younger, which was read to him a Guinness Book record 1,097,653 times in one calendar year, was called “Eight Silly Monkeys”. Perhaps you’ve heard of it? It begins, “Eight silly monkeys sitting sedately on the floor. One got up and walked out the door. Mama called the doctor and the doctor said, “I’m not sure what I can do for you Mrs. Monkey. Walking out the door really isn’t a medical issue.” OK, so maybe the book didn’t read exactly like that but it might someday if certain publishers who have taken to censoring children’s books have anything to do with it.

Editors stricken with an acute strain of the PC bug are taking the heavy red pen of censorship to children’s books due to concerns of health and safety. In one book called “Who Wants a Dragon?” publishers insisted a scene containing a Dragon toasting marshmallows on flames from his nostrils be changed because “it looked dangerous and goes against health and safety.” When did John Ashcroft start editing children’s books? Seriously, what’s the point of being able to breathe fire out of your nose if you can’t whip up the occasional batch of S’mores? It wasn’t like he was lighting his farts, which in certain freshman college dorms after a couple wine coolers is actually pretty funny; I mean from what I’ve heard.

In another book a boy climbing a ladder was deemed precarious and was changed, oddly enough, to a boy standing on three stacked paint cans. They might as well have just dressed him in an oily rag Superman cape and stood him next to a dragon with an open bag of Stay-Pufts.

This is nothing more than PC extremists covering their own asses while enabling some parents to surrender yet another responsibility in their children’s upbringing. For me this is as bad as when Sesame Street sold out and bastardized Cookie Monster into some vegetable eating namby pamby. Children are so inundated with influential messages from friends, television, books, movies, the internet and a thousand other sources parents need to guide them in learning to process these messages, in comparing them to the values they’ve been taught and hopefully in making the right choices. Sheltering a child will not teach them the right message nor will censoring a harmless children’s book protect kids from the risks they’ll encounter in real life.

What’s next? How The Grinch Politely Asked To Borrow Christmas Then Returned It In A Timely Fashion And Said Thank You? I’d rather teach my kid to light his farts.

Parents v. Community: Who Is Responsible For Your Kid?

Jessica Ashley (Sassafrass) — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 20:02:00 GMT

Book censorship in school libraries and mandatory free breakfasts at school might not be hot button issues for you if your kids are still in the staring-at-Baby Einstein phase. But if your kids are going back to school or stepping into a classroom for the first time this fall, you will certainly find yourself at some point in that gray space of what is your responsibility as a parent and what the school (and thus the community) is responsible for handling. Heather at Oh My Stinkin Heck is offering up all kinds of hypothetical arguments to get parents talking about what issues we need to own and what feels right for the community to take on for the greater good of kids and schools and the whole village.

One of Heather's points, that "we are giving up and letting others take over" is valid and straight-forward and sad, and I love her for blogging it out loud. I wonder, though, how many parents choose to opt out of responsibilities or even standing up to school happenings (like a book being removed from library shelves because it contains the word "scrotum") because they are overwhelmed by working one or three jobs, because they are exhausted by raising one or seven kids, because they are nervous to speak up, because they assume the school administrators know better than they do, because they are preoccupied by something big that many other parents can't even imagine (like an illness or addiction recovery or divorce or losing their home)?

I'm not making excuses here, I am just asking why. I think if we do stop letting other folks take over, as Heather offers up, and if we try harder to understand why some parents need or allow other folks to take over, we can take the conversation even further.

Super V-Chip For All Devices: Good Luck With That

Kelly Mills — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 19:30:00 GMT

Here's a nice take-down of the Senate Commerce Committee's plan for the FCC to develop a super V-chip for blocking naughty stuff everywhere, like your TV, cellphones, and the internet. The idea is that inappropriate stuff is easily increasingly accessible to kids through tons of different outlets, and television is only one arena. 'Course there's so much out there, it's unlikely any chip could catch even a speck of it, and V-chips depend on people to actually use them. Gizmodo suggests implanting kids with V-chips might be easier. I've got a low-tech solution: the government could issue blindfolds and earplugs.

See, I can't even trust the rating system the V-chip relies on to block the things I care about banning from my child's tender little eyes. I'm less worried about my kid seeing things like boobies, and more worried about her watching a ton of commercials, so go ahead and call me a freak and get it over with. We do Tivo, and we've sort of convinced the spawn that ads are evil. For now. But I'm sure it's just a matter of time until she blossoms into the consumer the marketplace would like her to be. She'll probably be bored with explicit content by then.

Americans Apparently Hate Cartoon Nudity

Karen Murphy — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 18:46:00 GMT

Whew! What a relief! American kids and parents have been saved from cartoon nudity! I am so glad that U.S. publishers are on the job, protecting our delicate sensibilities from lascivious cartoon drawings of .5 mm (what is that in inches? I forget 'cause we're not metric. Oh, I remember: MINISCULE! PRACTICALLY INVISIBLE!) penises.

So, whatever, the U.S. will be like the only country in the world not to embrace the charming illustrations of author/illustrator Rotraut Susanne Berner, famous everywhere in the universe but, well, here. Who else could illustrate a children's book by Sylvia Plath and make it work?

The book in question, already a hit in Germany, contained some drawings in an art gallery setting. Where there's, you know, art and stuff. And one painting depicted, in cartoon style, a cartoonish naked woman. GASP!! And there was a tiny 7 mm (ugh, the metric thing again) statue of a naked man-person. I know! Can you believe it??! I am, like, so aghast at this. (And look at the obvious interest with which the woman examines Mr. Happy there! She's clearly looking right.at.it. And smiling!)

U.S. publishers asked Ms. Berner to make some changes to more adequately reflect the obvious prudery of the intended audience, and she wisely refused. She would have been happy placing black rectangles over the offending parts, but as that would have clued people in that hello! censorship is happening here! the publisher declined. And thus the American audience is spared the startling sight of tiny nudity in a children's book.

I know I, for one, will be sleeping better at night knowing this.

Can a School Suspend a Child Just for Having a MySpace Account?

Sarah, Goon Squad Sarah — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 21:02:00 GMT

Big Brother really is watching you. Well, maybe not you, but the kids that go to St. Hugo in the Hills Catholic School. It would seem that the administration has decided to suspend any student that has a MySpace account, even if they exclusively access it from home.

What the hell? Can they do that? I mean - I guess they are a private school. Maybe you can have completely unreasonable rules if you don't receive any government funding. I can see where they could deny students access to MySpace at school, but not at home. Doesn't that seem a little bit overreaching? That is like me telling the neighborhood kids that if they play in my yard they can't eat cookies when they get home.

Maybe the school is just pissed off because the name is so hilarious. St. Hugo in the Hills. That is funny. I don't care who you are.

But really - I can't see where a school should have control over what the kids do at home especially if it is something as innocuous as having a MySpace account. What if they are just listening to music and not picking up Congressmen? If my kid went to that school I would be angry. I'm not saying that I am thrilled about the prospect of my child loose on the internet, I mean, look what has become of me. What I am saying is that it is not the responsibility or the right of a school to monitor the behavior of a child in the home.

Woodlan High School Student In Trouble For Editorial Preaching Tolerance

JasonAvant — Fri, 23 Feb 2007 11:43:00 GMT

An open letter to Woodlan High School Principal Edwin Yoder:

Dear Mr. Yoder - Do you like apples? Hold that thought. I read, with great interest, this article detailing your actions following the publication of a column by sophomore Megan Chase. Seems that you weren't happy with the piece, calling it inappropriate and reprimanding the school's journalism teacher for allowing the students to run it without your approval. (It's interesting that you chose to allow a piece on teen pregnancy to run in a previous issue, but a piece calling for straight students to be tolerate of GLBT students was "inappropriate.")

This pissed me off, for a number of reasons. I was thinking of a snarky rant about close-minded conservative homophobes holding positions of authority in public schools, and how sad it is that such ass-backward moralists hold sway over impressionable kids who need to hear from their peers that hate is not OK. But then I thought, gee, what would really piss you off? And it hit me, the time-honored way of dealing with people like you, who gain such satisfaction over muzzling the voices of people whose opinions don't conform to your own.

There are, according to this site, 728 students at Woodlan. Ms. Chase's article was presumably read by some of them. Strollerderby gets - best guess here - a few thousand hits a day. And a few hundred websites link to this one, meaning that there's the potential for several thousand additional readers to click on a particular piece. Ms. Chase's column - very appropriate for kids of any age, in my opinion, and a nicely written one at that - is printed in full in the article. And we Godless gay-lovin' liberal parent bloggers, we do love linking to stories about bigots who try to impose their narrow-minded beliefs upon those who have little choice in the matter. So rather than quash her piece, as you intended, you've given Ms. Chase a very, very large audience. So I'll rephrase the question from paragraph one. How 'bout them apples?