Tuesday, May 24, 2005

On the Patriot Act, and gay books, and on parenting

Jane at Wandering Eyre has pointed out a nice piece on the Patriot Act. So follow the link and go read about defending Tim McVeigh's right to check out gardening manuals. She also makes a little note about the latest on removing books with gay themes from children and young adult sections at public libraries. She writes, and I could not agree more, "Call me crazy, but if you want your children to learn your values and not society's, maybe you should try teaching them yourself and not relying on others."

Talk about radical ideas in librarianship, or rather in just plain common sense. I personally live to see the day when parents will actually take some responsibility for their brood instead of inflicting them on the rest of us and then expecting us to do their job for them. Of course, my favorite tends to be when we do go ahead and do the parenting and then they sue if they don't like it. Teachers get a lot of this. That recent incident with the little brat in a principal's office climbing on tables and then getting handcuffed comes to mind (I found the link on a quick Google search. I am sure there are other places with the story). Of course, I know I will likely incur the wrath of the PC Police for suggesting the misbehaving kid was a brat with a poor parent who did not discipline the kid when she should have, but hey, someone has to have some common sense in the whole thing. A lot of people came down on that labeling it as child abuse, but the kid in the video clearly looks out of control. I guess however the option was to just leave her inside the office and let her wreck the place until the tantrum passed. At any rate, it's old news now, but it makes a good illustration.

No comments: