Banning books in a school is much more performative these days than in times past. Kids these days can pirate the books, find them at a store, order them from Amazon, etc. In the old days the concern might have been that kids would get access to the wrong ideas -- and crucially, you might actually be able to prevent that sort of access.
Now, it seems to be be more about representation: "Do we want to say our school supports the ideas in this book?"
I'm not defending book banning, but people seem to treat book banning as if it's still the 1950s, and schools are really censoring information in any sort of meanginful way. Instead, all the schools are doing is taking a stand and saying "this book does not represent us."
Mind you, I still think this is bad, but I'm a bit baffled why people treat this topic the way they do.
Once again feels like terrible overreach of the so-called nanny state under the guise of "think of the children!".
Parents should be the ultimate authority on what kind of media their child consumes, and they should be responsible. Afterall legally children are basically an extension of the adult who is responsible for them
Now, it seems to be be more about representation: "Do we want to say our school supports the ideas in this book?"
I'm not defending book banning, but people seem to treat book banning as if it's still the 1950s, and schools are really censoring information in any sort of meanginful way. Instead, all the schools are doing is taking a stand and saying "this book does not represent us."
Mind you, I still think this is bad, but I'm a bit baffled why people treat this topic the way they do.