Purposely Provocative

So the NY Times has a story on a children's book with the word scrotum on the first page, chosen for a Newbery Award by the powers that be, who huff censorship at the questions some children's librarians have raised. (Another argument for school choice.)

“This book included what I call a Howard Stern-type shock treatment just to see how far they could push the envelope, but they didn’t have the children in mind,” Dana Nilsson, a teacher and librarian in Durango, Colo., wrote on LM_Net, a mailing list that reaches more than 16,000 school librarians. “How very sad.”

You have to wonder as well why the Newbery committee chose the book, hmm, possibly to push and provoke just such a reaction, or see if they could get away with it. We all need to be educated, you see, that parental prudery is not to be tolerated. (Parents would call it being protective.) No, the little darlings should benefit from what the Newberry PC brahmins think is age-appropriate. Here's the author, from LA:

Reached at her home in Los Angeles, Ms. Patron said she was stunned by the objections. The story of the rattlesnake bite, she said, was based on a true incident involving a friend’s dog.

And one of the themes of the book is that Lucky is preparing herself to be a grown-up, Ms. Patron said. Learning about language and body parts, then, is very important to her.

“The word is just so delicious,” Ms. Patron said. “The sound of the word to Lucky is so evocative. It’s one of those words that’s so interesting because of the sound of the word.”

Oh, and the Washington Post also has a story on young people the same day, "Saying Goodbye to Girlhood"---on how psychologists are concerned that young girls are being sexualized at too young an age.

Some may blame the media, some the fashion industry, but I would say feminists and liberals should shoulder some of the responsibility, by "celebrating" sex for its own sake. And delighting in undermining moms and families with more traditional values.

Related posts: It's Educational!,Plan B Over the Counter, Inappropriate Behavior,Taking Their Innocence

UPDATE: Apparently the Trib saw the same story in the NY Times, the liberal journal of record. The Trib pooh-poohs objections, but inadvertently makes the case for a little discretion on children's bookshelves in the public schools. Potty humor could also be left off the school reading lists. But the Tribune itself says the word is gratuitous "It's a tale that could have been told without the word scrotum", and ends with this " If librarians don't want to answer those questions, we have three more words to suggest: "Ask your parents." Precisely. But that's also the point. Parents might also not want to explain sex graphically to a 10 year old, the basics are enough.

You see, these are the public schools, not even the public libraries, where parents could exercise some discretion of their own. Maybe they cherish their child's childhood, what a concept. I remember my kids' 5th grade, where book after book was about death. 10 years old. Kind of depressing, even for an adult.

Parents should have an expectation that the public schools have higher standards, not lower ones. But that is probably too much to ask, I know.