Let me first begin by saying that in a country that we pride ourselves in our freedom that no book, song, movie, anything should be banned. I just don't agree with it. I believe that it is against our freedom of speech to ban a book.
With this said, I would have the Harry Potter books available in my classroom but will not use them as part of the instruction for the classroom. Due to the fact that some parents do not agree with this book, I would not have this book as our class novel. I also believe that there are better sources of children's fantasy that would be a better choice for the classroom novel. I would tell the parents on the first day that these books are on my bookshelves for the students to read if they want to but that I will not have a class discussion of the book, or advocate it in any way. If parents have concerns I would be more than willing to address any and all concerns that they may have.
I would also tell the parents in this meeting all of the books that I plan to use that year as classroom novels and tell them that if a problem arises to let me know. The books that I do plan to use in the classroom I will have specifics on why I am using them and how they will relate to our standard course of study. If there are a problem I can address the parent's concerns by telling them why I am teaching their child this particular book.
I will have to say that I haven't completed the book, nor do I know a lot about them. I was eleven when the Harry Potter books came out, but being raised in the house that I was I was not allowed to read them. My parents had only vaguely heard of them, but they wouldn't let me even dress as a witch for Halloween much less read about witchcraft. I feel that they feel like many parents do. Now, my parents are a little less conservative and have seen that it, like many other pop culture phenomon books, do have real value.
They are valuable to children's literature because they have made a whole generation of kids read and anytime kids read that is a good thing. Whether that is a "banned" book or Beverly Cleary they all have value.
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Yes but don't we have to make some kind of judment on what is appropriate for children and what is not? If we take the stance that all censorship is bad, how do we preclude children from getting access to inapropriate materials? We have to have some kind of system that allows for some level of censorship. I think it's really more of a question of where to draw the line, and how we decide where the line is. What do you think?
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