Something that happened in school yesterday....

[Ozraptor]

Okay, so our class was in the library, and we had to read aloud summaries and opinions for a book we read the week earlier. All went well, until my friend read her's. It went something like this "This is my opinion on the book: I think that it suits our grade, but younger children should not read this book due to the fact that it is mature, and questions the power of christ...."


confused Hm, i can understand the mature part, but why due to religeon? Should children not be able to read a certain book if it infers religeon is bad? I dont think so.

The funny thing is, she isn't very religeous (that i know of....)  

[PathlessPlot]

In my opinion, children should be able to read books that will make them question their beliefs. Screen the books for mature content, yes, but a little bit of doubt will not hurt anyone. What was the book anyway?  

[Ozraptor]

Rebo socks rocks

In my opinion, children should be able to read books that will make them question their beliefs. Screen the books for mature content, yes, but a little bit of doubt will not hurt anyone. What was the book anyway?

Ooh, i forget, a Stephen King book. Something about these people moving into a town and one of them is a vampire and eats people. And sacrafices the children of the town.  

[fhbnfghnbfgbsnbg]

Ozraptor

Rebo socks rocks

In my opinion, children should be able to read books that will make them question their beliefs. Screen the books for mature content, yes, but a little bit of doubt will not hurt anyone. What was the book anyway?

Ooh, i forget, a Stephen King book. Something about these people moving into a town and one of them is a vampire and eats people. And sacrafices the children of the town.

Ah, yes, 'Salem's Lot.
In the book, the priest tries to combat the vampire, but his cross has no effect because he has lost his faith in God.

In any case, it's personal choice. Seeing as little kids shouldn't be reading a book like that anyway, its up to the parents to decide if their children should be exposed to a book that goes against what they may or may not have been brought up to believe.  

[Daffodil the Destroyer]

I think kids should be encouraged to read materials (age-appropriate ones, of course) that cause them to question their beliefs. A belief that can't hold up to questions isn't a true belief at all, and being sheltered from differing opinions for an entire childhood usually tends to encourage naivety and bigotry later in life.

 

[[The Looney Bin]]

Actually.

This actually exists in our movie rating system.
If you look up The Simpsons Movie at http://www.fandango.com/thesimpsonsmovie_98265/movieoverview .

You'll see that it's rated PG-13 for "irreverent humor throughout".
Which means "godless humor throughout" (for those of you that, like me, had to look that up).

So I find that rediculous.
That a movie is rated differently because its humor is "godless".  

[PathlessPlot]

KuroFur

Ozraptor

Rebo socks rocks

In my opinion, children should be able to read books that will make them question their beliefs. Screen the books for mature content, yes, but a little bit of doubt will not hurt anyone. What was the book anyway?

Ooh, i forget, a Stephen King book. Something about these people moving into a town and one of them is a vampire and eats people. And sacrafices the children of the town.

Ah, yes, 'Salem's Lot.
In the book, the priest tries to combat the vampire, but his cross has no effect because he has lost his faith in God.

In any case, it's personal choice. Seeing as little kids shouldn't be reading a book like that anyway, its up to the parents to decide if their children should be exposed to a book that goes against what they may or may not have been brought up to believe.

I suppose it depends on how little a child that we are talking about here. If they can handle the frightning aspects of the story then I don't see a problem.  

[KitCatbartender]

children shouldn't be sheltered from godless literature. if every descision was made by parents how screwed up would half the world be? (answer: very.) anything that causes people to question what they know should be welcomed and embraced.  

[Sanguvixen]

Personally I believe that it is important for children to grow up exposed to things that criticize religion, if anything so they don't get so butt-hurt when they get older and find that not all people are into their religion/beliefs, and have criticism to back it up.

To some extend I think we censor too much from children, calling things mature just because we are too uncomfortable due to a certain level of prudishness that is everywhere in American society.  

[Henneth Annun]

Sanguvixen

To some extent I think we censor too much from children, calling things mature just because we are too uncomfortable due to a certain level of prudishness that is everywhere in American society.

Exactly.

Also, children should read things that make them think, that make them question things to see if what they're doing/believing/thinking is truly the "right" thing, and to see other options. They should read things that open their eyes to new ways and things that tell them that there is no "right" and "true" and only way to do things, and they should learn that there isn't anything bad about one way or another, and there isn't any shame in not believing/believing in something even if all the other people around you are against you on it.  

[Le Pere Duchesne]

Quote:

To some extent I think we censor too much from children, calling things mature just because we are too uncomfortable due to a certain level of prudishness that is everywhere in American society.

Not just America, but anywhere that believes in the family but doesn't have strong social bonds to back it up.

Yes, while children shouldn't be exposed to some things, the decision should be based on whether it will affect the child in a harmful way. Excessive violence and/horror should not be given to children who are squeemish or have a really strong sense of empathy (Like me, at 10. Saw a few scenes of Blood Sport or something and went ******** psycho when one bloke kept bashing another when he was helpless... Sure I could tell the difference between reality and fiction, but it didn't mean I wanted to see that kind of thing. Seeing sex in movies and the intertubez, on the other hand, didn't do a thing to me, hell, it might have even helped kill sexual urges).

The point is that parents should know what their children will react to and how, and should control exposure according to such knowledge, maybe with a little testing on something extra every now and then to see if they are 'growing up' or whatever.  

[Henneth Annun]

Gracchvs

Quote:

To some extent I think we censor too much from children, calling things mature just because we are too uncomfortable due to a certain level of prudishness that is everywhere in American society.

The point is that parents should know what their children will react to and how, and should control exposure according to such knowledge, maybe with a little testing on something extra every now and then to see if they are 'growing up' or whatever.

The decision should be affected by how mature they feel the child is and wether or not they can handle it. Age shouldn't be the only factor that goes into it.

If the parents are worried about losing control over the child's development or the material having some adverse side effect, they should talk to the kid about it. If they're afraid that a child will start punching people because they might see it in a movie, they shouldn't hide away all the movies with violence in them. When the child can handle seeing it, let them see it, just make sure they know that it's not okay to hit people. You know...  

[Le Pere Duchesne]

That's what I was saying, only less eloquently.
A I gave with the example, I was really not good with violence as a kid,* but many I knew were fine, on the contrary however, sex didn't seem to affect me at all, and I know some people who seem squeemish about sex even aside from the expected levels of prudery here.

The parents should know what their child can handle. After seeing me run crying from the room during Blood Sport, my parents knew not to show me too much violence. Occasionally they would show me something a little stronger than what they would normally show me to see if I could handle it, or based on what movies or shows I had seen with friends and didn't break down.

I am not too fond of idolising parents, but that is one thing I know they did right in my case.

*(Not in that I would try to bash people, but I would get really upset at seeing someone suffer massive amounts of violence, something that is still the same with regards to animals. I can handle violence against people now, but you really don't want to show me something involving cruelty to animals. If you get bashed, it's only because you refused to turn it off after some really strong begging.)  

[fhbnfghnbfgbsnbg]

XWraith_LordX

Gracchvs

Quote:

To some extent I think we censor too much from children, calling things mature just because we are too uncomfortable due to a certain level of prudishness that is everywhere in American society.

The point is that parents should know what their children will react to and how, and should control exposure according to such knowledge, maybe with a little testing on something extra every now and then to see if they are 'growing up' or whatever.

The decision should be affected by how mature they feel the child is and wether or not they can handle it. Age shouldn't be the only factor that goes into it.

If the parents are worried about losing control over the child's development or the material having some adverse side effect, they should talk to the kid about it. If they're afraid that a child will start punching people because they might see it in a movie, they shouldn't hide away all the movies with violence in them. When the child can handle seeing it, let them see it, just make sure they know that it's not okay to hit people. You know...

Since when have the parents needed to ask the child for advice on how to rear them?  

[Le Pere Duchesne]

Hmm? I believe Wraith was saying that the best way to raise the child is to find out how the child reacts to certain things and provide or restrict exposure accordingly...

Not, y'know, asking the child 'How should I raise you?' or anything.