Re: restricted shelves - elem. school

[dorothy talbott <ktalbott@NCCU.EDU>]

As one who has been targetted by the local censors, I swore that I would
stay out of the public discussion of all of this --- responding rather to
individuals but Jen's comments made me realize that I too had something
to add.

I was and remain a voracious reader.  I began reading at age three and
needless to say for most of my life read above my "grade" level.  I was
fortunate to be born into a reading family growing up in a house filled
with books.  This was supplemented by the fact that my grandmother was
"the library lady" and I was able to read anything * and I DO mean *
anything that I wanted to...the only time my mom objected was when I got
into Cherry Ames Student Nurse series  and others of that genre.  She
referred to them as "celery" that is, they used by energy and gave no
real "nutrional" value!

I encourage my students to read ANYTHING that they can handle.  I often
bring in items from home that the library doesn't yet have in its
collection, I am fairly new at the library game and our collection is
still a bit limited in terms of what they *WANT* to read.  After the
censorship challenges that hit me the first month of school, I was forced
to seriously consider my position that as long as they are reading
(regardless of what is is) that that is better than not reading at all!

Several librarians in the area strongly suggested aka told me to clean my
shelves of all that might possibly get me in trouble...I thought long and
hard about it...and I decided that readers are reading and that is after
all what the library is supposed to  be for.  I warned my Library Media
Advisory Committee that it might be a tough year, xeroxed a big stack of
the REQUEST FOR RECONSIDERATION FORM and went back to business as usual.

All of this is to say that my life could have been quite different,
definitley more boring, if my mom and grandmother had kept me reading at
grade level...  Sorry for the length but I have been sitting on my hands
to not respond during the recent "conversation"...thanks for listening!

Kay Talbott
ktalbott@nccu.edu
South Brunswick Middle School
Southport, NC  28461