[LM_NET] "censorship" slightly long

[Brent Bradley <bsb_lib@YAHOO.COM>]

Hello All:

The discussion of censorship vs selection is quite interesting to me. Even the idea 
of censorship trobles me, but I know that I censor materials, whether it's called 
selection or not. This is dictionary.com's definitions, and I realize it's not 
Webster's or the OED, but it was handy.

"Censor:

   A person authorized to examine books, films, or other material and to remove or 
suppress what is considered morally, politically, or otherwise objectionable.
   An official, as in the armed forces, who examines personal mail and official 
dispatches to remove information considered secret or a risk to security.
   One that condemns or censures.
   One of two officials in ancient Rome responsible for taking the public census 
and supervising public behavior and morals.
   Psychology. The agent in the unconscious that is responsible for censorship. "

Sports Illustrated's swimsuit issue does not belong in Middle or High School. Call 
it censorship or selection, I don't care. BUT, does Cosmo belong in Middle School?? 
How about Guns and Ammo? I don't think either belongs in Middle School, but perhaps 
I'm wrong. A school in suburban America might laugh at my OPINION that Cosmo is 
morally bankrupt, and a school in rural America might laugh at Guns and Ammo being 
potentially inflammatory. The point of selection TO ME is to match items with your 
population. BUT, my population being 99% under 18, I'm NOT buying them the swimsuit 
issue. And yeah, so far I buy Cosmo, because my population enjoys it, but I don't 
like buying it. Please, somebody, convince me not to without using censorship.

I realize that the point of censorship is to 'exclude' and the point of selection 
is to 'include,' but the problem is that in 'including' one must choose to exclude. 
Exclusion does not tell us what to include, but what we must leave out of 
collections. They are not two sides of the same coin, they are fundamentally 
different ways of viewing the world and what it offers us. That said, sometimes I 
censor, and sometimes I select.

Believe me, I will fight to the death to include Canterbury Tales in the HS 
library, and it contains some pretty racy stuff. I'm not opposed to sex, bawdiness, 
etc. But I want it done intelligently! Canterbury Tales is about humanity and its 
weaknesses and strengths. Swimsuit issues are about body parts and lycra.


***
"If we are to teach real peace in this world, and if we are to carry on a real war 
against war, we shall have to begin with the children."
---Mahatma Gandhi

"History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social 
transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence 
of the good people."
--Martin Luther King

"When people level criticism at you, they’re telling more about themselves than who 
you really are."
-- Jewish Marine and Nazi researcher Bryan Mark Rigg 1/11/05 CSpan
***
Brent Bradley
Library Media Specialist
Valley View Community School
Henry Wilson Memorial School
Farmington, NH
bsb underscore lib at yahoo dot com

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