Censorship of non-Jewish Books

Motek

Tue, Jul 12 2005, 8:16 pm

When I was growing up, it was a time when frum schools took the class on a trip to the public library and when we had book reports to do, doing it on a Jewish book wasn't even a consideration. I went to the library often and my parents never checked my books.

Times have changed and many schools have their own libraries and for religious reasons, will not suggest that children use the public library. Some schools/parents don't let the children go to the public library.

How did you grow up - what do you think about censoring books nowadays? Would you let your kids go to the public library? If yes, would you want to see what they took out?

somebody suggested a poll, so I added it

Last edited by Motek on Wed, Jul 13 2005, 4:50 pm; edited 1 time in total

sarahd

Wed, Jul 13 2005, 5:21 am

I went to the public library every Friday when I was a kid. My mother's rule was no books published after 1960. She used to give a quick look to see what we had taken out and make sure that if we had taken more recent books they were still acceptable.

My sister goes to the library for her children and brings books she feels are appropriate. That's probably what I would do for my children too.

elisecohen

Wed, Jul 13 2005, 6:54 am

I have no problem taking my kids to the public library. In fact, we go at least once a week (and I often go 2-3 times). As my girls approach adolescence, I keep an eye on what they're reading, but so far we haven't had a problem with anything I personally would consider inappropriate. I'm sure we will, but that's part of parenthood. As opposed to TV, where the bad far exceeds the good, I see the library as a great benefit of modern society, but as with anything you need to ensure that you are avoiding any pitfalls. At least at the library and especially in the children's section the good books and valuable materials outweigh the bad in my experience.

DISCLOSURE: In my former, pre-mommy life, I was a librarian.

curlyhead

Wed, Jul 13 2005, 7:18 am

Quote:

in those days they did noy have the jewish books they have today. (even though not enough Jewish books are coming out these days and that is why many people turn to the non-jewish book. We need more Jewish books. So if any one out there has a talent for writing - please write.)

queen

Wed, Jul 13 2005, 11:18 am

as a kid, we visited the library together with my mother, and enjoyed many happy hours of reading. I'm hoping that by the time my children are old enough to appreciate a library (probably 5+) libraries will still be a clean place to visit.

UNOBTRUSIVELY, I'd suggest all mothers to be aware of what their kids are reading... the same way parents should know who their kids are playing with and where they spend their time.

queenie

Wed, Jul 13 2005, 4:40 pm

We go to both the public and Jewish libraries. But, we like the public more. Better books and better librarians. They know my kids names and they each have their own card. They can use the computers and look up books. They love looking at all the books and sometimes they have arts and crafts activities there too.

Motek

Wed, Jul 13 2005, 7:37 pm

sarahd wrote:

IMHO, the problem is not in the quantity of Jewish books coming out, but in their quality.

it's definitely both

a good reader, any age, will quickly make their way through all available Judaica

daisy

Wed, Jul 13 2005, 7:44 pm

Did not respond to poll, cause what I do is not there.

My kids are young, I take them and I choose books with them. We do a lot of nonfiction (weather, animals, crafts, etc) Some fiction too. I think we will continue to go to the library as they get older.

As a child, we went to the library a lot. I was not censored or monitored, but there were some books I did feel like I wanted to hide.

I hope to monitor my children's books to an extent, and would like to discuss the issues with them as opposed to just saying no.

When I grew up parents were more laid back about reading material (and I have OVERPROTECTIVE parents!) We used to order teen romances from the book orders they gave out in school (Bais Yaakov). When I read them I just felt I was reading about another culture.

Motek, what are your thoughts on your original question?

Last edited by daisy on Wed, Jul 13 2005, 7:48 pm; edited 2 times in total

Tefila

Wed, Jul 13 2005, 7:45 pm

Quote:

a good reader, any age, will quickly make their way through all available Judaica

True but there's always adult kosher jewish books one can look at what harm is there if they were to look at some self help books too What

gryp

Wed, Jul 13 2005, 8:01 pm

Quote:

a good reader, any age, will quickly make their way through all available Judaica

they can always read them again Smile

but I do want to make sure my children have a strong ability to read in Hebrew and Yiddish before English, and theres lots more available in hebrew.

and when I was growing up I read through the entire library more than a few times, every book I was allowed to. my mother started censoring all the books once we reached a certain age. I have so many fond memories of great books I read when I was younger, but I decided my kids dont need to be reading about non-Jews and their way of life.
and there is so many more Jewish books available today than when I was growing up.

Motek

Wed, Jul 13 2005, 8:04 pm

daisy wrote:

Did not respond to poll, cause what I do is not there.

My kids are young, I take them and I choose books with them.

that's in the poll!

Quote:

We used to order teen romances from the book orders they gave out in school (Bais Yaakov).

I don't remember the teen romances, but you are reminding me of ordering books at school which I did regularly.

about the original questions - two things have majorly changed: 1) the times we live in and along with that, the books 2) my outlook

with the two together, well!

I'm all for promoting Jewish material, promoting books in Yiddish and Hebrew FIRST. English will come later anyway, and with three languages, you have more books to read!

though I think there are many great non-Jewish books for kids up to age 3 or so, gorgeous nature books, books about colors, numbers .. that I would use

freilich - I wrote "any age" bec. I mean elementary, high school, AND adult

there is NOT enough Jewish material to read

daisy

Wed, Jul 13 2005, 8:17 pm

Motek wrote:

that's in the poll!

Yeah, it's sort of there - but I guess I do more than check; I pretty much choose, but ask their input.

Quote:

though I think there are many great non-Jewish books for kids up to age 3 or so, gorgeous nature books, books about colors, numbers .. that I would use

Some of the nonfiction books for slightly older books seem OK also. I happen to love the nonfiction children's section - even for myself when I want to learn something, I go there first.

curlyhead

Thu, Jul 14 2005, 7:00 am

Quote:

there is NOT enough Jewish material to read

I have read most of the Jewish novels and inspirational book as they came out. and have to read books over and over again because I have nothing else to read. I know people who go to public libraries becuase there is not enough Jewish books.
As I child I was encourarged to read jewish books. I never went to the public library but I would sometimes take out non-jewish books from the school library.

Motek

Sun, Jul 17 2005, 2:20 pm

Predictably, Judy Blume is opposed to censorship:

http://www.judyblume.com/artic......html

No, I don't agree with her. I think her line:

Quote:

Suddenly books were seen as dangerous to young minds. Thinking was seen as dangerous, unless those thoughts were approved by groups like the Moral Majority, who believed with certainty they knew what was best for everyone.

is absurd. When books are off-limits it's not because people are anti-thinking. Her saying so (and lots of other things in the link) makes us sound like fanatical zombies.

Quote:

Some people would like to rate books in schools and libraries the way they rate movies: G, PG, R, X, or even more explicitly. But according to whose standards would the books be rated? I don't know about you but I don't want anyone rating my books or the books my children or grandchildren choose to read. We can make our own decisions, thank you.

I wonder whether Judy Blume would like the movie ratings to disappear too. Could be. And I wonder what she would say about exposing children to rated R type movies.

what do you think about what she writes? about censorship?

Motek

Sun, Jul 17 2005, 2:54 pm

well, someone pm'd me, suggesting that the reason why you and some other posters described discussing certain topics in school (which I thought were off-limits) was because Judy Blume's books broke the tznius barrier

and that her pirtza has made it normal for frum girls to discuss things that were previously not discussed in public (and are still not discussed in public among more sheltered girls)

sarahd

Mon, Jul 18 2005, 4:12 am

RG wrote:

Quote:

a good reader, any age, will quickly make their way through all available Judaica

they can always read them again Smile

The problem is that there are so few Jewish books that anyone would want to read again. Unless, maybe, if someone was never exposed to good literature, they would think that these books are interesting and well written, so they would want to read them again. Confused