Scholastic Books Ban?

[kage_ar]

I am going to direct this to another link. Jimmy Akin researched this, and found it not to be credible. For those of you who do not already know, Jimmy Akin is an apologist here at Catholic Answers, and runs his own blog as well:

jimmyakin.org/2005/07/pre16_on_harry_.html

Will that help, AmberDale?

You beat me to posting this

 

[lifeisbeautiful]

Banning books is bad. It will always be BAD.

If you are well in your faith and if you teach your children well: they gain closeness to God – not separation from Him when they read blasphemy. If you don’t trust them enough to do that – take a really hard look at your parenting and where it might end up. Take a long hard look at banning books - and where THAT might end up. Would you like all books about Mary or the Saints banned? Well keep pushing for book-banishment and you may just get that lovely side effect too.

It’s up to YOU to raise your children – not Scholastic.


My thoughts? You are way out on a limb here.

(We love Harry Potter in this house, but we don’t watch or read Golden Compass. I sure haven’t made a deal about it because forbidden books are awesome books to kids. I just said “how sad a man would write a book about hating God, I wouldn’t read it.” Considering they know I’ll read just about ANYTHING – well that got their respect, not their curiosity. BECAUSE I didn’t forbid – I just explained it easy-like. “There’s nothing good here, let’s go read Grimms!” That’s that. If I fought tooth and nail to ban scholastic (Arrrghhhhh – no WAY!) I would be acting a fool and not very level-headed! And – I will hope my kids will fight the fight for the freedom to read as long as they live – even if they don’t read the books in question.)

So no, I will not boycott Scholastic. I will not join in on a “book banning” but I will respect a parents right to choose what is right for their kid’s to read.

Anyways,although I partially agree, I think there may be times where a parent can and should “ban” certain books. I would have to disagree that reading blasphemy will bring children that are brought up well in the faith closer to God. The devil can be very tricky mixing truth with falsehood, and seeds can be planted that can affect years of formation. Sensuality in some books can also be very harmful. I do agree that it should be more leading your child to want to avoid reading trash rather than having to unilaterally “forbid”, but as a student who didn’t read all the books that were required school reading, and still did well in school, I think it is worth it.

BTW. Doubleday has published writings from the founder of Opus Dei too despite the ridiculous allegations in the DaVinci code.

 

[KCtheMommy]

Anyways,although I partially agree, I think there may be times where a parent can and should “ban” certain books. I would have to disagree that reading blasphemy will bring children that are brought up well in the faith closer to God. The devil can be very tricky mixing truth with falsehood, and seeds can be planted that can affect years of formation. Sensuality in some books can also be very harmful. I do agree that it should be more leading your child to want to avoid reading trash rather than having to unilaterally “forbid”, but as a student who didn’t read all the books that were required school reading, and still did well in school, I think it is worth it.

BTW. Doubleday has published writings from the founder of Opus Dei too despite the ridiculous allegations in the DaVinci code.

Well, that’s why I said that I respect any parents right to decide what their children read!

Banning books will sling shot back at us. I remember as a child my dad had me come watch the scene in 1984 where the lady decides to join her pile of books that are being burned. I was like “WHy would she DO THAT Dad?” “Because she would rather die than not be able to read freely, or to live in a society that burned books.” It was a poignant moment in my life. Not that I would jump onto a funeral pyre of burning books – but that I firmly believe that books should not be banned. Because once it starts – where does it END? Look at Iran. Look at Pakistan. Look at Afghanistan. I couldn’t imagine.

Anyway back to the point – I’ll do my parenting my way, I’ll respect you doing it your way.

I never did read the DaVinci Code. Don’t care to either.

 

[shannyk]

Maybe it is just my mindset this morning, but it just seems like there is a bit of “ban this” “boycott that” going around. It smacks of fundamentalism and being reactionary.

Don’t get me wrong,** I’m all for activism, but not activism for activism’s sake. I worry that too much of this makes religion in general look bad.**

It was one of the things I had the hardest times with that drove me from the faith during my atheistic period. I worry others will be similarly influenced.

Thank you, yes. Yes and Amen 100 times.

The whole fundamentalist mentality is seeping it’s way into the Church with BAD ramifications.

It DOES make religion in general ‘look bad’ and it REALLY makes Catholicism look bad. Very bad.

As for the Scholastic issue, I don’t think I can say it any better than OutinChicago has.

Oh, and if you have a need for books the St. Vincent DePaul stores sell paperbacks for 10 cents and hardcovers for 25 cents. If you are willing to sift through their piles, you will find many gems. That way you can skip the Scholastic orders all together if you don’t care to patronize them.

 

[Nanny_PK]

There was a scene in a television show several years ago where they were burning books they deemed “inappropriate.” The main character of the show was in total opposition to this. In the end scene she walked into the church and said that she had come to agree with them and she was going to add one of her favorite books to the burn pile. I don’t remember exactly what she said, but it was something to the effect of “I’ve come to realize this book has stories about the devil testing God and God striking people down,” et cetera. And the whole town was cheering her on – including the pastor. She finally told them the name of the book. It was The Bible.

I agree with several other posters here that it is the job of the parents to monitor their children’s reading materials; and if the parent deems something inappropriate, I back that parent a hundred percent in not letting their child read it. But we should be very careful of that slippery slope of deeming what others should or should not read as there are lots and lots of people out there who would like nothing more than to ban anything of a Christian nature – just watch the news this morning of proponents of gay marriage trying to silence the protestors who are in favor of Prop 8 in California.

Just my two cents.

 

[MamaZona]

MamaZona - if you read the rest of the posts you will see that hardly anyone agrees with the OP (original poster). We do indeed need to pick our battles and personally this is not one I wish to do - the only book that the OP mentioned that was bad was “The Golden Compass” and honestly, this is a parental problem like OutInChicagoBurbs has pointed out, not a problem with the company.

We could certainly stop buying from Doubleday or whoever published the Dan Brown books but goodness wouldn’t that be cutting off our noses to spite our faces?

Brenda V.

Oh, I did, and I didn’t mean to discount the people who support reasonable solutions.

For what it is worth, I consider censoring your own children’s reading materials according to your values and goals for learning to be “reasonable” up to a certain age. (That age, for me is 16–if they can drive a car, I should hope they could pick a book! If they can’t, prehaps placing them in charge of several tons of rolling machinery is a bad idea?)

I read the Da Vinci Code, don’t worry, I got it second hand from a thrift that gives to charity.

Stupid book. No wonder the guy had to throw in the sensational junk against Catholics/Christians in general. He wouldn’t have gotten any notice if he hadn’t. I read the first 50 pages and skimmed the rest. The author did such a horrible job, I’d say he should be brought up on crimes against the environment for wasting good trees J/K It’s better not to censor him so everyone can see it for what it is rather than being excited by it.

I never watched the movie, I heard it was a major flopfest and panned by critics.

My eldest son and I had a discussion about The Golden Compass. I read to him what the author had said about God and it was a lively discussion. We opted out of seeing the movie. He was disgusted that someone would be so intolerant and hateful. I told him some people are just bitter and I had been that bitter once myself. I told him the author needed our prayers, but not our patronage.

If he really wanted to watch the movie, I offered to watch it with him after it was available second hand or through the library (so no profit could be gained from our viewing).

He’s never asked to see it. Just as well.

 

[redtech]

The only problem I have with Scholastic is the heaping mountain of books we have!!! I get them from my Pre-K daughter and also my daycare son. I always buy 2 or 3 for each of them.

My son got 2 this month There is one of them… I think See-Saw maybe that I tend to not like the books in.

With DD, I usually let her pick 2 and then I pick one that I think she might enjoy. She usually goes for the cartoon or Disney ones. I lean toward the Caldecott winners. And of course usually get the $1 book on the front!

We’re addicted to books. Scholastic is our dealer.

 

[MamaZona]

I believe I started a similar thread last year. I wasn’t for BANNING Scholastic, I was for NOT USING Scholastic anymore. We are a CATHOLIC school and all the books they had of a religious nature were generic Chrisitan (okay in little kids books, but more troublesome in some older kids books), Golden Compass, PLUS Joel Olstein (sp?) on prominent display. I’m a convert and I think the books we offer to or students and parents should be CATHOLIC. When I brought this to the attention of the ladies working, they had no idea about this Joel guy NOR that none of the books were Catholic. THIS is a troublesome attitude in my opinion. The parents have no idea. I’ve written my letters, but I doubt anything will be done, and to be honest, life has gotten in the way of me bugging them about it. I pledge, though, before my last child leaves this school, we will have CATHOLIC books at the bookfair–even if I have to buy them myself and resell them…I’ll be honest and say I don’t like Scholastic at all and think our Catholic school could do much better. Many of the books they offer now are FLUFF, FLUFF, FLUFF. It’s hard to find decent books there. I don’t order them anymore and avoid them when I can. That’s just me. That’s not book banning. Not letting a seller into your school or into my home is not “banning” in the burning books sense, so some of you need to get off that bandwagon. Protecting young children from cra*py books is my job as a parent. Junie B Jones is NOT great literature. Barbie and the whatever is not great literature. Strawberry shortcake is not great literature. It’s all product tie in and junk for the most part and our Catholic schools (and public schools) can do much better.

I don’t actually buy from Scholastic. I buy used books for the most part and use the library.

I’m just nervous about the proclamations that Harry Potter is evil and Scholastic promotes masturbation and other odd things.

I guess, from my perspective, if you select a Catholic bookseller, publisher, etc. choose it for the superior quality and don’t cite reasons to be fearful of moral turpitude as a result of using Scholastic. To outsiders, I can tell you, it sounds “over the top”.

An atheist or other non-believer will take it as just one more in a list of reasons to consider Catholics and Christians of all stripes to be looney tunes–not to be taken seriously.

Selling inferior quality products (poorly written books, books with flimsy bindings, non-learning-related items) would be a much more understandable complaint. I would go with that, personally.

 

[MamaZona]

Thank you, yes. Yes and Amen 100 times.

The whole fundamentalist mentality is seeping it’s way into the Church with BAD ramifications.

It DOES make religion in general ‘look bad’ and it REALLY makes Catholicism look bad. Very bad.

As for the Scholastic issue, I don’t think I can say it any better than OutinChicago has.

Oh, and if you have a need for books the St. Vincent DePaul stores sell paperbacks for 10 cents and hardcovers for 25 cents. If you are willing to sift through their piles, you will find many gems. That way you can skip the Scholastic orders all together if you don’t care to patronize them.

Agreed. We have some excellent second hand booksellers locally. You can find some real treasures, there, too. Our library also sells books from time to time to raise funds.

 

[mmt4]

We’re addicted to books. Scholastic is our dealer.

LOL and I’m a pusher. But I am an addict as well. The book fair that closed earlier this week killed my checkbook. I volunteered for two days during lunch periods and ended up spending a ton of money. Of course, my kids got wind that I would be there and came to “visit” me.

 

[bbarrick8383]

What exactly is it about Golden Compass, that makes it anti-Catholic. I’ve never seen the movie, was just curious.

 

[MamaZona]

What exactly is it about Golden Compass, that makes it anti-Catholic. I’ve never seen the movie, was just curious.

The author is a pretty bitter atheist. He has said, quite publicly, that the Golden Compass is his effort to make a sort of Chronicles of Narnia for the atheist crowd. The theme in his books, he claims, is a quest to “kill God”.

Of course, I’ve heard from Christians who have watched the movies that he failed miserably at conveying that message and that you wouldn’t come away with anything more than the idea it was a fantasy movie for kids–one in a long line of movies of that genre…ie nothing special. Some suggest that his hints toward anti-Christian sentiments are really just a very cynical marketing ploy.

At any rate, it isn’t a stretch to say the movie’s author is anti-Catholic or anti-Christian. He’s on record as saying as much–quite clearly as a matter of fact.

 

[bbarrick8383]

Thank you, I will make sure that he does not receive any money from me then.

 

[OutinChgoburbs]

The Scholastic book fairs do have a lot of junk. Even in the 1980s when I was in elementary school, the teachers were griping because all the students were buying pencils and folders, and nobody was buying books! Still, the Scholastic book fair was one of my favorite events during the school year, and I bought a lot of fun books through it. In retrospect, none of them had objectionable content.

And we had the 7th and 8th grade boys running around giggling, trying to chase the 7th and 8th grade girls with feather pens. Still, once the 8th grade teacher confiscated the pens until Wednesday envelope day (when the pens were loaded up and sent home), there were books to buy.

 

[psr13]

There was a scene in a television show several years ago where they were burning books they deemed “inappropriate.” The main character of the show was in total opposition to this. In the end scene she walked into the church and said that she had come to agree with them and she was going to add one of her favorite books to the burn pile. I don’t remember exactly what she said, but it was something to the effect of “I’ve come to realize this book has stories about the devil testing God and God striking people down,” et cetera. And the whole town was cheering her on – including the pastor. She finally told them the name of the book. It was The Bible.

I agree with several other posters here that it is the job of the parents to monitor their children’s reading materials; and if the parent deems something inappropriate, I back that parent a hundred percent in not letting their child read it. But we should be very careful of that slippery slope of deeming what others should or should not read as there are lots and lots of people out there who would like nothing more than to ban anything of a Christian nature – just watch the news this morning of proponents of gay marriage trying to silence the protestors who are in favor of Prop 8 in California.

Just my two cents.

Yes, that was “Dr. Quinn: Medicine Woman.” Just wanted to chime in there. It was an excellent episode, and I want to cry everytime I see them burning those beautiful books.

 

[happymommy]

And we had the 7th and 8th grade boys running around giggling, trying to chase the 7th and 8th grade girls with feather pens. Still, once the 8th grade teacher confiscated the pens until Wednesday envelope day (when the pens were loaded up and sent home), there were books to buy.

Our school only sells the books during the book fair, not pens, computer programs, just books. It is a BOOK fair after all.
You don’t have to sell all of the other stuff.

 

[AmberDale]

I am going to direct this to another link. Jimmy Akin researched this, and found it not to be credible. For those of you who do not already know, Jimmy Akin is an apologist here at Catholic Answers, and runs his own blog as well:

jimmyakin.org/2005/07/pre16_on_harry_.html

Will that help, AmberDale?

I was just saying he wasn’t Pope at the time he wrote it. I like Harry Potter, read all the books and looking forward to the next movie.

 

[Cat]

Two points:

1. Yes, Scholastic puts out a lot of junk. Who doesn’t?! Does anyone here get the Abbey Press Catalogue? There is some association of this company with a group of monks. There is some very pretty stuff in that catalogue. But there is a lot of fluffy junk. Americans like junk! How many of you have some worthless collection of “kitsch?” E.g., Precious Moments figurines–they’re junk, utterly worthless except to the other PM collectors! (Grown up junk). Or plates? Or thimbles? Or matchbook covers? Or in my husband’s case, Little Mermaid figurines. We all have a weakness for junk! No wonder our kids do, too! Junk is not evil! It’s just a waste of money and space, but hey, big deal!

BUT…amidst all the junk and Barbie books and Strawberry Shortcake and Speed Racer books, there are treasures in the Scholastic catalogue. I remember when my daughter was in 1st grade, I faithfully ordered every Caldecott, Newbury, and any other “award winner” in the Scholastic Catalogue. One day, the teacher stopped me as I picked up my daughter and said, “No wonder your daughter is such a good student–you order the best books.”

So skip over all the junk and look for the tiny little pictures with the Caldecott and Newbury winners, and order those. Yes, some of those are objectionable to religious people, especially the modern ones. But the classics–to this day, Sylvester and the Magic Pebble is one of my favorite books and IMO, one of the most powerful children’s books ever written. Order the treasures and ignore the junk, just like you hopefully ignore the junk in a grocery store.

1. Keep in mind that even if the books are not overtly Catholic, or stories about great saints or missionaries, or stories from the Bible, or catechisms, MANY children’s books are written by Catholic authors who are devout, and they have managed to include their beliefs in their books. It might be hidden and you might have to dig for it, but it’s there. Why not support Catholic authors who are trying to write good and wholesome stories for children and teenagers, even if those stories don’t mention nuns and Rosaries and Bibles and Jesus?

I am the author of two books (see my website), and even though they aren’t overtly Catholic, the Gospel is there. The first novel is actually an allegory of the story of Jesus–it’s extremely subtle, but it’s in there. My hope is that any young teen who reads my books will develop more of a “God-centered universe” in their minds, and thus be more open to those who come along and teach them overtly about God.

 

[Island_Oak]

Absolutely NOT.

Banning books does nothing but invoke further curiousity.

Besides - none of the reasons you gave are very valid, IMO.

not a Catholic company - I purchase other items from non-Catholic companies. They offer a good, inexpensive, quality product.

Golden Compass - I’ve never seen it or read it, so I will not comment (unlike others who feel the authority to comment on Harry Potter, even though they’ve never cracked a cover… )

Harry Potter - Personally have read the entire series with my kids and LOVED IT! Awesome series, great moral teachings, and fabulous reading for preteens to teens to adults, in my experience.

Masturbation - checked out this link. That is NOT masturbation in the sexual sense. A 2 year old touching himself in the tub is not a sin! It is normal curiosity, and anyone who “punishes” a toddler for touching himself is creating huge issues for this kid! A toddler is not sexual.

I agree with the other poster who said Scholastic is a great way to build up a good library rather inexpensively.

My experience mirrors yours exactly. In addition, Scholastic gives credit for books purchased and then allows the school/or teachers to select books free of charge.

Seems like the OP is working overtime to dig up a controversy where none exists.

 

[Brenda_V]

Side note - for all like KC who haven’t read it, you ain’t missed nothin’. I borrowed my moms paperback copy and I have to tell you that I saw all the errors in it without sitting down and, well, doing a line by line refutation of the guys “facts” :whacky:.

I also got to read the entire Golden Compass series - my oldest was a teaching major still in school when it came available here in the US and she being a lover of fantasy books purchased them! Here is a 20 something year old really upset, she brought them home to me to read and get my advice on whether she should include them in her classroom library - my advice - no way. BTW, these books are page turners they are that well written unlike DaVinci code or even Harry Potter!

Brenda V.