To the Editor:
This letter is in response to the letter that was published Feb. 23, supporting a decision of the Lower Township Elementary Board of Education to reverse its ban of the book “Black and White” from the school library.
The book contains sexually explicit, obscene, and racially charged language, and even the board members and its solicitor were offended by the language when the grandparent of a fifth-grade student displayed some of the book’s language on a poster at a school board meeting.
The letter was in response to a prior letter that criticized the board’s decision. The writer first tries to make the case that the book has won awards and that neither the author of the prior letter nor the grandparent had the moral qualifications to criticize the board for its decision.
The writer then says that most kids by age 10 are already subjected to substantial web and TV violence and obscenities, draws a bizarre reference to the Kennedy-Nixon debate, and concludes with the most outlandish statement that the teachers are better judges of what is appropriate or harmful for a wide range of kids than the parents or grandparents.
As a reminder, our public school system is based on a principle of in loco parentis, which is a Latin term that means “in the place of the parent.” Public school teachers were tasked not only with teaching children academic skills, but also providing a good moral foundation in accordance with the views of the parents. So, to argue that parents have no standing on the morality of their children is insulting and flies against what our system of education was meant to be.
Our nation was not founded with a view toward public education, and in the formative years, homeschooling was the method used to teach our children. It was not until the demands of running a household and working grew that communities decided to pool their resources and hire teachers to educate their children, but it was the parents who set the agenda, following the principle of in loco parentis.
I read a Harvard Magazine article titled, “The Risks of Homeschooling,” which focused on the comments of a Harvard professor in critique of a trend toward homeschooling. This professor said it is wrong to give parents too much control over their children, labeling it “authoritarian.” She concludes by saying, “I think it’s always dangerous to put powerful people in charge of the powerless and to give the powerful ones total authority.”
The problem with people like the Harvard professor, the letter writer, and the school board members is that they think they know what is best for our children and ignore the voices of the parents, unless those voices fit into their ideological view of morality.
Children are impressionable and no one can deny that they are exposed to violence, sexually explicit material, and racial comments in a world that has been corrupted by evil ever since the fall of man.
However, when people in authority condone it by allowing books like “Black and White” in the library of an elementary school, it sends the wrong message to our children and leaves them with the impression that it is acceptable behavior and just part of the cultural norm.
We need to get back to a sense of morality and show our children that sexually explicit material, racial epithets, and violence are not acceptable in a civilized society, especially in the cancel culture world that we live in, where adults get fired and their careers are ruined for uttering some of the words that are in this book.
