Letter to the editor: Banning books not best for children

Parents should not be trying to have books banned. They should want their children to know more, achieve more and experience more than they did. How do we reach those goals by isolating our children from life?

To make good decisions, young people should be armed with all the facts, not bits and pieces. Sexually explicit books or books with racist titles? Parents, you are kidding yourselves if you think your high-schooler hasn’t participated in some level of sexual activity or been exposed to racism. Do you really think if a book is taken off the shelf that students won’t find it somewhere else? Surely, as adults, we can’t be that naive.

One of the mistakes parents make is underestimating their children’s ability to think and decide for themselves. You have now brought attention to these books and piqued the curiosity of all. Personally, I applaud the attention being paid to award-winning writings. We all should be reading more.

Those parents who want to take us back to 1933 Germany and make controversial books go away, I think your efforts will backfire.

Joann Seabol

Hempfield