The Hempfield Area School Board is to be commended for attempting to model a framework for parents and educators to determine which materials are appropriate in public school libraries (“Hempfield school board shelves any changes to its library book policy and selections for now,” March 11, TribLIVE).
The internet provides unprecedented access to all manner of thought that no amount of parental control can stanch. Educators and parents must thus serve as gatekeepers in our epistemological journey toward an enlightened and just society.
It may sound old- fashioned, but a literary canon as a foundation of matriculation is especially necessary in a bitterly divided nation lurching to its destiny as the world’s first multicultural democratic republic. Without burdening students with “The Scarlet Letter,” or, God forbid, “As I Lay Dying,” we should still strive to construct a canon that furthers the common good through empathy, diversity, compassion and wisdom.
While graphic sexual content is not appropriate in a public-school library, literature advancing understanding of the LGBTQ+ experience is. As we face our past to forge our future, we should tackle systemic racism, but not in a way that blames and shames our children for the sins of the fathers.
A century ago, the Supreme Court affirmed, as foundational to the First Amendment, the Miltonian concept of a marketplace of ideas wherein truth will prevail. Today, with sum total of all human knowledge literally at our fingertips, the reasonable, rational curation of content is vital. We all have a stake in the success of the efforts in Hempfield.
Peter Busowski
Jeannette