Things I don't "get"

In the paper this morning was a story about a group of parents who have lobbied for alternative freshman com arts curriculum because they feel the books selected contain obscenity, references to sex, or talk of suicide.

This story has bothered me since they first reported about the parents group last year and the uproar over one of the books. 

First off, I have faith that the school district is not assigning "Shades of Grey" to incoming freshman.  I'm sure that the school tries to balance literary complexity with up-to-date and relevant material.  They mix the old "Catcher in the Rye" with some new book about a Christopher Creed.  (Plus more books that don't warrant deeper inspection - perhaps "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," but who knows, those don't make headlines.)

Given my base assumption that the high school is not trying to make the kids into sex-crazed despots, I don't understand the concern coming from the parents.  First, they have the opportunity to opt out of individual objectionable books.  I'll stand by this option as a viable one, given that I myself once opted out of a book in 7th or 8th grade because it was about a brain tumor and I could barely read it without feeling like I was going to vomit.

But say you don't want to opt out of one particular book.  There are other things you can do.  The parents could read the books before the kids did and have the opportunity to discuss distressing themes with them.  My kids and I are reading 'Little House in the Big Woods' and do you know how many questions I got in the first chapter about slaughtering animals?  Definitely not farm hands, those two.

But the real thing that I don't "get" is that at some point kids are exposed to these things.  I'm guessing that it's way before 9th grade.  A middle-school student in Oshkosh committed suicide.  Seventh and eight-graders get pregnant.  Kids are bullied so much that they do terrible things to themselves, to others.  Kids are introduced to drugs by their parents.  This is sad, unfortunate, and I desperately wish we lived in a world where these things weren't so.

Last time I checked, however, there wasn't a cave system under Appleton where we could hide our children. An alterna-world without sex on TV, violent video-games, wars, or cruelty.  A world without stories of kids locked in basements, gay teen suicide, and school shootings. 

Since that alterna-world is not hidden secretly below the city of Appleton, maybe it's our job to instead put the world in context.  Keep the lines of communication open so that kids can talk about what troubles them.  Because while You (Citizens and Concerned Parents.org) may have done a wonderful job of raising your kids in a bubble - the kid with the locker next door might be the homeless teen getting beat up every day.  Do you really want  your youngster to pretend it's not happening because "he's just not ready to deal with that yet?"  Too bad - he needs to be ready - whether you are or not.