Censorship

I read Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere Banned Due to Racy Jumper Fumblings by Leah Schnelbach and Media Exposure - Students, Parents and Trust at the Sudbury Valley School site in relative proximity of one another, which put me in mind of another subject that frustrates me about the merest notion of putting Conan in a traditional school.

People like this New Mexican parent feel, for reasons that make sense to them, that things should be kept from their children.  I don't necessarily disagree with regards to my own son.  He's young enough that hasn't been an issue yet. Conan's taste runs toward Quiet Loud and Roller Rintoo, so I don't concern myself much over how the things I read might affect him.

But whatever I decisions on the books, movies and other media my son is able to handle, will be handled by Rae and I based on our assessment of his needs.

How dare that woman or that administration try to take a role in what choices other parents can make for their children from the group resources of that school?  I understand that it will always play a role in what choices are made regarding ordering new items, and that's frustrating, but limited resources make some choices unavoidable, so I can release that.

So, she's a turdsicle who wants to spoil her son's enjoyment of reading?  I'm not trying to inhibit her rights to be just that shitty.  Spoiling other people's kids reading enjoyment?  Fuck you!  What the fuck gives you the gall?

This kind of thing just enrages me and I'm not going to send my son to a public school or move to New Mexico, so this has not direct effect on me.

I just can't imagine what right one could imagine they have the right to decide what other people's children should have kept from them.  It's horrifying to me!

I get that my view is less common than that, but that doesn't make it make the least bit of sense to me nor does it justify it morally in the least.

I have a recurring fear.  It's from the pilot episode of Roseanne.  I'm not generally going to defend the first season, which only rarely captured the things that would eventually make the show great, but this moment does, even if they might perhaps have done it even better once the show was in its groove.

In the scene, Roseanne is at a parent-teacher conference and the teacher is telling her that Darlene has been barking like a dog and they end up in a fuss over it, with the teacher speaking to her in an exceptionally condescending tone.  I would not handle that at well as Roseanne does, and, of course, she doesn't handle it the way one is "supposed to".

I am not built to defend my son's rights his whole life against people who find it self-evident that he should have them kept from him and not be treated like a person.  My own losing battles against those forces through my own childhood have left wounds that are too raw for me to be able to do it at all diplomatically.