Parents want to ban "Fahrenheit 451". Can you smell the irony?

""The book had a bunch of very bad language in it," Diana Verm said. "It shouldn't be in there because it's offending people. If they can't find a book that uses clean words, they shouldn't have a book at all." Alton Verm filed a "Request for Reconsideration of Instructional Materials" Thursday."

I believe our kids should get the best education available as possible. This unfortunately means that if you send kids to public school, you will also have to do some home-schooling. Kids get taught all kinds of things like Evolution, sex education, and bad words as well. They will learn this stuff through friends and school curriculum as well.

Information should not be filtered, it should be available to our kids. We should teach them our values (as parents), and make sure NOT to make school a daycare. Take an active role with them and make sure you know you as parents care about their education. My parents did this, and I have benefited from it.

Fahrenheit 451 is a very important book, and the movie is an important visual aid as well. I highly recommend this book for children above 15 or so. The ideas and concepts in this book are not something children should be shielded from, especially in high school.

Banning books is NOT the answer. Book selection in schools should come from a combination of local factors, parental insight, and school administration practices. This way everyone gets a say in which books are available in the school libraries. Public libraries should not ban books at all. There will be some books which are targeted for adults, and they should be labeled or even checked out only to age levels for which they represent. Public access to knowledge should never be limited, because there are far greater consequences otherwise.

You ban one thing now, you ban more things later, then all of a sudden you have China many years down the road.

Some time in the future, you may have the opportunity to serve as a juror (or speak) in a so-called obscenity or moral case. It would be wise to remember that the same people who would stop you from viewing adult material may be back next year to complain about a book, or even a TV program. If you can be told what you can see or read, then it follows that you can be told what to say or think. Defend your constitutionally-protected rights. No one else will do it for you. -- adapted from Boards of Canada

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