Banned Books: Does Censoring A Kid's Book Remove Its Prejudices?

philnel.com:

Having lately been examining two versions of Hugh Lofting's Doctor Dolittle (1920, 1988) and three versions of Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (1964, 1973, 1998), we've been addressing this question: Do Bowdlerized texts alter the ideological assumptions of the original? The answer is more complicated than you might think.

Read the whole story: philnel.com

Comments

[Grannyover70]

03:58 PM on 09/27/2010

You have to start young to help children learn the effects of racism, how people lived, etc. It is
called "history". They can learn about unfairness, sadness, ignorance, crueltly, when they read how people were hurt. I cannot believe we think it is o.k. for children to play violent, abusive, bloodless killing, vulgar language, games on the computer, with no redeeming punishments for doing wrong, and expect them to grow into decent, caring, tolerant human beings. These books you are thinking of banning, all have redeeming qualities of some good people who make them understand what is right and what is wrong. You can't wait until they are
grown to teach them about the world and instill good qualities in their character. Banning
books does not help.

[sabelmouse]

11:27 AM on 09/27/2010

to 'edit'' older books like this leaves out the history. it's important to see how these things change and talk abouit this with our children. preteding colonialism and slavery never happened is not the way to go.

[thebigbike]

11:30 AM on 09/22/2010

Jusat because "we " thought those books were really fun and neat and cool, does NOT make them classics worthy of pedestals. Like there aren't a lot of GREAT newer books out there without these problems? and yeah the elementary school librarians have a defensible point. remember they have highly finite budgets space and time. Leave Dr. Doolittle and the Chocolate Factory to the Master's theses.

[eric14]

10:05 AM on 09/22/2010

What about books that depict wealthy people as evil? Poor people as criminal? Scots tight with money. Irish drunks. Cowardly or Mafiosi Italians? Libertine or treacherous French?

I think books which are overtly racist should be kept out of schools and school libraries. The issue is too complex, disputatious and time-consuming for schools to address with young children. Address it with teens as bias and prejudice in literature. They are up for it and better able to argue.

For smaller kids school should be fun.

[Number 6]

03:25 PM on 09/27/2010

So, an obvious, if trivial question.... Is Huckleberry Finn "racist" because it uses the N word?

[eric14]

04:56 AM on 09/28/2010

That's a good question. To answer it, is to be wrong.

[War with the newts]

06:05 PM on 09/27/2010

I hope none of your comment was meant to apply to Roald Dahl. There's nothing remotely racist or otherwise objectionable in his wonderful kids' books. Both my kids were raised on nightly readings from "The Witches", "Matilda", "James and the Giant Peach", "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" and the rest. No ill effects. I think children are far more sophisticated and discerning when it comes to children's literature than they're given credit for.

[Mishmashthots]

04:59 PM on 09/21/2010

A well written and thought provoking blog.