A school district in Florida has made the bold and bewildering decision to ban dictionaries (dictionaries!) from its libraries on the grounds that allowing children to read them violates a law aimed at protecting children from sexual content.
Under HB 1069, signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis last May, Florida residents have the right to demand the removal of any library book that “depicts or describes sexual conduct.”
“As the world goes mad,” Gov. DeSantis said in a statement announcing the new law, “Florida represents a refuge of sanity and a citadel of normalcy.”
The bill was part of a sweeping package of bills called Let Kids Be Kids. I remember it being a very big deal when we all got calculators in fifth grade because one kid showed the rest of us how to use boring old numbers to spell funny words for female anatomy.
Kids will, in fact, be kids.
Meanwhile …
“The American Heritage Children’s Dictionary, Webster’s Dictionary for Students and Merriam-Webster’s Elementary Dictionary are among more than 2,800 books that have been […]
Ya can’t make this stuff up.
I have a sister who a number of years ago was expelled from the Teach For America program for”going against the curriculum”, her offense, teaching her class of poor African American seventh grade students how to use a dictionary. For the life of me I can’t figure out why it’s so hard as a society to look at the best examples and worst examples of countries through history and compare and contrast our own actions.
Does anyone feel like we’re living in a Eugene Ionesco world of absurdity? Banning dictionaries? Banning books? Then the earlier comment about homelessness, food insecurity, finding clean drinking water? That’s for Third World countries, right? No, the USA! Right. We can thank the GOP and the ultra-rich who fund their campaigns for where we are now! That’s the truth! Terri Quint
So what are they going to ban next down there…children can’t go to zoos or be raised on farms fir fear if seeing animaks “gettin’ it on”????
Don’t give them any ideas!