(February 11, 2016 at 4:40 pm)drfuzzy Wrote: So, I work in a rather unusual library. It's State-funded educational materials. We rarely see patrons - we usually ship things out. But there was a meeting on campus, so I had more guests than usual.
A woman comes in with her three kids. The kids are home-schooled. She starts in by saying that her 9-year-old needs books to read. GOOD books. She's looking for wholesome, Christian stories. She proceeded to tell me that most of the new young adult books are filthy - just filthy. When she stopped to breathe, I told her that we don't categorize fiction (other than western, fantasy, science fiction - and I got the death stare at "science fiction") but that we have a huge collection of literary classics. That apparently made her happy. She checked out quite a few books.
Then she asked how she can get books shipped to her. I showed her how to search the online catalog. She didn't like it, she wants to keep her kids away from computers and the internet. I got gutsy and told her that literacy now means computer literacy - and that her kids probably won't be able to get jobs or college degrees without it. She bristled at this, but I quickly pulled up a list of Christian computing/parenting websites. She liked the list of Christian kid sites and "how to set restrictions" section. <sigh>
She was visiting from Topeka, KS. I think a tattooed lesbian atheist just helped a Westboro Baptist Church fundie find books for her kids.
Yeah that sounds pretty damn extreme. I get the point of homeschooling to teach your kids what you want them to learn, while at the same time preventing them from subjects you don't want them to learn about. At least at that stage of development I guess it's ok, if you believe the children belong to the parents. Once you move into the realm of the children belong to the community or the state, then I can see the need to get them out of the indoctrinating parents and into the hands of the indoctrinating state.
How old were the kids? There are a lot of kids that get exposed to porn, which can warp their minds and effect their future relationships.
I guess I'm more of a libertarian where it's up the parents, not the social norms promoted by the state, and television. When they grow older, they will find out. Something about keeping the innocence of a child is lost in the public schools. The parents no longer have any choice. The children become drones like the others, but at least they are equal. Kind of think it comes down to who owns the children.
