Today’s post presents a case for limiting your child’s literature options. I expect many will disagree with me on this, but I hope to convince you that there are good reasons for not giving your child free access to all that is “out there.”
Let me start by saying that The Savvy Educator believes in choice! There are hundreds of excellent books that we’ve been thrilled to make available to our children. Our hope and expectation is that, with so many great options, every child will find some that inspire, excite, inform, intrigue, and spur him on to read more. We hope children enjoy the prospect and the process of choosing a new book.
But we believe the options should not be unlimited. We see the value in limiting our children’s choices in two ways.
We limit for reasons of quality. The truth is, much of what is popular in the juvenile or young adult fiction category is not great literature that will stand the test of time (to put it mildly). It’s easy to spot the flaws. Sometimes the grammar, syntax, and sentence mechanics are less than stellar. Add those concerns to simple, predictable plots, flat characters, and trite, insipid language, and it’s hard to find any value in reading these books.
Probably the strongest argument you’ll hear in their favor from your teen or preteen is just that everyone else is reading them. Those who aren’t feel excluded. You’ll also hear parents claim they’re just glad their child is reading something. It’s kind of like saying you’re relieved to have your child eat some Snicker’s bars for lunch, because at least he’s eating something. Yes, eating Snickers is certainly better than starving. However, we can bless and benefit our children by setting the standard much higher. When we can help our children develop an appetite for literature that nourishes their intellect and delights their imagination, why would we settle for something that merely entertains by satisfying the most shallow of appetites?
We limit for reasons of content. Parents, teachers, and administrators concerned about exposing their children to ideas, themes, situations, and language that is too mature (or that may not be beneficial at any age) will likely find themselves limiting literature selections because of content concerns. We completely support you in this! There are so many valid concerns when it comes to content, even with many of the books that do pass the quality test. You may see thought-provoking storylines that raise issues about society’s problems but that also place a strong emphasis on entertaining the readers with gratuitous violence.
Especially for a child who tends to be drawn to and intrigued by (or conversely, disturbed by) violence, this could be feeding an appetite that is better left unfed. For a while, some of the most popular young adult literature featured occult themes. (When did “Teen Paranormal Romance” actually become a literary genre?) Would reading Twilight make your child a want to become a vampire? That’s not likely, and it’s not the main concern. Of more concern is the prospect of arousing an unhealthy fascination with the occult, which scripture calls an abomination. The lines between good and evil can be incredibly blurry in some of these books, and the occult may be represented as something powerful, fascinating, and very appealing to an awkward adolescent.
Perhaps the strongest content-related reason for limiting literature choices is contemporary literature’s representation of love and sex. When our young people are so bombarded with mixed messages on these topics, forming a biblical view of love and sex can be quite an uphill battle. Reading literature that advocates an infinite number of anti-biblical views on relationships is very likely to further confuse the matter. The keyword there is advocates. So many books go well beyond just presenting these situations. They represent as good, healthy, and right relationships that fall outside Scripture’s description of the beautiful intimacy God intends for men and women. And they do so with a great deal of emotional manipulation designed to appeal powerfully to teens’ penchant for grand drama.
With young children, we recommend providing a list of excellent, age-appropriate books and allowing them to choose from the list. With middle schoolers, this approach still works well, though they may have some suggestions to add to the list. We recommend looking into those with an open mind and dialoguing with your child about why you’ve chosen to add each one to the reading list or not. Ideally, you can come to these decisions together at this stage.
By the time your child is in high school, she will likely choose her own books (outside of those required for school). We still recommend having her run each one by you so that, together, you can determine if it’s a good option. Walking through this process also helps her develop the discernment necessary to make choices about other media, choices she’ll need to make for the rest of her life. Hopefully, as a teen raised on excellent literature, the mediocre selections of young adult fiction won’t even appeal to her.
So what books ARE on our reading lists? Lots of classics (no surprise there, I’m sure)! The books that have stood the test of time are still relevant today; students find the characters relatable and the plots and language rich. However, not all our books are old. Lots of modern Newberry award-winners are on our list as well. We also encourage reading from the time period our students are learning about in history. This serves the dual purpose of bringing the history lessons to life and also making the literature more meaningful, as the student has helpful knowledge of the story’s context.
I will close by saying that what you choose to emphasize is important. We certainly don’t recommend putting a lot of discussion and emphasis on what you’ve decided your children can’t read. We don’t even recommend putting a lot of research into what you don’t want them to read. Instead, put the vast majority of your energy into determining what excellent, timeless books you are tremendously excited to share with your child.
Hopefully, all this has given you food for thought. What an important topic to think on! Our encouragement to you is to be intentional about what your child reads. There is so much good to be gained from literature! Yes, and there are plenty of lurking dangers as well. As a parent, teacher of the co-op’s literature class, or school librarian, you have the opportunity to make literature a wonderfully enriching part of children’s lives. It’s worth the effort to take full advantage of this!
Phil 4:8 – Finally brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.
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