The battle for the school library

In the last few years, school libraries have become ground zero in the culture wars. I am no stranger to library controversies. I remember when my father ‘read the riot act’ to my school librarian 55 years ago.

My father was a college professor, an academic, and a gentleman. He loved books and encouraged me and my siblings to read. Our house was filled with books ranging from advanced mathematics to pulp science fiction. He was not given to anger and was rarely confrontational, but in this incident, he let the librarian ‘have it!’ This incident occurred during my second-grade year at a public K-12 school, where a single library served students across all grades. My class went to the library to choose books to read. Students were permitted to select either fiction or non-fiction. Since I was fascinated by military aircraft, I chose a classic reference book: Jane’s All the World’s Aircraft. When I went to check the book out, the librarian told me that I couldn’t because it was from the ‘big side’ of the library. Even as a child, I was upset; the book was exactly what I wanted to read. I couldn’t understand why the librarian wouldn’t allow me to have it. He said that the book was reserved for secondary school students.

When I got home, I mentioned the incident to my father, and he couldn’t believe it! The following day, he drove me to school, and we marched into the library. I don’t think he raised his voice — that was not his style — but my dad made it clear that it was ridiculous to prevent me from reading material that was more advanced than my grade level. He talked about encouraging rather than stifling my curiosity. Needless to say, after that day, I could check out any book in the library.

Well, things have come full circle. Twenty-one years later, my son was in second grade at the same school. His class had some reading time, and he had forgotten his book at home. My son was a precocious reader, and his teacher sent him to the library to get a replacement book. He was reading The Hobbit at home, so he found a copy in the library and took it to the desk to check it out. Just like twenty-one years ago, the librarian said that he could not check the book out because it came from the “big side” of the library. Upholding a family tradition, I drove my son to school the following day and marched into the library together. I explained that my son could read ‘The Hobbit’ because he was already reading it. I made it clear that librarians should encourage a child's enthusiasm for reading and support their aspirations to explore more advanced literature.

Some say that the battle over school libraries today is about whether to censor certain types of books. I disagree. In my own experience, and later that of my son, we encountered a form of censorship when the librarian restricted access to certain books due to our ages. However, my father and later I intervened and overruled the librarians. The issue isn’t over whether to censor certain types of books; rather, it is over who gets to do the censoring.

I know many of my conservative friends are up in arms about the highly sexualized content being made available in our public school libraries. Whether you call it censorship or selection, the fact remains that someone decides which books are included in the library and which are not. Educators say that professionals should be making those decisions, but in 2016, two of Cedar Rapids’ three high schools eliminated their librarian positions. Regardless, in a debate over who makes decisions about our schools, I am always going to side with parents.

To be honest, libraries are not among my top concerns about our schools. I might be more concerned if students were actually reading books and using the library. Maybe the solution is to do away with school libraries altogether!