Golden Compass brings controversy to US schools

Dec 16 2007

A few days ago I wrote a post about how a Catholic school board in Canada decided to ban The Golden Compass because of its perceived anti-religious stance (Canadian Catholic school board bans fantasy novel). Much to my dismay, I came across another article from the American Library Association website that the ban is spreading to the United States. Of course, just like every other book lover out there, I fell out of my chair upon reading this news.

According to the article, a public school in Colorado pulled The Golden Compass from its shelves. Then, when a brave librarian complained to the higher ups in the school district, the book returned to its proper spot on a library bookshelf a few days later. The other school to pull the book is a Catholic school in Wisconsin.

It should be noted that in the Colorado case, the book was removed after a middle school librarian raised concerns over the book’s "age appropriateness". Mindy Wandling, the librarian in question is also an evangelical Christian – making her justification for removing the book complete rubbish. While I hate to put words in people’s mouths, I can say with certainty that Wandling was probably offended by the book’s theme, and that it was written by a self-professed atheist.

Luckily for the kids, Mark Skinner (a librarian at the high school)fought the decision and got the book back on the shelves:

"I have a hard time with anyone who wants to pull a book when they haven’t read it," Skinner said at a December 10 Adams State College public forum prompted by the incident.

Also at that forum was Ed Wandling (Mindy’s husband), who said:

…he was not challenging the book’s literary merit but its message because it conflicts with community standards. "The American Library Association thinks I, as a parent, am the only one who can restrict what my children read. I don’t agree with that."

Community standards? Even though I haven’t yet read The Golden Compass, I can’t imagine how a book written with young adults in mind could be so morally decayed that it merits being banned altogether from a public school – where children of all faiths (and even atheists) go to learn.

The story from Wisconsin is much worse. Yes, it is a Catholic school which is private. Nevertheless, they must be setting their standards pretty low when their library media specialist says this:

"I just heard all the news and I decided to pull them," Mary Miller said in the December 7 Oshkosh Northwestern, adding that after she has reviewed the books, "I’m not sure what I’ll do with them."

Did she actually read the books? Or did she just hear about all the anti-religious rhetoric and decide to pull them. Yes, Miller said she "reviewed" the books, but that can mean anything from actually reading the books to just reading the back cover.

Okay, the article goes on, but I’ll let you read the rest instead of me just repeating everything it says. But I will say that all this controversy over The Golden Compass is doing wonders for its sales figures. I know of at least one fellow book lover at the office where I work who is going to read the series now just out of curiosity, and because so many Christians are so bent against it. I plan on reading it myself, and will probably comment on it when I do.

So how do you get people to really want to read a book? You try and ban it. It’s basic human nature; we desire things which we cannot have. I know that’s very shallow reasoning, but if you look back through the history of literature, books that were banned generally became the most sought after. Even today the American Library Association celebrates "Banned Books Week" where they encourage patrons to read a book that has been banned.

But on a more intellectual level; why would you want to try and suppress something just because it offers an idea different from your own? Unfortunately, many religions have a nasty history of trying to suppress opposing viewpoints. For example, the Catholic Church put Galileo Galilei on trial for suggesting that the earth is not the center of the universe. Galileo eventually died under house arrest, simply because of an opposing viewpoint.

That is an extreme example. But history has a nasty way of repeating itself if we’re not careful. My opinion has always been the more ideas and viewpoints, the better. Let ‘em flow and let the debates follow. That’s where the richness of human thought begins to emerge.

Do we really want to be teaching our children that opposing viewpoints should be suppressed? In the spirit of this post, I’ll let you decide for yourself.

US schools needled by Golden Compass

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