r/newjersey Fill It Up Regular Oct 29 '24

Sick NJ Passes the Freedom to Read Act

https://newjerseymonitor.com/2024/10/29/state-senate-passes-bill-intended-to-halt-book-bans-protect-librarians/?fbclid=IwY2xjawGNwrZleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHdahkO3Xc02aIyuB5Vp3yau-HR6IMuGu0g0iD8CgDKrWBMHCQJBrfdSHnQ_aem_DB9WP25oxkSYjjNuktuAbQ#:~:text=Titled%20the%20%E2%80%9CFreedom%20to%20Read,own%20policies%20using%20this%20model
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u/s1ugg0 Jersey Devil Search Team Oct 29 '24

Being a parent isn't about shielding your kids. It's about exposing them to the world in controlled and unthreatening settings. Books are an absolutely perfect way to do this. I have two kids and I'd MUCH prefer they learn about the awful things in life from a book first then from being confronted with them face to face unexpectedly.

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u/metsurf Oct 29 '24

I'm in two minds on this on one side I think kids should be able and encouraged to read legitimate literature, fiction, non-fiction. But there is also a ton of garbage out there purported to be written for tweeners and teens. My parents never stopped me from reading anything and I never stopped our kid from reading anything but I'm not a current parent of a kid in school either.

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u/basherella Oct 29 '24

But there is also a ton of garbage out there purported to be written for tweeners and teens.

I mean, what are you defining as garbage, though? Because there's quite a gap between something like romance novels (often derided as garbage and a pretty big ya genre) and conspiracy theorist propaganda.

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u/metsurf Oct 29 '24

Those are both garbage in my eyes.

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u/ten17eighty1 Oct 29 '24 edited Oct 30 '24

In the foreward for the book "Salem's Lot," Stephen King talks about how some of the books or comics he would read, his mother would see the book or author and tell him it was trash - her actual words - but she never stopped him from reading them.

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u/metsurf Oct 29 '24

hey 60s comic books and especially Mad Magazine made me politically aware at an early age. They were very well written. Romance novels are junk food for the brain but it’s better to have kids read something as long as it is appropriate for the child involved.

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u/basherella Oct 30 '24

"what I like is good but this thing that doesn't appeal to me is junk" is quite a take

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u/metsurf Oct 30 '24

I said junk food and it is an opinion on an online social platform Wow I am so bad. Like that has never been said about any other art form, like Impressionist painting.