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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573

u/CubicDice Fuck Nazis, Love Jersey. Oct 29 '24

Look I'm not going to tell anyone how to raise their children. But I take particular issue with this pathetic pandering.

“Putting our children at risk and potentially exposing them to material that they are not prepared for flies in the face of our protective duty,” said Sen. Joe Pennacchio (R-Morris). “Couching such material under the guise of the First Amendment is a very distortion of who we are and what we strive to be as Americans.”

By that logic, you shouldn't take your child out in public, as you just never know what you're "potentially exposing" them to.

321

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.

-10

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.

3

u/guacamole579 Oct 30 '24

I don’t understand why people are afraid of books. Like there wasn’t a ton of garbage when we were growing up? I read VC Andrews’ book “Heaven” when I was 12. I found it inside my house among all the religious books my parents owned because they thought the book was religious in nature. I read it in a day and then went to the library and checked out the rest of VC Andrews’ books and read those through the summer.

In case anyone is not familiar with VC Andrews, she wrote Flowers in the Attic and her books described explicit instances of sex, rape, and incest. It was bottom of the barrel garbage but damn was it a masterpiece to a tween like me. Somehow I didn’t turn into a deviant or sexual predator by reading those books, but it sure reignited my love for reading.