That is the core of the debate.
But the problem is, when someone says "standards" another will say "censorship." If we try to keep to the middle of the road, then we censor those on the fringes.
To play devil's advocate, if we go to the edges of the road, we infuriate those in the middle. It is a very delicate balance - especially in regards to school curricula.
I think everyone here would be as mad as I would if they found out that their public library had books promoting sexual relationship with underage children. But should we shut up that voice by not funding it while promoting books that others might find objectionable? From their (pea brain) point of view having sex with children is a given and books that take a objective look at certain religions are blasphamy. We would be saying that their point of view is not important and our's is. And I do feel that, but do we want to give the goverment that ability to determine whose voices have merit and whose does not?
This becomes a problem from several directions. Child pornography is a nasty, nasty thing... but the first book in which I was exposed to sex between a child and an adult was a book about a young teen (13, if I recall) who is abused by her foster father, and runs away from the foster home with her younger foster sister, to make sure the same thing doesn't happen to the younger girl. Was it a little explicit for me at the time (I was in 8th grade)? Possibly. Should it have been kept out of the middle school library? I don't think so. Certainly, before the librarian let me read it (to see if it was, indeed, suitable) she called my parents and asked if I could. Later in the year, another girl read it over her father's objections (her mother approved it)... turns out his objections had to do with what her father was doing (not nearly as bad, but bad enough), and reading the book and finding out about another girl in similar (if worse) circumstances allowed her to tell the school counselor what was going on, and her father was removed from the home and his parental rights terminated... following which a group of parents tried to have the book removed from the library, for dealing with "graphic and unsuitable subjects", as I recall. Ultimately, it was kept in the library, but required a parent's written permission to read - which, of course, caused it to be in high demand.
Personally, I think a lot of the books on the list are just fine. Some people have trouble with Mark Twain for his use of the term "******" in his books. I think they are silly. But who am I to judge?
Some of them are silly. As far as the word "******", it was in common use, as a degradation of the word "Negro", but not intended as a racial slur, rather as a simple description in a southern dialect, at the time the book was written. As the quote goes... "those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it" - if we don't allow people to read about the errors of our past, how will they learn from them?
The majority of people can force their will on the minority in this instance- is that right? Take into account the minority will still have to cough up their taxes to fund books they find objectionable.
Unfortunately, in this case, the minority is often forcing their will on the majority - because the minority is a loud and uncontested squeaky wheel, and too many people ignore them because they think it doesn't affect the directly. They will find out, I fear, too late, that they have been affected.
