Books from Home or Not?

Hello,

I occasionally get someone asking me what to do when students bring books from home to read for school assignments or even just for personal pleasure. Many of the books might not be appropriate for our schools. The question is “Should we allow them to bring these books to school or not?”

I have struggled with this question myself. On the one hand, I want to rejoice that they are reading and enjoying it! On the other hand, those books would bring much criticism if they were available in the school library.

Here’s how I have answered this dilemma for myself. If a student brings inappropriate material to the school to read, I talk to them privately and ask that they take it home and not bring it to school. I do not criticize them for reading the book. I tell them that that particular book is not appropriate for our school and if they want to read it at home and their parents don’t mind, that is fine. But here at school, there are many parents that do not want their children to read that type of book, and if those parents see the book here or hear about someone reading it here, they would be upset. Then I help them find a book to read at school from the library.

We also have students here who don’t check out books for their book reports and tell the teacher that they have a book at home they are reading. Most of our teachers have these students bring the book from home so it can be approved first.

So, what can you do if a student DOES bring a book from home? How do you know if it is appropriate or not? If I see a cover that looks like witches, vampires, or fantasy, I will just ask the child what the book is about. It may be that the publisher has put a wild cover on a perfectly good nonfiction book to attract the child. I see this often at our Scholastic Book Fair. Another child brought in a book to me with a fantastical cover but told me that he thought I should buy the book for the library. It deals with Christian and biblical themes. I bought a used copy to read and make my decision. Since it has a cover that might bring on criticism, I will read it through before actually purchasing it for the library. The student might also let you borrow his copy to read while you make a decision about the book.

So, if I need to find out about a book, I have three places I go to get a quick overview for a book I am not familiar with.
1. I first go to Amazon.com and look the book up there. I can get a brief summary there.
2. Goodreads.com is also another place to find out what a book is about. There is a LOT of information there and you can spend a lot of time looking at book lists.
3. Commonsensemedia.org is a great place to go for information on books and tons of other media, also. Items are rated according to the age level it is appropriate for, and tells about the content. You can check to see if there is any bad language in a book and what it is, any sexual situations, drinking or smoking, and more. There is also a blog with posts about other things.
Today I got one titled “What Should Parents Know About Tumblr?” It is a great place to get information.

Nothing really takes the place of reading a book for yourself, but if you cannot, check with your parents and see if any of them are willing to preview books for you.

Here is the list of criteria that the NAD used for choosing books for Pathways. It might be helpful to use this if you need to.
1. SDA standards compromised
Jewelry in pictures, Dancing, Reference to meat, Playing chess and cards, dice
Use of “heck”, “crikey”, Reference to movies—Jurassic Park, Star Wars, Twilight
2. Creatures that never lived
Cave men, Millions of years ago, Loch Ness Monster, Big Foot, monsters, vampires, occult
3. Promotion of other doctrines, false doctrines
Catholic saints, Reference to pope, State of the dead
4. Fables and Fairy tales
Fable, fairy tales, Giant stepping over cars, Tall tales such as Paul Bunyan, Halloween, Magician in picture, Native America legends
5. Animal personification
Animals dressed, Children make up stories about talking animals,
Mouse covering ears, drawing, Story told from dog’s viewpoint, Steam coming out of ears, Winnie the Pooh on bulletin board

These could easily be teachable moments.
History of music mentions jazz, hip hop, rock, Sting, etc. – used as history lesson
Secular activities on Sabbath -
Child lies – child should be caught and punished

I hope this information is helpful to you. Have a great week.

Audrey

Currently reading:
A Life Inspired: C. S. Lewis biography by Christopher Gordon
Secret Lives of the First Ladies (audio book) by Cormac O’Brien
The Complete Works of P. G. Wodehouse (I’m 30% through on my Kindle)
Cold War on Maplewood Street by Gayle Rosengren (previewing this for the library. So far it is really good!)