Dear Editor:

As a society, we want to protect children, but in doing so, are we stunting what children and young adults can learn because we are afraid they may be exposed to things outside of own belief system? Why are parents so fearful of their children’s ability to be discerning and astute when exposed to material outside of their life experiences? Are we as a society ignorant to the psychological damage of “over sheltering” children and the possibility that being “over sheltered” can lead to an adulthood filled with dangerous risk-taking behavior?

“Sheltered children may struggle with remaining independent, and may additionally have difficulty handling rejection and failure,” according to research conducted by Dr. Leela R Magavi, Johns Hopkins-trained psychiatrist and regional medical director for Community Pediatric Psychiatry for the state of California, “Over-sheltered children are restrained from exploring and understanding the external world freely, often due to parents’ anxiety and apprehension. The over sheltered adult may be less imaginative and creative. They can also struggle with trying new things, like making friends, traveling, making decisions, and much more. The key point here is that “over sheltering” often has more to do with a parent’s anxieties than the welfare of a child. And no matter what good intentions you start, it doesn’t often work out like you’d hope.”

I have always believed Proverbs 22:6 “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.” Do not allow the future of children to be placed in jeopardy due to a false paradigm propagated by a political agenda!

Books are essential because they challenge us to see beyond our own white picket fence, books challenge us to explore diverse cultures, books inspire one to learn of factors influencing historical events, books allows us understand that our difference are not a negative, books allows us to find commonality, books allow us to understand and gain knowledge from previous generation, books enable us to travel to exotic locations that we will never experience first-hand and books reveal unparalleled life experiences of our heroines and hero’s. Banning books has a negative impact because it is censorship. When you censor ideas and beliefs, you create a more xenophobic and ignorant society. This is teaching students that it is okay to stop an idea or viewpoint from being heard because they don’t agree with it. When a book gets challenged or banned, someone else is trying to decide what is best for everyone based on his or her own beliefs and feelings. When a book is banned, that ban narrows the world view of students leading them to ignorantly view the world one way and places blinders on that child. I believe that book banning is an issue we cannot afford to overlook, a danger we must acknowledge and resist. Without a wide range of literature to consume our minds become a stagnant pool, slowly dying and lacking a diversity of life.