School Boards must use Discretion when Selecting Books
In so-called book banning, Florida leads the country - according to the Stuart News. The problem here is the misinterpretation of what local school boards are charged with. Government schools are set up to educate the children who are sent to them by parents. Government schools are to instruct children in reading, writing (including script), mathematics and science - not to indoctrinate them in fanciful theories such as multiple genders (in humans only), critical race theory, 1619 theory and so forth.
If parents so choose, those topics can be discussed at home, in any given belief system or establishment with which the family is involved. Ultimately, it is the parents' right and responsibility to educate their children.
During the forced closure of government schools nationwide, parents surmised - even saw on live video - what and how instruction was taking place. And they did not like it!
Public libraries are always open to parents and their children, as are book stores for books not available in schools.
Parents searched for alternative instruction for their children: charter schools, religious schools, private schools and even home-schooling. Since
Florida is a school-choice state, the portion of tax money going to government schools now goes to the other choices - including home-schooling.
And government schools do not have limitless budgets for books. Choices must occur. Age appropriateness must be recognized. Just as medical schools do not give third year students the same texts as first year students. And books written on an eighth-grade level are not and should not be issued to third, fourth or fifth-graders.
When we talk of book banning - as in Nazi Germany - we mean books taken and burned; not assigned to children above their age or grade levels of reading capacity and understanding.
School boards must use appropriate discretion, including budgetary, in purchasing books.
Audrey Taggart
Hobe Sound
This is an editorial and not the official position of the Martin County Republican Executive Committee