I belong to several social media groups for librarians and especially school librarians. Usually they’re great - plenty of amusing book-related memes (I like to print the G-rated ones and sprinkle them around my library for kids to find) as well as genuinely helpful ideas. I’ve had many different kinds of jobs over the years and this is really the first time I’ve worked in an occupation that’s so universally understood and has whole legions of folks doing the same thing and talking about it. It’s refreshing, honestly. (Sidenote: do you truly understand what your company’s “Executive Assistant” does? I bet it’s more than answering the phone. Please find out before “Secretary’s Day” and start saving now for the spa day you’ll give her/him/butprobablyher.)
There is also plenty of griping in these groups, and often I’m sympathetic with this too. Inconsiderate colleagues, hard to manage middle grades, overly demanding administration.. these are legit concerns we all deal with on some level. But book banning… well, I haven’t actually had to deal with that yet. It’s probably coming.
I did have a second grader whisper solemnly to me this week that the book he was returning had a swear word in it. It was actually right there on the cover: H-E-double hockey sticks. Did he not notice this before? Or maybe his parents did.
To be fair, this book is probably not meant for 2nd graders. But this particular kid is one of my very best readers, and I’ve even bent the rule for him about how many books kids can usually check out each week because he goes through them so quickly. So I’m not about to squash his enthusiasm by trying to censor what he can get his hands on. But I also don’t really want to argue with his folks, so I thanked him for pointing that out and said I’d make a note of it. That seemed to be enough to satisfy him.
But there’s been a bit of pearl-clutching in one of my Facebook groups about Cat Kid Comic Club: On Purpose, by Dav Pilkey, particularly this page:
The original poster, who interestingly chose to be anonymous, asked if anyone has had parents complain about this and what they’ve done or would do if so. The group is surprisingly split on this - about half saying no, and as librarians they’re against banning books of course, but they would agree that it’s a problem, and some have even preemptively pulled this book from their shelves because of this page. The rest of us are like…… um, it’s Dav Pilkey, author of the wildly successful Captain Underpants series? Potty humor is kind of his thing, and that’s exactly why kids love these books. And wtf with the body shaming anyway?!?
One librarian said the reason it’s a problem is because they’ve encouraged their students to look up any words they don’t know on their Chromebooks. So apparently even learning what the words “full frontal nudity” mean is a problem now, because I did exactly that Google search and found exactly zero actual nudes, just articles about this phrase. And I don’t even have all the kid-safe filters on my device that students typically do on school machines.
So, this isn’t about a cartoon drawing of cartoon animals drawing cartoon animals. This isn’t even about the fact that most animals, cartoon or otherwise, don’t generally wear human clothing. This is about words.
I had a conversation with another student this week while doing dismissal duty. This means I stand outside and walkie-talkie the names of students whose parents have arrived to pick them up, so the teachers inside can send them out. Some kids like to stand outside with me, and this particular 6th grader is occasionally one of them. By the way, he’s the same one with whom I had the exchange about smiling a while back, who I’ll call R here. We are slowly developing a relationship, I think.
R is one of many who curses regularly on the playground, and he said a few offensive words in my presence this time - not just swear words, but the N word too. And I admit, I’m torn on this one, as a white lady talking with Black kids. Who am I to tell them they can’t use this word with each other? Not that I’d ever say it at school, but I have reclaimed the B word that rhymes with “witch” for myself, when talking with other women, usually affectionately. To me there’s something empowering about this, but I also know that not all women feel the same, and I respect that too. What’s never ok though is men saying it, or my male students. Unless you’re a veterinarian maybe and talking about dogs, this word is reserved for women and girls only to do what we want with it. I think the same is true for the N word and Black folks, which I would never use in any context.
Still, it’s against the rules at school, just like the F or S word. I guess considering my little 2nd grade friend, H is in a grey area. So I said to R what I actually once said to my own child after they’d horrified their grandma with an S-bomb: consider your audience. Would you say those words to your grandma? “My grandma’s dead,” he said. Ok but an older person who you care about? He admitted he probably wouldn’t. There you go, I said. I even admitted to using swear words with my friends (I’ve certainly been using a LOT of them since November 5!) Sometimes it really is the best word for the job. But when I’m around folks who would be offended, I find other words. It’s that simple.
Now, how about Freedom of Speech? R didn’t ask this, but since we had some time to kill, I brought it up. Do you know about the KKK? I asked. He did. Of course he did. So, you and I both know that their views are wrong, right? But they’re allowed to say what they want in this country, because we’re all guaranteed the right to do so (cough, for now.) However, that doesn’t guarantee the right to say hateful things without consequences. You and I have that same right. We can say what we think about what the KKK does and says, we can protest their gatherings, we can write about how wrong they are. Freedom of Speech means just that - speech. Not a blank check to be an asshole and everyone just has to put up with it. Oops, there’s another swear word.
I’m not entirely sure the lesson landed with R. We got a little sidetracked talking about how murder is against the law and those actions of the Klan are definitely criminal. I deeply hope he didn’t think I was trying to say I was ok with anything about them. I might have to add this subject to my 6th grade library lesson plans soon.
But the outrage over curse-free potty humor seems pretty silly in this context, yeah? Still, let’s apply the same rule: consider your audience. The primary audience of Dav Pilkey’s books are 3rd through 5th graders. Have y’all spent time with 3rd through 5th graders lately, or ever? Have you been a 3rd through 5th grader in your lifetime? Come on. They think this stuff is heeeeeeeeeeee-larious. Always have, always will. And honestly, why shouldn’t they? We have to live our whole lives in these meat suits, and they do ridiculous things every single day. We’re really not supposed to laugh about it?
Idk. Words are just words. But yes, they have power. I’d rather help my students decide how they want to use that power than teach them that they should be afraid of it.
Anyway, here’s what Pilkey himself has to say about such things: