How Our Reading Was Raised

Posted by annastan on October 2nd, 2009. Filed under: Books.

As Banned Books Week comes to a close, I’ve been thinking about what makes us have the attitudes we do towards books. In the Children’s Literature classes I teach, we talk about who has the right to determine what children should and shouldn’t read. Something I ask my students to consider is how their reading was structured when they were children; were they able to read whatever they wanted, or did parents (or other adults) determine which books were appropriate for them?

Then I ask the students if how they were raised has influenced the way they now feel about children’s reading. Many of them are surprised to realize that yes, the way they read as children has had a large impact on how they now feel about books and children. People who were able to read whatever they wanted when they were young felt that other children should have that right. People who had adults guide their reading and keep them from books that were potentially too mature felt that children’s reading should be monitored.

Now I haven’t done a scientific study on this, but I did notice this general trend and it made me start to understand how people can have such different views on what roles adults should play in children’s reading. It also explains why I personally feel that we should let children read whatever interests them. When I was young, my parents gave me free rein of the public library and of the books in our house. I read everything I could get my hands on and it made me love reading even more because there were so many different kinds of stories out there. I have so many fond memories of reading as a child and I wouldn’t want to deny anyone else that same kind of experience.

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4 Responses to How Our Reading Was Raised

  1. Meg
    October 2nd, 2009 at 9:54 am

    You know, I think you’re onto something here! I totally would edit a child’s reading the way mine was, which it to say very minimally! The only books I was steered away from were what my mother called “heaving bosom” novels, aka romance novels. At least until I was officially into my teenage years! But there was no editing at all before that, which I’m sure was part of what made me love reading so much! And I would never want to discourage someone else from developing that same love themselves.

  2. PJ Hoover
    October 2nd, 2009 at 11:05 am

    I plan to be very open in what my kids read. If I think something has edgy content, I’ll read it also and we’ll talk about it. I never want to deny them all the awesome experiences they can gain from reading.

  3. Deb Cushman
    October 3rd, 2009 at 8:48 am

    I don’t recall my parents ever telling me what I shouldn’t read, and I certainly never did so with my own sons. I think your theory may have some merit.

  4. annastan
    October 3rd, 2009 at 9:06 am

    Thanks for the comments everyone! I don’t know if my theory is quite accurate; someone on the LiveJournal mirror of this blog said she was planning on being less free with her children’s reading since her own reading experiences as a child weren’t monitored enough. So I think this does prove that our views of children and reading are influenced by our upbringing, but sometimes they can also be a reaction to it. This has certainly been an interesting topic to ponder.