If you talk to any experienced and honest teacher these days, from elementary school on up, one of the first things they will tell you is how quickly gender ideology has taken hold. Virtually overnight, students began adopting fake pronouns and made-up genders.
To call this phenomenon &#8220;unnatural&#8221; would be a vast understatement. It&#8217;s obviously engineered. Teachers and school boards are pushing this nonsense on children who are far too young to know any better. The public school system has committed itself to indoctrinating children, in many cases without their parents&#8217; knowledge or consent. But after what happened yesterday at the Supreme Court, it&#8217;s very clear that accountability is finally coming for these ghouls.
After many years of spewing LGBT propaganda with total impunity, school districts will soon face major new restrictions on their ability to pollute the minds of elementary-school-age children. Based on how the justices acted during oral arguments yesterday, “Mahmoud v. Taylor” could easily turn out to be one of the most significant Supreme Court rulings of this generation.
Before we review the oral arguments, here is some background. The case began after Montgomery County Public Schools, the largest school district in Maryland — introduced a new &#8220;gender and sexuality curriculum.&#8221; Initially, students (or their parents) could opt out of this curriculum for any reason. But after a short period of time, the school district claimed that it wasn&#8217;t feasible to continue allowing opt outs. So it&#8217;s mandatory now. To give you an idea of what exactly this curriculum entails, here&#8217;s an image from one book that children are introduced to.
<div id="attachment_911559" style="width: 690px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-911559" class="wp-image-911559 size-full" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GpJWV7kX0AE7j3U.jpeg" alt="Screenshot: What Are Your Words?" width="680" height="446" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GpJWV7kX0AE7j3U.jpeg 680w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GpJWV7kX0AE7j3U-300x197.jpeg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 680px) 100vw, 680px" />Screenshot: What Are Your Words?</div>
This is what&#8217;s apparently known as an &#8220;LGBT storybook.&#8221; This one&#8217;s called, “What Are Your Words?” As you can see, one line of dialogue reads, “My pronouns are like the weather. They change depending on how I feel.”
The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which is a nonprofit, reported on some other books that were included in this <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/will-scotus-back-parents-when-it-comes-to-lgbtq-storybooks" target="_blank" rel="noopener">new curriculum</a>:
<blockquote>[O]ne book tasks three and four-year-olds to search for images from a word list that includes &#8216;intersex flag,&#8217; &#8216;drag queen,&#8217; &#8216;underwear,&#8217; &#8216;leather,&#8217; and the name of a celebrated LGBTQ activist and sex worker. Another book advocates a child-knows-best approach to gender transitioning, telling students that a decision to transition doesn’t have to &#8216;make sense.&#8217; Teachers are instructed to say doctors only &#8216;guess&#8217; when identifying a newborn’s sex anyway.</blockquote>
When parents of varying religious faiths — including Muslims and Christians — objected to the idea that their 5-year-olds needed to be taught about &#8220;sex work&#8221; and &#8220;gender transitioning&#8221; by Left-wing activists posing as teachers, the school district told them they had no recourse. In fact, the district slandered the parents as bigots. All these parents were seeking was the ability to opt out of this indoctrination. They didn&#8217;t even demand that the classes be removed from the curriculum. But the school district denied their request. So the parents sued.
<h3><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/mws-ep-1581-member-exclusive?elementPosition=3&amp;row=2&amp;rowHeadline=Latest+Episodes&amp;rowType=Horizontal+Show+Episodes+Carousel" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WATCH: The Matt Walsh Show</a></h3>
Which brings us to yesterday&#8217;s oral arguments. I want to begin with this question from Justice Alito, because it gets to the core of the issue. Alito wants to know why the school district is so hell-bent on forcing children to read books about homosexuality, transgenderism and so on. (To be clear, that&#8217;s what the school district is doing. They&#8217;re not merely providing these books in the school library. Teachers are actively telling students to read the books as part of class.) The truthful answer to Justice Alito&#8217;s question is simple: The Left understands that, if the LGBT movement is going to survive, it needs to indoctrinate new members at a very young age.
But the school district can&#8217;t say that out loud, of course. So instead, the lawyer representing the Montgomery school district&#8217;s superintendent, a man named Alan Schoenfeld, starts talking in circles about how impossible it would be, at a practical level, for the school district to allow students to opt out of this curriculum. But nothing he says actually makes sense. It gets so bad that, at the end of his rambling non-answer, Justice Kavanaugh chimes in to confirm that indeed, no one has any idea what the hell this guy is talking about. Watch:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="005 alito, whats the big deal" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Q118nmS1g2s?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
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As best I can tell, the lawyer for the school district is claiming that, because students might talk among themselves about certain LGBT books that are discussed in this curriculum, it&#8217;s therefore impossible to allow students to opt out of this kind of curriculum. In other words, whether or not students opt out, there&#8217;s a chance that they&#8217;ll hear about the materials that are discussed in these gay adventure books.
But this ignores a couple of obvious points.The big one is that, when a teacher is communicating a lesson to a class, it has a very different effect, as compared to one student talking to another student about a book during recess or whatever. The teacher is in a position of authority. It&#8217;s much easier for a 5-year-old to discount something another 5-year-old says, than it is to discount the wisdom of a 40-year-old teacher he&#8217;s told to trust. If this is an argument for anything, it&#8217;s an argument for not having these materials in the school to begin with. Which of course is the correct answer. But either way, it is not an argument against allowing parents to opt out.
The lawyer for the school district knows this but he can&#8217;t admit it. So he ends up confusing everyone in the room with a bunch of doublespeak. This kept happening throughout the oral arguments. Listen to this moment where Justice Gorsuch points out that, in Montgomery County, teachers are told to actively correct students who dare to suggest that men can&#8217;t become women. Gorsuch then asks the lawyer for Montgomery County whether this could constitute &#8220;coercion.&#8221; The obvious answer is yes. But instead of saying that, here&#8217;s the gibberish that the attorney comes back with:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="006 gorsuch, coercion, correcting himself" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/x3sWOLDR4Q0?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
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Justice Gorsuch gives an example where a student says, &#8220;a boy can&#8217;t be a girl.&#8221; And then the lawyer states that it&#8217;s not &#8220;coercive,&#8221; in any way, for the teacher to correct the student&#8217;s comment, in front of the entire class. He then changes his mind and says the opposite.
Even when he&#8217;s not contradicting himself, the school district&#8217;s lawyer managed to make a mockery of the entire case. 
Here&#8217;s his opening statement, for example:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="007 beginning with mr shonfeld" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/xkw27dw9T5g?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
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Yes, according to this attorney for the school district, there&#8217;s no difference between teaching elementary-school students about wars, and teaching them that boys can become girls. Telling students about the War of 1812 is just like telling them that it&#8217;s totally reasonable to chemically castrate minors.
One of the ways we know this isn&#8217;t true, aside from using basic common sense, is that there&#8217;s no army of parents demanding that schools stop teaching students about wars. That&#8217;s because it&#8217;s understood that teaching students about wars is not a general endorsement of violence. Additionally, everyone agrees that history is important and useful because it&#8217;s grounded in reality. On the other hand, gender ideology is just that — ideological.
This lawyer was not the only person to embarrass himself yesterday. That&#8217;s a given. After all, Ketanji Brown Jackson was also in attendance at the hearing. And as you&#8217;d expect, she did not disappoint. Single-handedly, she dropped the collective IQ in the room by about 10 points, just by opening her mouth. And of course, she opened her mouth on the side of indoctrinating children, because she takes the Left&#8217;s position on every issue. Behold, Ketanji Brown Jackson&#8217;s argument in favor of mandatory indoctrination in public schools:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="008 can just go to private school" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Y-FJrhGbwrw?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
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Yes, you can homeschool, says Ketanji Brown Jackson. You can pay for an expensive private school. Therefore, there&#8217;s no &#8220;burden&#8221; on these parents, apparently. It&#8217;s not a &#8220;burden&#8221; to have to pay more money, and change your child&#8217;s school, because Montgomery County decided to teach LGBT propaganda. And then the lawyer representing the parents responds, and points out that she&#8217;s completely wrong, and many other cases demonstrate why she&#8217;s wrong. And then she goes quiet and they move on.
Here’s one more clip from these arguments, involving Justice Alito questioning the school board&#8217;s lawyer. He follows up on this logic, about how the parents can supposedly just go to a private school. He begins by talking from the perspective of one of these parents:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="009 alito, too bad" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/hgRo17KtvU8?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
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This is what it looks like in the Supreme Court when &#8220;sparks fly,&#8221; so to speak. Alito is making his disdain for the school district&#8217;s argument extremely clear, which is exactly what he should do. They&#8217;re trying to force-feed gender ideology to children, and instead of owning it, they&#8217;re lying and telling the parents to pay more money to find a private school that won&#8217;t interfere with their religious liberties. But the Constitution doesn&#8217;t work that way. And it appears the Montgomery County school district, and school districts all over the country, are about to discover that.
This is not a close case. That&#8217;s why even the far-Left outlet Vox <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20250422191725/https://www.vox.com/scotus/409921/supreme-court-dont-say-gay-mahmoud-taylor">reported</a>: 
<blockquote>The Supreme Court’s &#8216;Don’t Say Gay&#8217; argument went disastrously for public schools.</blockquote>
At the moment, the most likely outcome is that, when very young children are involved, parents will retain the right to opt out of curriculums involving gender ideology, or any other extreme ideology that conflicts with their established religion. Everyone can see this coming.
And just to underscore that, yesterday Randi Weingarten, the head of one of the largest teachers&#8217; unions in the country, went on Fox News. And she admitted, right away, that she wouldn&#8217;t read these books in the classroom. Watch:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="010 Randi" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/luc0jWbW_HA?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
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We all know that Randi Weingarten isn&#8217;t saying this because she believes it. She&#8217;s maybe the most calculating political operative in the country, after Nancy Pelosi. But Weingarten understands when the Left is overplaying its hand. She knows that they&#8217;re on the cusp of yet another crushing defeat in their efforts to indoctrinate children, and she&#8217;s trying to soften that blow when it inevitably comes.
Unfortunately for Weingarten, the truth is, there&#8217;s no way to accomplish that. Gender ideology and LGBT activists, as we&#8217;ve discussed many times, are now extremely unpopular. They have alienated the entire country, to the point that they may have cost Democrats the last election. The only way an ideology like this can survive is by targeting children before they&#8217;re able to develop their cognitive abilities. That&#8217;s their only viable play. And in a few short months, after this case is inevitably decided against the public school system of Montgomery County, it&#8217;ll be much, much harder for these people to accomplish that.

Supreme Court Hears Arguments On Parental Rights Regarding LGBTQ Books In Schools

The Lawyers Promoting Child Indoctrination To SCOTUS Were Absolutely Humiliated

Books

Brett Kavanaugh

Children's Books

Education

Elementary Schools

gender ideology

Ketanji Brown Jackson

LGBTQ

Matt Walsh

Neil Gorsuch

Opinion

Parents rights

Samuel Alito

SCOTUS

Supreme Court

Virginia

An Alabama library board member threatened to “involve the authorities” after a local mother reached out to the library with concerns about sexually graphic books that have been available at libraries around the state. 
Last month, Limestone County resident Rachel Homolak reached out to newly-appointed Athens-Limestone Public Library board member Vicki Hereford to flag several sexually explicit books that have been in circulation at public libraries throughout Alabama. In response to the emails, which contained images from the books, Hereford warned Homolak on Sunday to never contact her again and that she would call the authorities if Homolak reached out to again. 
“The disgusting pronographic [sic] material that you chose to send to me twice via email &#8211; UNSOLICITED &#8211; is filth. Because you choose to send this for whatever reason — shock value, perhaps — you are distributing the very material that you say you fight against. I will not meet with you,” Hereford said in a Sunday email shared with The Daily Wire. “Do not contact me via email, phone call or text, or in person again. Any communication from you will be considered harassment and I will be forced to involve the authorities.”
The response came after a pair of emails on February 10 where Homolak flagged two sexually explicit books aimed at kids for Hereford amid a statewide fight between parents and leftist activists over library control. Hereford responded on March 16, after Homolak reached out to see if her messages had been received. Homolak said she just wanted to make Hereford aware of the issues and flag one book that was in circulation at the Athens-Limestone County Public Library. 
Homolak, who used to live in Missouri, previously <a href="https://www.alreporter.com/2024/05/27/alabama-library-critic-led-defamatory-campaign-in-missouri-lawsuit-claims/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">made headlines</a> for arguing that male librarians should not be allowed to wear women’s clothing while staffing the children’s sections of libraries. She told The Daily Wire that she was really disappointed with the response because she was hoping to work with Hereford. 
After being contacted by The Daily Wire, Hereford said that she shared a commitment with Homolak to protecting kids from explicit materials. 
“I understand all too well the challenges that families face in seeking to protect and guide our children and grandchildren,” she said. “It is my goal in this service role to ensure that concerns are addressed and particularly that children are protected. While our methods used to reach that goal may be different, I do believe that this parent and I share a commitment to protect children and guide them toward adulthood. One task in support of that goal is to deliver age-appropriate content within our county library to our patrons of all ages.
The two books that Homolak flagged were “Let’s Talk About It,” and “It’s Perfectly Normal.” The latter contains graphic depictions of sex and is <a href="https://alcpl.bywatersolutions.com/cgi-bin/koha/opac-detail.pl?biblionumber=89619&amp;query_desc=kw%252Cwrdl%253A%2520It%E2%80%99s%2520perfectly%2520normal" target="_blank" rel="noopener">available</a> in Athens-Limestone County Public Library within the adult section, though the book itself is aimed at kids. 
&#8220;Please take a stand and make sure these vile books stay out of the hands of our children. You have statewide support through the [Alabama Public Library System] so there is no reason to cater to the loud and obnoxious democrat demons in our county. Stand strong and do what is right,” Homolak wrote in her first email. “I will send you more images from other hot topic books that these leftist lunatics push.”
The second email focused on &#8220;It&#8217;s Perfectly Normal,&#8221; which includes illustrations of kids masturbating.
&#8220;This is porn. It also encourages kids to masturbate with illustrations of kids masturbating. Evil. Can you believe that grown adults draw kids masturbating??&#8221; Homolak wrote.
In her response to The Daily Wire, Hereford focused on the email on the book &#8220;Let&#8217;s Talk About It,&#8221; which is available in the Huntsville-Madison County Public Library System.
&#8220;A person within our community sent me disturbing images from a book, Let’s Talk About It, that is not offered in the Athens-Limestone Public Library,&#8221; she said. &#8220;The constituent noted that our library does not carry that book but that other libraries in nearby counties may have it. I checked again with our library staff regarding the book title in question and they confirmed that we do not have that item in the library. That book had been reviewed prior to my appointment, and it was determined that it would not be added to the books available in our library.&#8221;
Last year, the Athens-Limestone County Library was <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/inside-the-fight-to-shield-kids-from-graphic-material-in-a-deep-red-state" target="_blank" rel="noopener">embroiled in controversy</a> after a group of activists raised concerns that the county had no representation on the library board, despite organization bylaws. Recently, two county appointees, including Hereford, were appointed to the board, in response to those complaints.
Under new guidelines established by Republican Governor Kay Ivey, the Alabama Public Library System has directed all libraries receiving state funding to implement policies to keep sexually explicit books out of the kids&#8217; sections of libraries. The policies have been opposed by leftist groups, who claim that such policies are akin to book bans and violate free speech.
Other conservative areas across the country have also taken steps to shield kids from explicit content. In Tennessee on Monday, the Rutherford County library board <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/tennessee-town-faces-down-liberal-protests-votes-to-remove-books-promoting-transgenderism-to-kids" target="_blank" rel="noopener">approved a resolution</a> that all books promoting transgenderism to kids should be removed from the shelves.

US-BOOKS-LITTERATURE-CENSORSHIP

An Alabama Mom Complained About Pornographic Kids Books. The Library Threatened To Call The Cops.

Alabama

Library

The following is a transcribed excerpt from one of Dr. Jordan Peterson’s 2015 lectures. You can <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/podcasts/the-jordan-b-peterson-podcast" target="_blank" rel="noopener">listen to</a> or <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/show/the-jordan-b-peterson-podcast">watch</a> more from Dr. Peterson on DailyWire+.
“Pinocchio” is a story that includes an initiation ritual and a journey to the depths (the underworld). It is a story of the consequence of a collapse of previous personality and the disintegration of that previous personality into a chaotic state prior to rebirth.
Pinocchio, a puppet, tries to become a real boy. In the beginning, he is a marionette. <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-role-of-the-holy-spirit-distinguishing-between-your-will-and-gods-will" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Carl Jung</a> explained that is your habitual state of being: Something else is pulling your strings. Even the idea that you are autonomous is the consequence of something else pulling your strings, so for Jung, what you needed to do was find out exactly who and what is pulling your strings and decide if that is the direction in which you want to go. That is what happens to Pinocchio in the story.
Pinocchio is a marionette made by Geppetto, a good father. He is a marionette with a benevolent puppeteer. But as soon as he develops some autonomy, he becomes prey to forces that are elements of the demonic archetype. In fact, the worst bad guy in the entire story turns into Satan himself. So Pinocchio goes through a series of temptations of various sorts, including a Freudian temptation to remain weak and sickly instead of becoming a real person. Another temptation Pinocchio faces is being offered false celebrity as a way of solving his life’s problems. He is offered the opportunity to become an actor when a deceitful fate constructs a persona that makes him appear far more valuable than he really is. These are two pathological modes of movement towards maturity — one being a phony, and the other taking the easy way out and hyper-valuing pathologies to the degree he becomes dependent.
The third pathological development offered to Pinocchio occurs on Pleasure Island, which is to do nothing but engage in short-term impulsive and destructive play. But when he goes to Pleasure Island, he finds that the island is actually ruled by demonic forces, faceless entities who are transforming all the pleasure-seeking marionettes into donkeys who are slaves. Pinocchio escapes from that by jumping into the unknown, represented by jumping into the water, which is equivalent to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-role-of-the-holy-spirit-distinguishing-between-your-will-and-gods-will" target="_blank" rel="noopener">plunging into chaos</a> — his exposure to his initiation. In other words, chaos was an escape from pathological tyranny.
Now, the cricket. While I cannot tell you everything about this element of the story, I can tell you a couple strange notions about it. The initials are J.C., and Jiminy Cricket was a common, mild-form of Southern American cursing; it is the equivalent of Jesus Christ. So you might think, and of course, the cricket is Pinocchio’s conscience. So why in the world would a pejorative term for Jesus Christ be applied to a cricket who is guiding a puppet into the water to rescue his father from a whale? Why would any of that happen? You know why but you cannot say why. You cannot say why you know or what it is you know, but the mere fact that it makes sense — and it does — is an indication from a Jungian perspective that you are operating at an archetypal level.
Further, the cricket is a bug. Why might this be? Well, things bug you. You should do something about the things that bug you because that is your conscience calling to you. It is destiny, in some sense, manifesting itself as an unconscious impulse. Now, there are a lot of things out there that might bug you; some of them do not, but lots of them do. Why do certain things bug you and not other things? That is a complicated question, but one potential answer is that there is part of your psyche that is oriented <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-role-of-the-holy-spirit-distinguishing-between-your-will-and-gods-will" target="_blank" rel="noopener">towards further development</a>. Jung would call that the self — essentially, the totality of everything you could be. It is a strange sort of entity because it is partly potential and it is potential that expands across time. But the way that your potential totality calls to you in the present is by placing things in front of you that are your problem. They announce themselves as your problem by bothering you. So if you pick up the task of fixing the thing <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-role-of-the-holy-spirit-distinguishing-between-your-will-and-gods-will" target="_blank" rel="noopener">that bothers you</a>, then you find the pathway to further expansion of your personality.
<h3><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/show/the-jordan-b-peterson-podcast" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WATCH: Dr. Jordan B. Peterson&#8217;s podcast on DailyWire+</a></h3>
That is what happens with Pinocchio. Part of what makes the “Pinocchio” story so incredibly sophisticated is that despite the fact the cricket is an avatar of Christ, so to speak, the cricket has things to learn just like Pinocchio. That implies that you do have a conscience that guides you, but until you establish a dialogue with it, both you and the conscience are immature. You have to establish a conscious dialogue with it and interact together, which propels your development across time. That will stop you from being a marionette of external forces.
Many events at multiple levels of reality happen simultaneously when Pinocchio goes home, which is characteristic of an archetypal story. On one level, Pinocchio is too old to go home; he cannot go home to his father because, in some sense, he has already transcended his father Geppetto. That is on the personal level. On the transpersonal level, the deeper archetypal level, what is happening to Pinocchio is exactly what Nietzsche described at the end of the 19th century. Geppetto is his creator, and now he is dead; he is gone. So Pinocchio is bereft of placement. His soul has been corrupted, and he does not know what to do about it. When he returns to his family home, or to his tradition, he finds nothing.
But then a dove comes along and drops a note right in front of Pinocchio. The star from which the dove comes is a representation of the blue fairy, who is the positive element of the unknown. What this scene is basically saying is: When you are despairing because your father has died and your tradition has nothing to offer, the positive <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-role-of-the-holy-spirit-distinguishing-between-your-will-and-gods-will" target="_blank" rel="noopener">element of the unknown</a> may provide you with a message of where to go if you pay enough attention. That is an intuition of the automatic attraction of your interests to a new thing by forces you do not understand.
One of the real ways of coming to grips with the active unconscious is by understanding you cannot control what you are interested in. If it is not you, then you might ask who or what it is. And if you think about that problem long enough, you will start to understand what Jung was talking about. That is the way you can understand in your own life that the things that direct you as a being are not things that you consciously choose. In fact, they are not even things you can consciously choose.
* * *
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-role-of-the-holy-spirit-distinguishing-between-your-will-and-gods-will" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Dr. Jordan B. Peterson</a> is a clinical psychologist and professor emeritus at the University of Toronto. From 1993 to 1998 he served as assistant and then associate professor of psychology at Harvard. He is the international bestselling author of “<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-role-of-the-holy-spirit-distinguishing-between-your-will-and-gods-will" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Maps of Meaning</a>,” “<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-role-of-the-holy-spirit-distinguishing-between-your-will-and-gods-will" target="_blank" rel="noopener">12 Rules For Life,</a>” and “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Beyond-Order-More-Rules-Life/dp/0593084640/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&amp;dib_tag=AUTHOR&amp;dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.nbV0WtVit9busCddbjMST-Oe7hjueQrxfqnQ4L3HXXUFdIaqlEBr0sp9HQWIq9ut9NlHDAFA0YQoDWVZfDtKNJI7VvlzWv2rMhs2KcAAIIppPRMWq4GIiFerkrssvBABAjeKlg3OFs3H8IHs5D8ktJ5uBg3K-SZ4hpKltaKkrhY6j-RKn-tTkBz29JZXP3Rhm9SB14rHUX1nol5d4z4Fi6f8fwhxXWCVGgkvOHSqG6E.iVF1NljuBEwrpumO9rQBh9FotnzaIo4K7K8HvNnC46k&amp;qid=&amp;sr=" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Beyond Order.</a>” Be sure to order his newest book, “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Who-Wrestle-God-Jordan-Peterson/dp/0593542533/?_encoding=UTF8&amp;pd_rd_w=38kcw&amp;content-id=amzn1.sym.f911c8db-3a2b-4b3e-952f-b80fdcee83f4&amp;pf_rd_p=f911c8db-3a2b-4b3e-952f-b80fdcee83f4&amp;pf_rd_r=133-1833056-3520340&amp;pd_rd_wg=3zvBk&amp;pd_rd_r=93a1419a-853b-4c49-a764-cbaa90d3073a&amp;ref_=aufs_ap_sc_dsk" target="_blank" rel="noopener">We Who Wrestle with God</a>” (Portfolio/Penguin).
You can now <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/podcasts/the-jordan-b-peterson-podcast" target="_blank" rel="noopener">listen to</a> or <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/watch/jordan-peterson" target="_blank" rel="noopener">watch</a> his popular lectures on DailyWire+.

Readers Pass – Zeisloft – 5 Times Jordan Peterson Left His Opponents Speechless16x9

Psychology And ‘Pinocchio’

Psychology and 'Pinocchio'

Carl Jung

Disney

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The fight to keep sexually explicit books away from children is not just being fought in big liberal cities.
Even in deep red Alabama, there is resistance to removing books such as the sexually explicit LGBT-themed book “All Boys Aren’t Blue,” in which there are <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/its-time-to-unite-against-the-real-enemy">graphic descriptions</a> of anal rape and incest. It&#8217;s the book that Louisiana Senator John Kennedy read aloud during a Senate committee hearing last year, shocking all in attendance.  The book <a href="https://defendinged.org/incidents/concern-raised-over-sexually-explicit-book-in-olathekansas-seventh-grade-classroom/">graphically describes</a> sexual activities and includes lines like, &#8220;He didn’t know I was a virgin, and I did my best to act dominant like my favorite porn star,&#8221; and, &#8220;He reached his hand down and pulled out my d**k. He quickly went to giving me head.&#8221;
But just last month, an effort from concerned residents in one small Alabama community asking for the book to be moved to the adult section of their local library was denied. Under current guidelines, parents can complain about a book, but a committee appointed by the library director decides the fate of the book. The committee in charge of reviewing &#8220;All Boys Aren&#8217;t Blue&#8221; in Huntsville-Madison County unanimously ruled that it should stay in the library’s young adult section. 
Cindy Hewitt, the executive director of the Huntsville-Madison Library, told one concerned resident on May 28 that the committee found that though the content in the book is “frank and open” it is “relevant to the author’s history,” according to a letter obtained by The Daily Wire. According to Hewitt, the committee found that it would be a “disservice to remove it from the collection as it would neglect to consider the real-world issues of sex and sexual abuse that some teenagers may already be experiencing.” 
A new policy set to go into effect next month, however, could create a new calculus for local libraries. After July 15, funding for state libraries will be tied to removing sexually explicit and graphic books from the children’s sections of public libraries.
Under the new rules, libraries will be required to come up with a “selection criteria for minors and how they are safeguarded from sexually explicit or other material deemed inappropriate for children or youth.”
The policies also stipulate that libraries will need to have provisions in place to move books that have been deemed sexually explicit or inappropriate for children. The amended rules say that libraries shall “approve written guidelines that ensure library sections designated for minors under the age of 18 remain free of material containing obscenity, sexually explicit or other material deemed inappropriate for children or youth.”
Another rule would create guidelines for library cards handed out to minors, including that parents need to give approval and that the cards can’t be used to check out books from the adult section of the library. This would give parents, like the ones attempting to have &#8220;All Boys Aren&#8217;t Blue&#8221; moved from the young adult shelves of the Huntsville-Madison County Library, a new avenue to have their complaints addressed.
John Wahl, the chair of the Alabama Republican Party and a member of the Alabama Public Library System, told The Daily Wire that he fully expects the policies to go into place.
”Once these go into effect on July 15, Alabama will have some of the strongest regulations in the country to make sure children are protected,” Wahl told The Daily Wire. “It is time that we protect children from social engineering and from materials that really are not appropriate for them.” 
He added that parents had come before the APLS board to tell them about sexually explicit books their kids had found at local libraries. He said that the people of Alabama “want the libraries to be cleaned up” and that taxpayer dollars should not go to purchase explicit books aimed at children. 
<div id="attachment_753079" style="width: 854px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-753079" class="wp-image-753079 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/06/GettyImages-1255159872-844x576.jpg" alt="" width="844" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/06/GettyImages-1255159872-844x576.jpg 844w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/06/GettyImages-1255159872-300x205.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/06/GettyImages-1255159872-768x524.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/06/GettyImages-1255159872.jpg 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 844px) 100vw, 844px" />Credit: H. Rick Bamman/Pioneer Press/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images.</div>
Media and leftist activists have attempted to portray the pending rule as a &#8220;book ban,&#8221; but backers say its a misrepresentation.
“No one is about banning books. We’re not trying to ban anything. We are trying to definitely protect children though,” APLS board member Amy Minton told The Daily Wire. “Why do we have these books in our public libraries that encourage the discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity when it&#8217;s against the current law of Alabama?”
She added that the vast majority of public comments sent in related to the policies were in support. 
According to Elizabeth Stewart, an organizer with the conservative group Moms for Liberty and resident of Athens, Alabama, a large part of the push for children’s books with graphic material is coming from the American Library Association, which wants to expose children to “various forms of sexual activity.”
The American Library Association is run by a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/marxist-lesbian-president-of-american-library-association-doubles-down-on-agenda-for-a-better-world">self-described</a> “lesbian Marxist” and has vigorously protested any effort to shield children from graphic materials while pushing leftist ideology. 
”Everytime we make a choice to put something in, we are simultaneously making a choice to not put something in,” Stewart said. “And so it does make a difference — there’s not an endless space in each library to put everything which is why age appropriate curriculum material selection policy has to be written well.” 
<div id="attachment_753081" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-753081" class="wp-image-753081 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/06/GettyImages-1545719215-864x576.jpg" alt="CHINO, CALIFORNIA - JULY 20: A man holds a sign in support of a policy that the Chino Valley school board is meeting to vote on which would require school staff to &quot;out&quot; students to their parents if they ask to be identified by a gender that is not listed on their birth certificate on July 20, 2023 in Chino, California. In June, the board voted 4-1 to revise guidelines for ceremonies and observances that would only allow U.S., California, military, foreign nations and flags of higher education institutions, effectively banning LGBTQ+ pride flags from being displayed on school district property. Today's vote is a continuation of the June meeting discussion of matters affecting LGBTQ+ students. " width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/06/GettyImages-1545719215-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/06/GettyImages-1545719215-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/06/GettyImages-1545719215-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/06/GettyImages-1545719215.jpg 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />Credit: Photo by David McNew/Getty Images.</div>
Library boards will play an important part in developing policies that will be in accordance with the new APLS guidelines.
Stewart told The Daily Wire that it is important for local citizens to take responsibility for their own communities. That’s why she’s been pushing for clarity on the makeup of her own Athens-Limestone County Public Library board, which has been embroiled in controversy the last several months over its policies on sexually-themed books and board appointments. 
The controversy began when longtime librarian and mother Carissa Callan was alarmed by a posted policy that said the library was supposed to supply books on sex “that reflect changing attitudes and departures from traditional mores.” As a resident of Limestone County, Callan applied for a spot on the board, as the library&#8217;s publicly posted policies said three board appointments were given to the city and two to the county.
After being denied an application on the board, Callan and Stewart discovered that the library board was completely controlled by the city, contradicting posted policy. They launched<a href="https://www.givesendgo.com/GCNDW?utm_source=sharelink&amp;utm_medium=copy_link&amp;utm_campaign=GCNDW&amp;fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR1yvPwZvckg2N3aDGec24sv2Z8pSZA3bxWi2Hz3nZihyAkeD8MhRXFCjbg_aem_AQQ4shsxi0nN9_WkzwyuPOhMe5l0DbnVt3ryOkB_hMVmr9YdfPHQt6bpuFTsAV0FKt275ydQ0iXEn-lJmOgxIiw-"> an effort</a> to hire outside legal counsel to get county residents a guaranteed spot on the board. 
“County citizens have continued paying as if it&#8217;s a joint board since 2009 but without representation,” a GiveSendGo <a href="https://www.givesendgo.com/GCNDW?utm_source=sharelink&amp;utm_medium=copy_link&amp;utm_campaign=GCNDW&amp;fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR1yvPwZvckg2N3aDGec24sv2Z8pSZA3bxWi2Hz3nZihyAkeD8MhRXFCjbg_aem_AQQ4shsxi0nN9_WkzwyuPOhMe5l0DbnVt3ryOkB_hMVmr9YdfPHQt6bpuFTsAV0FKt275ydQ0iXEn-lJmOgxIiw-">organized</a> by &#8220;Limestone County Citizens&#8221; to raise funds for a constitutional lawyer says. “County residents are seeking legal answers to public policy being incorrect for 15 years.”
The city makes up just about 26% of Limestone’s population of around 110,000. The library’s total expected revenue for fiscal year 2024 came to around $628,600. This funding came from multiple sources, including the county and the state, totaling around $224,244, according to records viewed by The Daily Wire. 
Stewart said that county citizens were effectively getting taxed twice for something they did not have a voice on. 
“The county citizens are getting hit twice. They’re paying their local county commission for no representations,” Stewart told The Daily Wire. “The state of Alabama has been funding this library for 15 years under documentation and legal bylaws stating that it has remained a joint library effort and a joint board.” 
The city of Athens told The Daily Wire that the incorrect information about the board appointment on the website appeared to be the result of “human error,” and that it had been removed from the website “weeks ago.” 
The library’s <a href="https://www.alcpl.org/using-the-library/library-policies/">current page</a> on policies says it is “under construction,” and current policies on board membership cannot be found online. However, the library’s updated policies from this May are available upon request from the library, and were obtained by The Daily Wire. 
That policy no longer contains the requirement for books &#8220;that reflect changing attitudes and departures from traditional mores,&#8221; but now stipulates that the library board is all appointed by the city. Limestone residents still have questions about why the county provides funding without getting to make any board appointments. 
The Limestone County Commission <a href="https://www.enewscourier.com/news/commission-approves-update-to-library-board/article_8ebaca96-2297-11ef-82e9-df2c6fe9f708.html">voted</a> last week to approve a resolution that expresses a goal of forming a joint-library board again with at least two county representatives. The resolution would require an agreement to be reached by October 1. The exact details appear to still be up in the air and county residents remain unconvinced that the board will be changed. 
A spokeswoman for Athens said that the “city and the county are exploring modifications so that the board contains appointments from both the city and county,” adding that “when/if those changes are made, the library policy will also be changed.”
None of the members of the Limestone County Commission responded to Daily Wire requests for comment. 
Limestone residents also believe that there should be an independent review of the board regardless of whether the county is given any seats on the board or not. Wahl agrees, saying that there should be an independent review from outside to ensure that a fair resolution is found. 
Stewart said that there needs to be a legitimate board in place in Athens before they can develop a policy on sexually explicit books in accordance with the APLS. Regardless, the Athens-Limestone Library will need to submit its policy by October if the new guidelines take effect in July.

Frequently Banned Books

Inside The Fight To Shield Kids From Graphic Material In A Deep Red State

LGBT

sexual content

Scholastic is encouraging teachers to &#8220;disrupt the status quo&#8221; by exposing children to LGBT books this Pride Month, telling them they &#8220;absolutely know queer children.&#8221;
The children&#8217;s book publishing company recently released its 2024 <a href="https://www.scholastic.com/content/dam/scholastic/educators/discussion-guides/read-with-pride-disc-guide.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">guide</a> for Scholastic&#8217;s <a href="https://www.scholastic.com/site/read-with-pride.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">annual</a> &#8220;Read With Pride&#8221; initiative, which includes LGBT children&#8217;s book recommendations.
The guide assures teachers, caregivers, and &#8220;advocates&#8221; that &#8220;whether or not they are out to themselves or you, you absolutely know queer children and interact with them in your classrooms, libraries, and communities.&#8221;
&#8220;Books and literature are never neutral; by engaging with queer literature for children and young adults, you are disrupting the status quo that implies being cisgender, heterosexual, and allosexual are the default. You are showing children an expanded way of thinking and being that validates all children and all people,&#8221; the guide states.
Scholastic recommends LGBT books for children as young as preschool age.
For &#8220;the youngest reader,&#8221; Scholastic recommends several books, including &#8220;My Moms Love Me&#8221; about a lesbian couple with a baby, and &#8220;You Are Loved,&#8221; a book in which &#8220;readers will meet families with two moms and two dads,&#8221; <a href="https://www.scholastic.com/site/read-with-pride/books.html#loved" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to the description.
Scholastic recommends dozens of books for older children ages eight to 12, including three by the same author, Alex Gino. &#8220;Melissa&#8221; is about a trans-identifying boy, and the other two books are about non-binary characters.
&#8220;When people look at Melissa, they think they see a boy named George. But she knows she&#8217;s not a boy. She knows she&#8217;s a girl,&#8221; reads the book&#8217;s description.
Another recommended book for ages eight to 12 is &#8220;Moonflower&#8221; by Kacen Callender. It is about a depressed non-binary 12-year-old who is &#8220;afraid that their mom hates them&#8221; and travels to a &#8220;spirit realm.&#8221;
The guide includes dozens of books aimed at young teens 14 and up, including &#8220;The Feeling of Falling in Love&#8221; by Mason Deaver, which introduces children to the idea of a &#8220;friend with benefits.&#8221;
The guide also lists resources for &#8220;supporting&#8221; LGBT youth and books, including The Trevor Project, a nonprofit that says it works to prevent LGBT youth suicides. The Trevor Project previously <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/disgraced-non-binary-biden-official-helped-create-school-policy-to-hide-childrens-gender-changes-from-parents" target="_blank" rel="noopener">helped</a> devise a model school policy that says schools should hide suicidal students’ sexual orientation and gender identity from their parents unless the student gives permission.
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Scholastic&#8217;s 2024 guide also dedicates nearly a full page to promoting the claim that affirming children&#8217;s new gender identities helps prevent their suicides, heavily citing The Trevor Project. Several recent studies have <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10101898/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">suggested</a> that social transition does not necessarily improve children&#8217;s and teens&#8217; mental health.
&#8220;As a teacher, librarian, educator, or caregiver, how you interact with all children and teens around queerness matters,&#8221; Scholastic&#8217;s guide states. &#8220;What literature you provide them with, and how you talk about both literature and identity, can have an immense, life-changing impact on the young people in your life.&#8221;
&#8220;Everyone benefits from books with authentic representation of queer identities,&#8221; the guide adds.

Faceless portrait of librarian sorting children’s books

‘You Absolutely Know Queer Children’: Scholastic Urges Teachers To Give Kids LGBT Books In 2024 Guide

Scholastic Urges Teachers To Give Kids LGBT Books In 2024 Guide

Children

Gender

nonbinary

Pride

Pride Month

Public Schools

School Library

Social Issues

Transgender

U.S.

One of the country&#8217;s largest Catholic advocacy groups is launching an effort led by parents to root out progressive <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/lgbtq" target="_blank" rel="noopener">LGBT</a> books aimed at children from libraries ahead of Pride Month, which begins Saturday.
CatholicVote, a nonprofit focused on promoting Catholic values in public life, will debut its third annual &#8220;Hide The Pride&#8221; campaign on June 1. The campaign urges parents to rid their local taxpayer-funded library&#8217;s children&#8217;s section of sexualized and gender-related books, especially those that are prominently displayed.
&#8220;Public libraries have long been a summer destination hangout where children and parents can go for free resources, books, computer access, and community. And as public spaces, they should stay that way,&#8221; CatholicVote wrote in a <a href="https://catholicvote.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/cv-hide-the-pride-printable.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">toolkit</a> for parents.
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&#8220;But during &#8216;Pride Month,&#8217; many libraries fill their children’s sections with gay and trans books, images, and symbols – not to mention drag- queen story hours,&#8221; the group continued. &#8220;So we are equipping you to fight back and reclaim your library for your kids. We are going to &#8216;Hide the Pride.'&#8221;
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The group is urging families to plan a library visit in early June where they go to the children&#8217;s section, take all the &#8220;Pride Month&#8221; books off the display shelves, check them out at the front desk, and go home and place the books on a shelf out of reach of children. The library books should be returned on time later, the group says.
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One person should also be designated to film during the library visit in case library staff gives the group trouble, CatholicVote recommended.
CatholicVote also provides a letter template for families to sign and send to their local library to protest the &#8220;Pride Month&#8221; displays in the children&#8217;s section. The group recommended gathering at least five or six people to sign the letter and delivering it to the library through either email or snail mail.
&#8220;We plan to keep these books checked out until the library agrees to remove the inappropriate content from the shelves,&#8221; the letter template reads. &#8220;Flags, signs, and book displays based on how adults experience sexual attraction and gender identity have no place in an open and public space for children.&#8221;
Catholic Vote also urged parents to share their videos, photos, and stories to encourage others.
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&#8220;It is always powerful to know you are not alone in this fight for the soul of our children,&#8221; the group said.
<div>“Our campaign is designed to empower communities to take back public spaces from the radical LGBT movement that seeks to destroy the innocence of our children, while coercing parents and citizens into endorsing the latest forms of sexual perversion,&#8221; Brian Burch, president of CatholicVote said in a statement.</div>
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<div>&#8220;No child needs to see a graphic how-to manual on gay sex. Yet today we are told that this pornography must be proudly displayed in taxpayer-funded public libraries and foisted on our children,&#8221; Burch said. &#8220;Americans are fed up with being told that they must surrender their children and public spaces to an aggressive LGBT agenda. Parents have every right to demand that libraries shield this gross content from their children and that basic standards of decency be respected.&#8221;</div>
Over the last few years, parents across the country have vocally opposed a slew of children&#8217;s books dealing with gender ideology and sexuality — some containing pornographic content. Such books have popped up in libraries, particularly school libraries where children have access to them.
Some of the books that have raised concerns among parents are “Gender Queer,” a graphic novel with explicit sexual content, “All Boys Aren’t Blue,” which includes descriptions of anal sex and masturbation, “I Love My Colorful Nails,” about a boy whose classmates laugh at him when he paints his nails, “Ho’onani: Hula Warrior” about a Hawaiian girl who wants to lead the all-boys hula troupe at her school, and “The Hips on the Drag Queen Go Swish, Swish, Swish” by Lil Miss Hot Mess, a founder of Drag Queen Story Hour, which is a nursery rhyme book about drag shows.

Reading Is Fundamental

Catholic Group Launches Parent-Led Effort To Root Out Children’s LGBT Books From Libraries Ahead Of Pride Month

Catholic Group Launches Parent-Led Effort To Root Out Children's LGBT Books From Libraries Ahead Of Pride Month

Catholic

Drag Queen story hour

Reading for fun sharply declines around age nine in an alarming trend that coincides with years of learning loss since the pandemic, data shows.
Only 35% of nine-year-olds are reading at least five days a week compared to 57% of eight-year-olds, <a href="https://www.scholastic.com/readingreport/navigate-the-world.html">according</a> to the latest Scholastic survey on the issue.
&#8220;The number of kids who say they love reading drops significantly from 40% among eight-year-olds to 28% among nine-year-olds,&#8221; the Scholastic report <a href="https://www.scholastic.com/content/dam/scholastic/site/KFRR/KFRR_7th%20Edtidion.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">notes</a>.
The trend, <a href="https://www.scholastic.com/readingreport/navigate-the-world.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">dubbed</a> the &#8220;decline by nine&#8221; has concerned researchers, who note that reaching reading proﬁciency by third grade is a good predictor of academic success.
Sales of books aimed at children eight through 12 were down 10% in the first three quarters of last year after dropping 16% in 2022, according to data from Circana BookScan.
Meanwhile, books aimed at other age groups are not underperforming compared to 2019, the data shows.
Smartphones and more screen time could also be part of the problem, experts say, but the issue seems to go deeper than just screens.
One of the main drivers of the &#8220;decline by nine&#8221; appears to be the pandemic&#8217;s school disruptions.
“I don’t think it’s possible to overstate how disruptive the pandemic was on middle grade readers,” <a href="https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/childrens/childrens-industry-news/article/92580-the-shifting-middle-grade-market.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> Circana&#8217;s Kristen McLean, an analyst in the children&#8217;s book industry.
“They lost most of their main sources of discovery, including bookstores, teachers, librarians, and seeing what their friends were reading, and at the same time they spent lots of time on screens of all sizes,” McLean said.
Another analyst <a href="https://slate.com/culture/2024/05/kids-reading-fun-books-decline-by-nine-crisis.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">warned</a> Slate that children who are not encouraged to take an interest in books at this crucial age will not want to read books as adults.
Additionally, teachers increasingly focus less on encouraging young students to read entire books and more on assigning them excerpts, taking a lot of the fun out of reading, children’s book author Joanne O’Sullivan told Slate.
The disinterest in reading for fun starting around third grade dovetails with disastrous learning loss in school over the last few years.
Last year, one study <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/lawsuit-forces-california-schools-to-spend-2-billion-in-covid-funds-on-learning-loss">showed</a> that students would need an average of four and a half months of extra math instruction and just over four months of additional reading instruction to catch up to the typical pre-COVID student.
Parents and teachers hoped kids would learn more quickly to catch up, but those hopes have not been realized. The same study showed fourth through eighth graders making even slower academic progress in reading and math in 2022 than before the pandemic.

A boy turning the pages of a book while reading

‘Decline By Nine’: Reading For Fun Plummets At Age Nine, Data Shows

'Decline By Nine': Reading For Fun Plummets At Age Nine, Data Shows

Pandemic

Remote Learning

When Ron DeSantis abruptly canceled his media appearances over the weekend, it led to a lot of speculation that he&#8217;d be ending his presidential campaign. On Sunday, that&#8217;s exactly what happened. Facing the prospect of a distant third-place finish in the New Hampshire primary, DeSantis bowed out and endorsed Donald Trump.
On one hand, the disappointment from DeSantis&#8217; supporters is understandable. He&#8217;s a fantastic governor who&#8217;s more effective at advancing conservative policies than any other politician alive today. There&#8217;s no doubting that.
At the same time, there&#8217;s also no question that it&#8217;s a good thing the primary effectively ended this weekend, as opposed to an even more protracted war of infighting among conservatives. Millions more dollars won&#8217;t be wasted on pointless attack ads. Donald Trump will be the party&#8217;s nominee, no matter how often Nikki Haley reminds us that she&#8217;s a woman and a &#8220;person of color&#8221; who was bullied just for being brown on the mean streets of Bamberg, South Carolina.
This thing is over — and that means that the Right can unite against its real enemies — powerful forces in society who hate this country, despise its people, and who seek to destroy our families and corrupt our children.
One of the clearest examples of this effort is the sheer scale and dishonesty of the Left&#8217;s fraudulent war against what they call &#8220;book bans.&#8221; As City Journal has noted, politicians at every level of government — from Governor Chris Sununu in New Hampshire to former representative Liz Cheney in Wyoming — have <a href="https://www.city-journal.org/article/the-left-twists-the-meaning-of-book-ban" target="_blank" rel="noopener">claimed</a> that schools are censoring classic reading materials, particularly in school libraries, at the behest of the Republican Party. Joe Biden has even <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/06/08/1180941627/biden-pride-month-book-bans" target="_blank" rel="noopener">appointed</a> a &#8220;book ban coordinator&#8221; to pursue civil rights cases against libraries that offend the LGBTQ cult with their censorship. Biden also launched his re-election bid eight months ago with a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChjibtX0UzU" target="_blank" rel="noopener">video</a> falsely implying that Florida had banned the book &#8220;To Kill a Mockingbird.&#8221; That simply wasn&#8217;t true, as even the Associated Press later <a href="https://apnews.com/article/fact-check-florida-schools-to-kill-a-mockingbird-201081596097" target="_blank" rel="noopener">admitted</a>.
The truth is that this campaign against &#8220;book bans&#8221; is nothing more than a crusade to put pornography in schools. That&#8217;s been clear for a while now. We&#8217;ve all seen the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z146klZXeOw" target="_blank" rel="noopener">footage</a> of parents repeatedly getting thrown out of school board meetings, just for reading passages from the pornographic books in their child&#8217;s school libraries. There&#8217;s dozens of those videos out there at this point. This is about exposing children to smut. Everyone sees that.
<h4><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-1298-it-s-time-to-unite-against-the-real-enemy-member-exclusive" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WATCH: The Matt Walsh Show</a></h4>
What&#8217;s changed is that now, with the election rapidly approaching, the forces pushing this degeneracy are emboldened. They&#8217;re dropping the pretense that they&#8217;re worried about &#8220;discrimination&#8221; or &#8220;teaching history&#8221; or whatever. They are at this point all but coming right out and saying that they want to expose children to pornographic materials. And they&#8217;re doing it with the express support of the largest media conglomerates on the planet.
If you doubt that, watch this <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GtGRPls40o" target="_blank" rel="noopener">remarkable footage</a> from MSNBC the other day. This is from Joy Reid&#8217;s show. It remains one of the great marvels of the world that Joy Reid, despite being viscerally unpleasant to listen to or look at, and despite having nothing important to say, and having never offered an even mildly interesting insight into any topic ever in her entire life, still has a show — that, for yet another week, has not been canceled. But then again, this is MSNBC. They specialize in giving extraordinarily annoying and unappealing and stupid people TV shows. Al Sharpton still has a show on that network, after all, last I checked.
Anyway, back to Joy Reid. She was interviewing the co-founder of the group &#8220;Moms for Liberty,&#8221; a woman named Tiffany Justice. Before we get to the clip, here&#8217;s the backstory: What&#8217;s bothering MSNBC is that Moms for Liberty doesn&#8217;t want a book called &#8220;All Boys Aren&#8217;t Blue: A Memoir-Manifesto,&#8221; written by LGBTQ activist George Johnson, to be available for children to check out from school libraries. This is a book that includes <a href="https://www.city-journal.org/article/the-left-twists-the-meaning-of-book-ban" target="_blank" rel="noopener">descriptions</a> of anal rape and incest which are too graphic for me to share with you. This is the disadvantage we find ourselves in when it comes to this issue. You really need to hear specifically what’s in these books to fully appreciate just how deranged these people are for wanting to put these books in schools. But the material is so objectionable and disgusting that I simply will not share it. So you can go look it up for yourself and see. Suffice it to say that the book contains very, very detailed accounts of rape, sodomy, and other things.
There are hundreds of thousands of books in circulation that do not have any of that sort of content. There is no reason why this book, especially, of all books, needs to be in a school library.
This is a book that, according to local <a href="https://www.alreporter.com/2024/01/08/moms-for-liberty-sends-letter-to-lawmakers-urging-action-on-libraries/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reports</a>, is available in the young adult nonfiction section of two libraries in Huntsville, Alabama. These sections are for children between the ages of 12 and 18, which is roughly in line with the publisher&#8217;s age recommendation for this book. According to Moms for Liberty, there are records of a child as young as 9-years-old checking out &#8220;All Boys Aren&#8217;t Blue&#8221; from the library.
What&#8217;s incredible is that, in this interview, Joy Reid doesn&#8217;t dispute anything about the content of the book, or how obscene it is. She doesn&#8217;t concede that maybe 9-year-old children shouldn&#8217;t be reading this. Instead she goes out of her way to defend the book.
Joy Reid begins by complaining that parents are going online and sharing passages from the book that she says are somehow &#8220;taken out of context.&#8221; 
Then she makes a very familiar argument. Watch:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="008 Moms For Liberty Expertise" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/uVtAnC786bE?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
&#8220;You&#8217;re not an expert, unlike whoever gave this pornographic book an award. Therefore, shut up; you don&#8217;t get to have an opinion.&#8221; That&#8217;s what she&#8217;s saying. 
You may have noticed that it&#8217;s become a common rhetorical tactic on the Left, whether they&#8217;re talking about climate change or transgenderism or &#8220;book bans&#8221; or pretty much anything. In the absence of any guiding moral principles, they&#8217;re now fully reliant on the expert class, to the point that they can&#8217;t think for themselves anymore — and they don&#8217;t want you to think for yourself, either. We&#8217;re at the point where they don&#8217;t want you to object to pornography in the children’s section without first getting an expert&#8217;s approval. Just think about this for a moment. Joy Reid is claiming that you cannot object to children being exposed to books about anal rape unless you are an expert. Which raises the question: expert in what? What the hell kind of expert do you need to be to understand the simple common sense fact that 12-year-olds don’t need to be reading graphic sexual content? How long until they tell you that you&#8217;re not allowed to object to full-on child pornography or pedophilia unless you’re an “expert”? Based on their logic, at this rate, it probably won&#8217;t be long. In fact, that’s basically where we are, right now.
Of course, in that clip, Joy takes this approach to a new level of absurdity, when she demands that Tiffany Justice name the author of the book &#8220;All Boys Aren&#8217;t Blue.&#8221; And I guess, because Justice couldn&#8217;t provide the guy&#8217;s full name quickly enough, we&#8217;re supposed to conclude that she&#8217;s not an &#8220;expert&#8221; in the book. And therefore, she&#8217;s excluded from having any opinion on the topic. Because, you know, you can’t object to children being exposed to sexual content unless you can give the full name of the person who created the sexual content. Makes total sense, if you have brain damage.
Speaking of brain damage, what follows from Joy Reid next, as you probably could&#8217;ve guessed, is the usual disingenuous &#8220;parental rights&#8221; argument.
The idea is that parents should be able to expose their children to whatever they want, and reasonable people shouldn&#8217;t be allowed to step in and prevent that. Watch:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="009 No Ones Right To Ban This Book" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/5WGSSSXubho?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
So to recap, the conversation began with Joy suggesting that the &#8220;context&#8221; of the book makes it acceptable somehow. But she never explained what &#8220;context&#8221; would justify showing a child a graphic description of anal rape and incest. Now she circles back to her original point, in a roundabout way. She implies that some children could benefit from reading this story because they&#8217;d feel &#8220;seen&#8221; and represented in the pages. And if parents want to encourage that, then we&#8217;re supposed to go along with it.
She actually says that. Again, just to be clear, this is not a book that encourages kids to take up sports, or solve mysteries, or learn about space flight. This book is exposing children as young as 9-years-old to graphic scenes of anal rape. According to the corporate press, children should read books like this and see themselves in them. As Tiffany Justice pointed out, the implications of that are pretty dark, to say the least. This gets to the heart of what this whole debate is about, which is the Left&#8217;s attempt to legitimize deviant sexual contact with children. It&#8217;s not hard to conclude that the reason they want to show children these books about graphic underage sex is that they see no problem with children engaging in this kind of behavior.
That could be why — throughout this whole interview — Joy never once condemns the contents of this book. She doesn&#8217;t say that some children probably shouldn&#8217;t read it. Instead, she falls back on this idea that parental rights are absolute, and we should never be able to dictate what other parents can and can&#8217;t do.
Notice the incoherence of this argument. First, Joy says that no one can have an opinion about this book unless they&#8217;re an expert, and they&#8217;ve read it cover-to-cover and can name the author&#8217;s full name and give his date of birth and social security number. Then, a few minutes later, Joy says that every parent should have the right to show their kid this book, and their decision must be respected no matter what.
This is what&#8217;s called a contradiction, and people who understand basic principles of logic can spot it right away. But people like Joy, and the rest of the corporate press, are too concerned with ideology to bother with principles. That&#8217;s why, rather than present any kind of argument for why children need to read about anal sex, Joy concludes the interview by launching into bizarre personal attacks on Moms for Liberty. Watch:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="010 Why These Few Ban Books" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/7zpWB3SfN2w?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
I have no idea if any of these allegations are true. From what Tiffany Justice says, they seem shaky, but honestly it doesn&#8217;t matter. They&#8217;re a painfully transparent attempt to distract from the issue that this whole interview was about. Even if all of that is true — even if Moms for Liberty is full of the worst people on the planet — even if they’re all serial killers and Nazis and super villains — does that suddenly make it appropriate to supply children with reading material about anal rape? It makes no sense. But this is all Joy Reid can do. She doesn&#8217;t want to talk about the books, or why she wants children to read them. Instead, she just wants to attack the people who are pointing out what&#8217;s in these books.
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It&#8217;s hard to put into words the depth of evil that&#8217;s on display here. This isn&#8217;t just one race hustler on MSNBC talking like this. It&#8217;s pretty much all of the corporate press, along with the Biden administration, who are committed to pushing this smut in schools. It&#8217;s going to take an equally forceful, concerted effort to stop them from succeeding.
In fact, this month lawmakers in Florida <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-politics-and-policy/florida-gop-lawmakers-seek-ban-rainbow-flags-schools-saying-re-bad-stu-rcna134475" target="_blank" rel="noopener">introduced</a> a bill that represents a very good start. The legislation would ban teachers and government employees from displaying the so-called &#8220;pride&#8221; rainbow flag, or associated lapel pins, in public buildings and schools, for obvious reasons: the flag is a symbol of a radical religious cult that&#8217;s specifically used to target children and indoctrinate them into an ideology that seeks, at every turn, to sexualize and corrupt them. Soon, if the bill passes, the symbol — which became omnipresent sometime in the past decade — will be gone.
It&#8217;s simple and effective proposals like this that have made Florida under Ron DeSantis an attractive state for conservative families to live in. He&#8217;s not campaigning for president anymore, but he&#8217;s still going to be a leader in this fight, which could not be more urgent at this point.
What&#8217;s needed now — especially as the primary effectively comes to a close — is for every conservative to unite and join in.

Drag Story-Time Event Held In Austin, Texas, Week Ahead Of Restrictive Bill Going Into Effect

It’s Time To Unite Against The Real Enemy

It's Time To Unite Against The Real Enemy

Joy Reid

MSNBC

Readers Pass

Woke Culture

<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/pink-to-give-away-banned-books-during-tour-stops-in-florida" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Pink</a> posted a list of what she said were &#8220;banned books&#8221; that she planned to give away during her four concert stops in Florida, but the problem is they aren&#8217;t really banned in the state.
The 44-year-old pop star recently <a href="https://thehill.com/blogs/in-the-know/4307152-pink-banned-books-florida-tour/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">announced</a> she&#8217;s teamed up with a nonprofit called <a href="https://pen.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">PEN</a> America to hand out 2,000 &#8220;banned books&#8221; while touring the Sunshine State.
&#8220;Books have held a special joy for me from the time I was a child, and that&#8217;s why I am unwilling to stand by and watch while books are banned by schools,&#8221; Pink said in a <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/pink-give-out-banned-books-florida-shows-1234876749/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">press release</a>.
&#8220;It&#8217;s especially hateful to see authorities take aim at books about race and racism and against LGBTQ authors and those of color,&#8221; she added in her statement. &#8220;We have made so many strides toward equality in this country and no one should want to see this progress reversed. No more banned books.&#8221;
After <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/pink-to-give-away-banned-books-during-tour-stops-in-florida" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reports</a> of Pink&#8217;s vow to distribute the books surfaced, the &#8220;Just Give Me A Reason&#8221; hitmaker took to <a href="https://x.com/Pink/status/1724224528740463099?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noopener">X</a> and listed several publications she claimed &#8220;have been banned from schools in Florida, including &#8220;To Kill A Mockingbird,&#8221; &#8220;A Catcher In The Rye,&#8221; &#8220;The Kite Runner,&#8221; &#8220;The Bluest Eye,&#8221; and &#8220;The Diary of Anne Frank.&#8221;
https://twitter.com/Pink/status/1724224528740463099?s=20
A context alert was added to Pink&#8217;s post that read: &#8220;Readers added context they thought people might want to know. This list has been proven incorrect. These books are not banned in Florida. In fact, some are on Florida&#8217;s required reading list. Fact check: Fake list of banned Florida books circulates widely online.&#8221;
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/black-friday-gift-guide" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CHECK OUT THE DAILY WIRE BLACK FRIDAY SHOPPING GUIDE</a>
Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis&#8217; press secretary, Jeremy Redfern, also hit back and provided a list on <a href="https://x.com/JeremyRedfernFL/status/1724400120844685782?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noopener">X</a> of the the books that are on &#8220;Florida&#8217;s BEST Standards English Language Arts&#8221; list, which includes books like &#8220;To Kill A Mockingbird&#8221; and &#8220;The Diary of Anne Frank.&#8221;
&#8220;We&#8217;re used to ill-informed attacks from California&#8217;s liberal elites, and sadly, this is another example,&#8221; Florida Education Commissioner Manny Diaz, Jr. told The Daily Wire in a statement. &#8220;It&#8217;s easy to tell she&#8217;s lying when several of the books on her list are actually required reading in Florida.&#8221;
&#8220;When we took nation-leading action to support parental rights, we knew the woke mob would come for us, but with Governor DeSantis as the leader of our state, we were undeterred,&#8221; the statement added. &#8220;We will continue to fight for parents and make sure Florida remains the national leader in education.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
To Kill A Mockingbird was pulled from shelves in Palm Beach School District in July 2022, to review under state legislation, HB 1069. This is a case where the book was returned to classrooms with “Instructional Statements” on how to use the book in the classroom.
— P!nk (@Pink) <a href="https://twitter.com/Pink/status/1724653698381385852?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 15, 2023</a></blockquote>
The singer later admitted &#8220;To Kill A Mockingbird&#8221; wasn&#8217;t banned in Florida schools.

Pink

Pink Lists ‘Banned Books’ She Will Give Away In Florida. There’s Just One Problem.

Pink Lists 'Banned Books' She Will Give Away In Florida. There's Just One Problem.

Celebrities

Entertainment

Florida

Ron DeSantis

Superstar <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/pink-says-she-almost-died-after-overdosing-at-a-rave-in-1995-i-was-off-the-rails" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Pink</a> said she plans to give away thousands of what she called &#8220;banned&#8221; books during her upcoming tour stops in Florida following legislation which prohibits classroom instruction about sexual orientation and gender identity in schools.
During an <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CzkHBh8Mjhs/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Instagram Live</a> on Sunday, the 44-year-old pop star <a href="https://thehill.com/blogs/in-the-know/4307152-pink-banned-books-florida-tour/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">announced</a> she&#8217;s teamed up with the <a href="https://pen.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">PEN</a> America non-profit organization to give away 2,000 books throughout her four concert dates in the state which she said are &#8220;banned.&#8221;
&#8220;Books have held a special joy for me from the time I was a child, and that&#8217;s why I am unwilling to stand by and watch while books are banned by schools,&#8221; Pink said in a <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/pink-give-out-banned-books-florida-shows-1234876749/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">press release</a>.
&#8220;It&#8217;s especially hateful to see authorities take aim at books about race and racism and against LGBTQ authors and those of color,&#8221; she added in her statement. &#8220;We have made so many strides toward equality in this country and no one should want to see this progress reversed. No more banned books.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Periodic reminder that when they accuse us of “banning books” they’re referring to p0rnographic books which are offered to kids in schools across the country. For some reason they never provide visuals…
Now Pink is pledging to give kids p0rnographic books in Florida. Why would… <a href="https://t.co/H2Nq0LEMGm">pic.twitter.com/H2Nq0LEMGm</a>
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) <a href="https://twitter.com/libsoftiktok/status/1724118635596087578?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 13, 2023</a></blockquote>
&#8220;I&#8217;m a voracious reader and I&#8217;m a mom of two kids who are also voracious readers,&#8221; Pink continued in her <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CzkHBh8Mjhs/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Instagram Live</a>. &#8220;I can&#8217;t imagine my own parents telling me what my kids can and cannot read — let alone someone else&#8217;s parents, let alone someone else that doesn&#8217;t even have children that are deciding what my children can read.&#8221;
In 2022, Governor Ron DeSantis (R-FL) signed the Parental Rights in Education law <a href="https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2022/1557" target="_blank" rel="noopener">1557</a> which prohibits classroom instruction about sexual orientation and gender identity in schools in the Sunshine state, as previously <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/authors-of-childrens-book-about-penguin-with-two-dads-sue-florida" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>.
The &#8220;Just Give Me A Reason&#8221; hitmaker has been an outspoken advocate for the LGBTQ community and previously talked about the queer community&#8217;s support of her.
&#8220;I think [my LGBTQ+ following] just speaks to who I am and what I believe in, and what I&#8217;ve always been,&#8221; Pink told the <a href="https://www.gaytimes.co.uk/originals/pink-interview-trustfall-gay-times/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Gay Times</a>. &#8220;I am definitely an ally and to be understood for that is a wonderful feeling. For any of us to be understood, that&#8217;s what we want in life, right? We want to love, be loved and be seen.&#8221;
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/library-group-frames-removal-of-graphic-sexual-content-from-school-libraries-as-record-number-of-book-bans" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Library Group Frames Removal Of Graphic Sexual Content From School Libraries As &#8216;Record Number&#8217; Of &#8216;Book Bans&#8217;</a>

Pink To Give Away ‘Banned’ Books During Tour Stops In Florida

Pink To Give Away ‘Banned' Books During Tour Stops In Florida

Popular <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/authors">author</a> R.L. Stine, best known for the “Goosebumps” <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/books">series</a>, shared some details from his childhood and offered words of advice for aspiring writers.
The 80-year-old author shared tips in his first non-fiction book, “There’s Something Strange About My Brain,” released Tuesday. “I think that I&#8217;ve written over 300 books, not a single word from my heart,” Stine told <a href="https://people.com/goosebumps-author-r-l-stine-new-book-exclusive-8384612">People</a> during an interview. “It&#8217;s all written to entertain people. Writing what I know would be very boring.”
“I start out with the idea that writing is not hard,” the best-selling author added. “If you think of it as fun, it&#8217;s going to be more fun.”
Stine also discussed how he was a fearful <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/dw-kids">child</a>, which helped inspire his “Fear Street” and “Goosebumps” series.
“It was a terrible way to grow up,” the author told People. “I really was afraid of a lot of things, and very shy. I think that&#8217;s why I stayed in my room writing all the time.” He also said there was a “coffin-shaped” freezer in the basement of his house, which led to him imagining he might find a corpse inside.
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“I could remember that feeling of panic and bring it to the books,” Stine explained.
The Ohio native also raved about writing for an audience of young readers aged 7 through 11. “It&#8217;s the last time in their lives they&#8217;ll ever be enthusiastic,” Stine said. “They want to read you, they want to know you…they want to do everything.”
And though he says cell phones have “ruined every plot,” the novelist’s new instructional provides practical tips for would-be writers. He said the story should first and foremost be &#8220;fun.&#8221;
“[My characters] don&#8217;t learn anything, except maybe ‘run.’ You don&#8217;t learn anything in a Goosebumps book. It&#8217;s just for fun,” Stine told the outlet. “I always say there used to be this rule in children&#8217;s publishing that characters in a children&#8217;s book always had to learn and grow. I always thought, ‘Why?’ Adults don’t have to read books where people learn and grow. We can read whatever we want. I think kids should have the same right.”

RL Stine

‘Goosebumps’ Author R.L. Stine Said He ‘Really Was Afraid’ During Childhood: ‘A Terrible Way To Grow Up’

'Goosebumps' Author R.L. Stine Said He 'Really Was Afraid' During Childhood: 'A Terrible Way To Grow Up'

kids

The children&#8217;s book publisher Scholastic backtracked this week after backlash over its decision to compile a separate list of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/education">books</a> on race, gender, and sexuality.
Scholastic had <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/25/us/scholastic-book-fair-race-gender.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">provided</a> school book fair organizers with a list of 64 books on race, gender, and sexuality in case they wanted to opt out of those books, a response to recent state laws restricting inappropriate material in schools.
After backlash to the separate book list, Scholastic apologized and scrapped it.
“We understand now that the separate nature of the collection has caused confusion and feelings of exclusion,” Scholastic <a href="http://mediaroom.scholastic.com/press-release/update-scholastic-us-book-fairs" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> Wednesday in a statement.
The publisher said it will stop offering the separate book list in January and will &#8220;reconsider&#8221; how to make Scholastic book fairs available to all kids while keeping in mind &#8220;the needs of our educators facing local content restrictions.&#8221;
&#8220;It is unsettling that the current divisive landscape in the U.S. is creating an environment that could deny any child access to books, or that teachers could be penalized for creating access to all stories for their students,&#8221; Scholastic said.
Authors who wrote books on the list had strongly criticized Scholastic for the move. Amanda Gorman, whose book “Change Sings” was on the list, <a href="https://twitter.com/TheAmandaGorman/status/1715197496157520130" target="_blank" rel="noopener">posted</a> on X earlier this month that the list &#8220;feels like a betrayal.&#8221;
Some of the dozens of books on Scholastic&#8217;s “Share Every Story, Celebrate Every Voice” list were a picture book that included same-sex parents, &#8220;Thunderous,&#8221; a graphic novel about a Native American girl and a &#8220;spirit world,&#8221; a biography of Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, and a biography of civil rights activist John Lewis.
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“We don’t pretend this solution is perfect — but the other option would be to not offer these books at all — which is not something we’d consider,” the publisher had <a href="http://mediaroom.scholastic.com/press-release/message-scholastic-book-fairs" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> in an earlier statement this month.
It is not clear which titles on the publisher&#8217;s list would actually be restricted by law at school book fairs.
Some states like Florida have restricted how gender, sexuality, and racial topics can be taught in every grade.
However, a spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Education <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/16/us/scholastic-book-fair-diversity-censorship.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> The New York Times earlier this month that some of the books on Scholastic&#8217;s list like the John Lewis biography would not violate Florida law, noting that the state&#8217;s English standards list &#8220;Freedom Walkers,&#8221; another book about civil rights marches.
“This is a political stunt by a corporation prioritizing activism over the well-being of children,” the Florida Education Department spokeswoman said.

Views Of A Scholastic Store Ahead Of Earns

Publisher Scholastic Backtracks On Separating Books On Race, Gender After Backlash

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