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Transcription
The Parents Now podcast aims to help parents understand and connect with their children by discussing topics such as book bans in schools. They will explore the controversy surrounding books that address sensitive topics like race, gender, and sexuality. The current episode focuses on "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" and its inclusion of sexual situations and drug abuse. While some parents are concerned about the influence on their children, others argue that the book provides perspective and can be relatable for those who have experienced sexual abuse. The podcast host believes that censoring what children read and learn can hinder their growth and social abilities. They also mention how the book has positively impacted the lives of some readers, including one girl who changed her mind about suicide after reading it. The host believes that the book should be allowed in high school libraries, and possibly even required reading. Good evening listeners, welcome to the Parents Now podcast, a podcast centered around keeping parents up to date on everything that's kids culture. Our goal here is to help parents create better parenting skills and develop the ability to better understand what's going on in their kids lives. In the next few weeks we will be talking about book bans going on in school, I thought this would be a good topic since as of recently we've been seeing more of these book bans become more popular across the country. We're going to be taking a non-biased look at these books, as we don't want to ruffle any feathers. As we all know knowledge is important, we want our children to be educated when it comes to things like race, gender, culture, sexuality, some of these things are definitely age sensitive topics and are only appropriate for young adults, but yeah, for the most part our kids need to be educated in these fields because it helps them develop social skills and understand other people better. We will be discussing why these books are controversial and how they are considered educational as well as examining why they shouldn't be banned, or should be banned. I'm excited to have all you listeners explore this topic with me. Today we're going to be discussing the book The Perks of Being a Wallflower published in 1999 by Stephen Chbosky. Over the years this book has been brought up in school board meetings and even court cases throughout the country due to certain texts the book has. These entries pretty much are talking about young adults encountering sexual situations and even some drug abuse. I'm now going to read an excerpt from the book here that may be controversial. So I kissed her and she kissed me back and we lay on the floor and kept kissing. It was soft and we made quiet noises and kept silent and still. We went over to the bed and lay down on the things that weren't put in suitcases and we touched each other from the waist up over our clothes and then under our clothes and then without clothes and it was so beautiful. She was so beautiful. She took my hand and slid it under her pants and I touched her and I just couldn't believe it. It was like everything made sense until she moved her hand under my pants and she touched me. That's when I stopped her. This is an excerpt from the book that has been addressed from parents that are concerned seeing this book in their teenagers school library which is pretty understandable. Charlie stopped her because the contact brought up fresh memories from when Charlie was molested by his aunt. I believe this part of the book is a concern of parents because it describes sex and they may think this may influence their kids or encourage their kids to experiment. This is an excerpt from the book that has been addressed from our, which I could see being a problem for sure. The way I see it is that the book provides perspective and could potentially be relatable for kids who have been sexually abused which is really important. This could help kids that have been abused work through their traumas by simply helping them realize that they aren't alone in their experiences and that their traumas are something that they could overcome. Something I've noticed is how parents tend to guard what their children's thoughts are by censoring what they watch and read. I can understand where the parent's concern is coming from, I get it, but at the same time kids are usually taking sexual ed courses in middle school so by the time they're in high school they should already have an idea of what healthy sexual relationships are. I also think that if you protect your kids from learning and making mistakes and experimenting in life that you'll only hinder their growth and this could potentially negatively impact their social abilities. I think this book is educational, I wouldn't consider it pornographic nor obscene. I think it's educational in the way that it provides perspective and perspective is extremely important to everyone in order for us to navigate ourselves throughout the world that we live in. Lastly, I'd like to mention an interview with the author Stephen Chbosky was in just a few months ago on MSNBC where he had read a letter he got from a girl who read the book right before she was planning on killing herself and the book ended up changing her mind and she wrote a whole thank you letter to the author and it was really sweet. I think that this alone shows that the book can help kids in unspeakable ways and the fact that the book has saved kids from killing themselves is enough evidence that this book is more beneficial to youth than negative and I think it should be allowed in high school libraries and may even go as far as thinking it should be a required reading. Yeah, it's a really good book for young kids I believe, but yeah, that's going to be all for this episode of the Parents of Now podcast. Thanks for tuning in and listening, we'll see you on another episode.
