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Friday, August 7, 2009
Friday, July 24, 2009
stupid . . . STUpid . . . STUPID !!!
Is the word “stupid” a bad word? I think so! Is it acceptable for a children’s book from the public library to have that word in it? In my household and many others that I know, the word “stupid” is considered to be a bad word and we refrain from letting our little ones use that word. My little one does not know that word yet but I know that eventually he will pick it up from someone at school but I would, of course, strongly advise him not to use it.
I was having story time with my little ones and it so happened to be a children’s books from our local library and as I was reading it aloud, the word “stupid” came up and I was taken by surprise because I had never seen that word in a children’s literature targeted for preschoolers. That word was present few times in the book. After the first instance, I started to skim the pages before reading it aloud and would just skip over the word when it came up. I certainly value my local library and its resources but the librarians who pick the books have some responsibility to pick books with appropriate contents, don’t they?
I’m not quite sure how to handle this situation. I wonder if the author ever thought of the word “stupid” as a bad word. Sometimes, we adults use a lot of words that can be a bad word in a child’s world. Authors that write for children should have some responsibility to avoid using words that might be considered a bad word. Could the word stupid be replaced by some other word like “don’t understand”? Am I just an overprotective mother who is overreacting? Have you encountered some unexpected words in your children’s books? How did you handle it?
I’m still debating whether I should bring this up to the librarian and how to go about it. In the mean time, we are enjoying our other books without any surprise words :)
I was having story time with my little ones and it so happened to be a children’s books from our local library and as I was reading it aloud, the word “stupid” came up and I was taken by surprise because I had never seen that word in a children’s literature targeted for preschoolers. That word was present few times in the book. After the first instance, I started to skim the pages before reading it aloud and would just skip over the word when it came up. I certainly value my local library and its resources but the librarians who pick the books have some responsibility to pick books with appropriate contents, don’t they?
I’m not quite sure how to handle this situation. I wonder if the author ever thought of the word “stupid” as a bad word. Sometimes, we adults use a lot of words that can be a bad word in a child’s world. Authors that write for children should have some responsibility to avoid using words that might be considered a bad word. Could the word stupid be replaced by some other word like “don’t understand”? Am I just an overprotective mother who is overreacting? Have you encountered some unexpected words in your children’s books? How did you handle it?
I’m still debating whether I should bring this up to the librarian and how to go about it. In the mean time, we are enjoying our other books without any surprise words :)
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