Rating System

[nomadic myth]

I couldn't decide where to put this. Threads in the General Book Discussion can't have an 18 put on them, so I decided on here.

I'm in charge of stocking my middle school and high school library with English books. Because I'm in Korea and our school is one of the few schools in the country where students read high level English books, I have little outside help. The students are above average in intelligence, so I try to refuse to put fluff in the library. Here's where my troubles begin.

If I only put books books in the library that I have read, it will be very limited in scope. If I haven't read them, I don't know what's inside. I usually know if it's a quality book based on my background knowledge of the author and title, but it's not until I read it that I learn if there are any inappropriate scenes for younger readers.

Right now I'm reading The World According to Garp, and I think it's a fantastic read. However, the word 'prick' comes up a bit too often, there are a few too many blowjobs, and I'm not sure I want a grade 7 student reading about the split wet beaver porn picture classification system. I'm so glad that I'm the first and maybe the last person in the school to be reading it.

I need a rating system!!!! Or, at least an idea of what is appropriate for various ages. Is Garp alright for grade 12 students? Are the multiple occurences of "****" found in A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson okay for grade 8 readers? Can a grade 9 student read Sidney Sheldon? Memoirs of a Geisha? How about The Stand by Stephen King? I read that in grade 9, but I'm not sure I want to explain to a parent why their kid is reading about someone who jacks off in their pocket; my parents were quite liberal in what I could read.

I'm sure a twelve year old can buy The World According to Garp in a bookstore, no problem. Is writing different from movies and TV?

 

[nomadic myth]

OK. Just ignore the first paragraph of the previous post. I guess the subject matter is okay.

Also, sorry if there is any "obscenity" in this thread. Unfortunately, I can't decide what is obscene or not.

I've been thinking about the issue more, and browsing around the internet. I found a fairly enlightening article from the School Library Journal: Rethinking "Racy Reads". I guess the ALA is opposed to any rating, but I still need to decide on a cut-off point for younger readers.

In Julie of the Wolves, a book that is alright for elementary students, Daniel climbs on top of Julie and tries to stick his tongue in her mouth. However, the description is fairly brief and straightforward. In The World According to Garp Helen decides in relations with Michael Milton to "suck him off" and then when the parked car they're in gets rear-ended she bites off "what amounted to three quarters of Michael Milton's penis". I know that someone is going to get angry if a middle school student is reading this, but I wouldn't worry if my kids were. I'd be kind of happy that they were reading recognized good (albeit tragic) writing. After all, Garp's son Walt dies in the same collision (Garp rear-ended Milton's car by accident). Being a father myself, that almost makes me cry. Especially the description of poor little Walt's last words - "'It's like a dream!' [referring to the cruising car] said Walt; he reached for his brother's hand." The book is not gratuitously sexual, just stuff happens. The artistic quality of the book far overshadows anything "bad" or "dirty". Nevertheless, I would just rather avoid defending freedom of reading to an irate parent.

I don't need a rating system; I just need some input from people so I can be helped through the thinking process of where to draw the line. My thinking processes are usually rather vague and ponderous.

 

[Anamnesis]

From what you told me, I'd say The World According to Garp would be okay for twelfth-graders to read. The students who do like to read have probably completed books with similar/more extreme content, so I don't think it'd be a problem for most of them. As for Memoirs of a Geisha, I don't recall anything too explicit in that book... nothing that would shock the average ninth-grader.

 

[Stewart]

OK. Just ignore the first paragraph of the previous post. I guess the subject matter is okay.

I moved it in the General Book Discussion. It's a valid enough question and it's about books. The Mature Discussion forum just doesn't have the membership that may do such a discussion the service it warrants.

 

[nomadic myth]

I moved it in the General Book Discussion. It's a valid enough question and it's about books. The Mature Discussion forum just doesn't have the membership that may do such a discussion the service it warrants.

Thank you. I agree.

 

[nomadic myth]

From what you told me, I'd say The World According to Garp would be okay for twelfth-graders to read. The students who do like to read have probably completed books with similar/more extreme content, so I don't think it'd be a problem for most of them. As for Memoirs of a Geisha, I don't recall anything too explicit in that book... nothing that would shock the average ninth-grader.

I imagine Memoirs of a Geisha is fine, too. Just some students were saying that it is perverted, with normal middle schooler maturity (did I say maturity?). I'm actually teaching only middle school, although our library is shared, and I'm doing the book choice for both the high school and middle school. I'm doing SSR (USSR, DEAR, extensive reading) in my classes, and I only see middle school students' reactions first hand.

I think the issue of what is okay and what is not okay for various levels of readers to be very interesting. It can be a big problem when the reading level of students far exceeds their maturity level. It's an even bigger problem when both their maturity and reading level exceed their numerical age. (Some students are reading stuff like Tolstoy and Wordsworth in their second language, and "getting it".) In the end, I'm an advocate of if you can read it, read it, unless the title is An Anthology of Blatant and Non-Educational Sexual and Violent Stories.