Ashcroft: New Library Rules Protect Our Children
It is more difficult than ever to shield young children from material and images that would’ve been put behind the counter at the Kum & Go just a few years ago. Our kids our deluged with inappropriate content on television, on the internet, in social media, and throughout our culture.
For parents of young kids, it is a struggle to navigate an increasingly complicated and morally relative society and instill the values we were raised with in a culture that no longer appreciates those values.
As an elected official, I feel it is my responsibility to do what I can to help parents through this morass and strongly believe that when it comes to our schools and public libraries, parents should feel one hundred percent certain that their kids are protected. Given my statutory role overseeing our state’s libraries, I proposed new rules, which took effect last week, requiring taxpayer-funded libraries to keep age-inappropriate materials away from children.
Far from “book banning,” as progressive activists howl, it is merely making sure that materials inappropriate for young kids are kept from young kids in those libraries that rely on the taxpayers for funding. There was a time in America when librarians would agree and work with parents and community leaders to protect our kids. Sadly, those days are gone.
The incoming president of the Missouri Library Association, Kimberley Moeller, went so far as to threaten to revoke kids’ library cards rather than comply, even while acknowledging that many if not most libraries already have similar policies in place. While they accuse of me of book banning, they are now threatening child banning.
Other libraries, more interested in virtue-signaling than protecting kids, have suggested banning the Bible.
To be fair, most of the state’s public librarians are working to implement the new policies, which don’t really represent a significant burden on them. Their good faith efforts demonstrate a commitment to creating safe learning environments for everyone and as this rule takes effect, I think everyone will recognize the criticisms are misplaced.
Kit Bond, the first Republican governor in Missouri after reconstruction, was on the cutting edge of education reform in the 1970s by emphasizing the role of parents in education. His concept for Parents as Teachers was developed “when Missouri educators noted that children were beginning kindergarten with varying levels of school readiness. Research showed that greater parent involvement is a critical link in the child’s development of learning skills, including reading and writing,” according to Parents as Teachers’ website.
Parents as Teachers” remains a signature achievement of his administration and was built on by my father when he succeeded Kit as governor. Kit recognized that in order for our children to be successful, they need strong parental involvement. And not just in academics, but in the values we instill.
Unfortunately, today’s education bureaucracy wants to invert that notion and now seem to want teachers as parents. Rather than engaging parents as partners in education, the education bureaucracy believes that a parent’s role ends at the drop-off. In the left’s view, parents aren’t teachers, parents are domestic terrorists.
Where did we go so wrong? When did parents surrender their rights to bureaucrats? Parenting is difficult enough without those educators and librarians, who are supposed to be allies, turning into adversaries.
This new policy is a small but important step toward returning the education and learning environment back to our children. I appreciate those who are working with us to see the smooth implementation and encourage those who are skeptical to recognize that our goal is simply to provide a safe learning environment for the next generation.
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