A Defence of ‘The Bad Book’ from a Librarian Who Purchased It for Her Stacks

I have purchased a copy of Andy Griffiths’ ‘The Bad Book’ for the junior section of our public library. I have done so for the following reasons:

1. It is funny
2. It is accessible and age appropriate for primary school aged children
3. Preventing children’s access to ‘badness’ in literature does not aid their moral development

I agree. We are not preparing our children for adulthood by preventing them from encountering bad things in our culture. We're simply preventing them from acquring the tools of good judgment in situations that require ethical decision making.

We need to stop this immediately for two reasons, one practical and the other, selfish.

On a practical level, it's not working. We're not creating a generation capable of making ethical decisions that conform to a healthy morality for a free society. We're producing adults incapable of identifying the what is good and what is bad. We're raising kids who think all choices are equal, and without the benefit of a healthy ethics, choosing immoral ones by happenstance or indifference. And we all have to suffer the consequences. We need to start exposing our kids to age-appropriate moral questions early and often, so we can correct them when they choose poorly and teach them why one is preferred over the other. We need to do this when only their parents (and maybe, some woodland creatures) have to suffer the consequences, before they are exposed to the public and by extension, me. Prison shouldn't be their first corrective.

On a selfish note, some of us choose to pursue the bad choices in life, because some of us think that stuff is fun, and creating protections for the kiddies only makes that stuff harder to get. It's like the child-proof lids on medications: yea, I can open them, but if there weren't some concern over kids accidentally taking drugs, I wouldn't have to curse every time, I do. What I'm saying is you and your kids are making it harder and harder for me to have a bad time.

And I resent the hell out of it. So stop.

Do it for the Lomans.