It has been said that parents lose their rights over their children when they walk in the school door, which isn’t acceptable for the America I believe in. There must be some kind of compromise. Because it is impossible to avoid offending someone when literature is chosen, I feel that allowing parents to opt their children out of a novel is probably the best compromise. I did this in my daughter’s last school, when they were reading “The Diary of Anne Frank.” I love Anne Frank and very much respect her diary and her contribution to literature, but it does contain things I felt my daughter wasn’t ready for. The fact that the school allowed my daughter an alternative meant a lot to me, and she still covered the themes the teacher was trying to teach.

In addition to providing an opt-out alternative, t seems to me that the schools need to think long and hard about their demographics before choosing required literature. But by the same token, parents need to think long and hard before choosing a school (if they have any options). And when it comes to that, I think authors need to remember the parents of the kids they are writing for. The novel discussed in the article sounds wonderful and I plan to read it, but I don’t particularly want my teens to read about masturbation, either. Maybe after I read the book I’ll decide otherwise, but at this distance I can hardly blame the parents who are complaining. Again, it is a tough issue.