Wednesday, October 02, 2013

Library Says You Must Be 14 to Watch Macbeth

Imagine my surprise when Danny was refused a check out of Macbeth from our library as he isn't 14. The librarian explained it is due to, "violence." I resisted a response of, "Well duh!"

"Of course if you want him to watch violence, you can check it out for him. You're his parent."

I felt like telling her he can see much worse on the evening news, but decided against it. Another librarian finished our check-out as the first was obviously too upset I was exposing a nearly nine year old to the gore of Shakespeare. Clearly, I'm a terrible parent. The second librarian was apologetic. She was much older, and hasn't been swept up in the hysteria surrounding childhood.

So let's recap: Holding, "live shooter drills" at an elementary school complete with cops in SWAT gear and guns won't frighten children, but checking out a copy of Macbeth is going to leave them traumatised.



No comments: