Children's Librarian: The Play-At-Home Game

[phoenixredux]

from the New York Times:
With One Word, Children’s Book Sets Off UproarThe word “scrotum” does not often appear in polite conversation. Or children’s literature, for that matter

Comments

[power_puffs_lab]

Personally I don't use the word often but I just don't like the way it sounds, it's got a bad (pardon all puns/bad taste here but...) mouth feel to it, the letters just don't work well.

sounds better than "nutsack"

[damncutekitty]

Scrotum is a name for a body part. Geez, what's the big deal?

I think the fact that people teach their kids euphemistic terms for certain body parts just enforces the idea that our bodies are "dirty" and sex is "dirty". I used to sell sex toys. I have NO problem saying the words for body parts. I actually wrote a post in my own LJ a while back daring people to say words aloud to get over their hangups.

unrelated to scrotums (scroti?)

[grenacia]

On the other hand, when I was a kid, my mom would just automatically or randomly give age-appropriate award-winning children's books to me for Christmas. You could recognize them by the stamps on the covers. Some of them I liked, but some of them I found totally uninteresting and abandoned partway through. They may have been good books, but they weren't what I wanted to read. And I was The Kid Who Would Read Anything. So I dislike the idea of, "ooh, it won an award, I should have my kid read it". Kids should read what they want to read, unless its an actual assignment for class or something. Their lives will not be enriched by reading high-quality childrens' literature unless they like it. If they'd rather read the Babysitter's Club or whatever, that's just as good. The only good way to develop good reading skills is to read a lot of stuff you're reading because you want to read it.

Re: unrelated to scrotums (scroti?)

[damncutekitty]

I used to love the Babysitter's Club books.

Re: unrelated to scrotums (scroti?)

[grenacia]

Heh, me too! I read a lot of other stuff too, but I read and re-read those. They weren't bad for a long and mainstream series of kids chapter books.

Re: unrelated to scrotums (scroti?)

[phoenixredux]

As a kid, I don't recall encountering a Caldecott or Newberry book that I didn't devour. So now, as an adult, I would certainly give them to my kid(s). Actually, if it's on any sort of banned book list, it's the surest way to make me interested in it. I remember my dad freaked out when I was in sixth grade and I brought home "The Satanic Verses". I was mad, too - I had been on the wait list for that book for weeks! I don't think I ever did get a chance to read it.

scrotums, scrotums everywhere

[grenacia]

Seen this yet?

http://www.gelfmagazine.com/gelflog/archives/youth_literature_is_filled_with_scrotums.php

Raising the level of intellectual discourse....

[phoenixredux]

No... but have you seen this?

[rachel_bartlett]

OMG we must hide the fact that people have bodies from our children, until they are 30 or married!!! We should stab their eyes out and tape their bodies and put them in cages! Oh, and abolish freedom of speech! Or what about putting kids in those lovely burqas...

I am much more offended by powerpoint-speak, and especially by people adding "area" to perfectly fine words: "The driver suffered injuries in the leg area." -- "I had to undergo surgery in the scrotum area." -- Both examples from German TV. You can say penis and scrotum and vagina, and you don't get beeped out, but everybody is adopting CEO-newspeak to add "authority" to their words...