Warning: Teacher Rant Ahead

My class is about to start some new novels. Two of them are by Carl Hiaasen. According to Scholastic, the grade-level equivalent of the books is 5.8 (for all you non-teachers, that means students in the eighth month of fifth grade should be able to read this). Since my fourth and fifth graders are reading at middle school levels, we are always looking for novels to meet their needs. Our next Social Studies unit is about making economic decisions that impact the environment. Carl Hiassen's books, Hoot and Flush are about just these topics. (If you haven't read them, you should.) The problem? There are about 5-7 curse words sprinkled among the 250-plus pages. I sent a letter home to the parents informing them of our reasons for choosing these books and the modest amount of inappropriate language in the book. Most of the parents were fine with this, agreeing that the content and themes of the books outweighed the few choice words, and knowing that we would address the language issue as it came up. One parent, however stated that while he would allow his child to read the book, he did not agree with our choice in picking them. Since cursing was against the school rules, he asked, why was it "OK" to read books with curse words in them? Fair enough. He also stated that one of the books includes a couple who smoke. OK. Now this is where I draw the line. These books are REALISTIC fiction. That's right...in the real world, people smoke and curse, and do all sorts of other things that we do not condone at school. Now, I am not saying that we should expose kids to things they should not be exposed to, but if kids were to be introduced to sensitive issues in the safety of a novel group, where an adult could monitor their conversations, kids might be less inclined to make bad choices. Studying characters who make poor choices might lead kids to make good ones, and learn from the mistakes of others before they make those same mistakes for themselves. Plus, the focus of the book is NOT the language, but the connection between the environment and the economy. I hope that when I am a parent, I focus more on monitoring the types of TV shows and video games my kids watch and play, rather than the educational books they enjoy and read under the guided supervision of trusted adults, like me and his/her teachers. I hope that rather than shielding my children from all the bad things in the world, I am able to address sensitive issues with them, helping them to make informed decisions about appropriate and healthy ways they should behave. I don't know...maybe that's just me.