RE: K12 Comments about my pumpkin page

Duncan,

It appears to me that the Metropolitan School District of Lawrence Township
(Indiana) wants to be something of an Internet hall monitor, reviewing
Websites for what they consider "appropriate" material for younger folks.
That, I s'pose, is a proper activity for any youth organization.
Unfortunately, what is appropriate for a kindergartner is not necessarily so
for a high school senior. Who knows what's appropriate for today's high
school senior?

I am concerned by the anonymous nature of the critique you received. Did it
come from some committee created by the MSDLT school board? Was, instead,
the author of the critique an individual bent on ridding the Internet of
items he or she doesn't like? I visited the MSDLT homepage and found nothing
that described a site rating policy and, therefor, I don't know if the
review you received has the official blessing of the school board. I, for
one, don't like the idea of some anonymous person censoring information that
I might find enjoyable.

Having said that, however, I must admit that the "Rude Pumpkin" poem might
warrant a PG-13 rating which would make it inappropriate for younger kids,
but even then I'm not sure if it's all that racy. If the poem was based on
an actual event, rather than something just made up for the mental images it
conjures, I'd think it was completely appropriate. However, if it was just
made up, it might fall into the same category as limericks that begin "There
once was a girl from Nantucket..."

I seriously doubt that children would venture into the poems section of your
site. If they are there to find growing data for a class project or report,
they most certainly aren't going to wander into something as esoteric as
pumpkin poetry -- that stuff's for the pumpkin-addicted among us who
frequent this list.

I would say that, if you put much credence in the MSDLT schools' rating,
remove whatever they find offensive. If you jolly-well don't care what they
think, keep the stuff in. It's your site -- include the content you choose.
Don't let someone else, including me, decide what you publish.

Paul Thompson
Armada, Michigan

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