The debate over age-banding

Across the pond, a battle rages about whether to print on the covers of books their "appropriate" audience. Phillip Pullman is up in arms, rallying the troops and setting up an online petition (http://www.notoagebanding.org/) through which anyone with an inkling can sign up and speak out.

Apparently, Brits haven't been paying attention to the Yanks.

This kind of age-branding has been going on for ages here. See, there's this fascist program called Accelerated Reader (there are other similar programs, but this what is used all over the Bay Area) that dictates at what level a child reads, based on how they score on multiple-choice tests. There are no psychological evaluations, maturity assessments, life-history inventories or interest factoring. It's all strictly, objectively, by the ABCs. As in, choose answer A, B or C correctly (ahem, predictably), and you're suddenly a fourth grader reading at a college level. Or, if you're like most kids, you're a fourth grader reading at a second grade level.

Hypothetical (though very common) situation: a 12-year old girl in the sixth grade comes up, asking for a recommendation to read in class (about a half-hour a day). This kid isn't much of a book-reader (some would call this reluctant, bah), but loves sailing and the ocean and absolutely adored the Pirates of the Caribbean series of movies. Now, first thing you think is Avi's The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle, right? It's about a 13-year old girl going to sea and becoming a pirate. While it's a little long (300 pages), the typeset is big and the story is engrossing; you mention the basic plot to your customer and she's hooked, ready to read and starting to bounce (you know how kids do that when they're excited, it's so cute!). Thing is, you first have to check to see if the book is on her school's AR list. If it is, cool. If not, keep searching...and leave the girl hanging to read that book at some other point. Then you have to check her reading level (every kid knows theirs): hers is 4.5. Small problem: Charlotte Doyle is grade 5.3. Her teacher says she has to read between 4.3 and 5.0, but not above or below that range. Ah well, looks like Charlotte Doyle goes back on the shelf, even though it is well within the girl's interests and maturity level. Time to hunt for another book, or to pick from the list randomly and hope for the best.

I wish the above were just a hypothetical. I've had to work with kids for 30-45 minutes, going through their damn AR lists trying to find a book at x level that will actually interest them. For those evil adults reading this who claim "why does it matter if they're interested, so long as they read?"...give me a break. If you were forced to read crap after crap that has no interest to you, holds no bearing in your life, and bores you to tears, do you think your love of reading will grow into a bountiful harvest? Hardly. More likely, those so-called "reluctant" readers will become anti-readers, since they'll think it's their fault that they don't enjoy reading, that they avoid reading because it is boring and TV is more interesting, and that they've never read a book they've enjoyed.

I remember reading Wuthering Heights as a kid. I found it so dull, so off-putting, that I literally cried from boredom while reading it. It was like being forced to eat a plate of mushrooms (and I really, really hate mushrooms). My mom told me, "Just finish the book so you can say you finished it" and I did. That was the WORST decision I ever made (and I've made some doozies, lemme tell ya). Because of my complete distaste for Emily Bronte, I carried that dislike over to Jane Austen, George Sands and the rest of the 18/19th century female canon. It was not until this past year that I read Pride and Prejudice (then Persuasion, then Northanger Abbey, and into Emma...), and I can't help but feel that if I hadn't forced myself to choke down Wuthering Heights when I was 14, I would have been open to and fallen in love with Austen's humor, insight and strength a whole lot sooner than when I was 29.

So now there's a movement to label the books by age. A kid who reads at the arbitrarily-set level x will be cornered into that reading section, and if there's a book of intense interest in arbitrarily-set level y, well, tough noogies, kid'll just have to wait till never to read it. Heaven forbid we treat children like individuals. Heaven forbid we expect librarians, teachers and booksellers to do their jobs and help children to find books that will interest them at their level. Heaven forbid we encourage the adventure, curiosity and risk involved with exploring a bookstore or library.

One of the arguments for age-branding is that it will help parents to know what is appropriate for their child without having to actually read the book. Hm. I've met an awful lot of parents who will literally do all the talking for the child when asking about book recommendations. I've even had one mother body-block me when I scooted a little to the right to ask her (teenage) son about his interests. Literally. These are the parents to whom age-branding would appeal. They can look at the cover, know if there's any inappropriateness inside (because, you can tell if there's sex, language, drugs/alcohol, magic, religion, atheism, animal abuse, violence, defiance of authority or any of the other taboos, just by looking at the cover) and, bonus points, whether Precious Jimmy/Jane will be able to read it, because Jimmy/Jane is reading at level x and is in grade y. And Jimmy/Jane will never actually have to select a book, risk seeing a dirty word/picture/idea in print, or start a love affair with evil books, because Jimmy/Jane will never read a book that is interesting or relevant.

Age-branding and other forms of discrimination only serve to disenfranchise children from their own education and discovery process. They serve to tell children that their opinions are not valid, that their ability to make decisions is inadequate, and that their interests are of no use. If we are attempting to create an automaton civilization of unread, indecisive, disinterested adults, we are well on our way to establishing the foundation. And that's the biggest crime of all.