I have always believed - most likely because it was instilled in me as a child by my PhD holding father - that reading is the most important thing I could do for, or with, my children. I believe that immersing them in the English language and instilling a love of reading is one of the greatest gifts I could pass along. I tell Asher that once he learns how to read he can learn anything, do anything, know anything.
Because of this belief, I have read to Asher almost every night of his life. I remember I started reading to him, every night before bed, when he was just six months old. Once he learned how to hold his own bottle so I could hold the book, I was on fire. I credit that for his why he has always been very verbally expressive. And not only do we read, but we also discuss story lines and characters, word meanings, and I quiz him on various, random, aspects of the plot in an attempt to strengthen his reading comprehension. Sufficeth to say, I am very involved in trying to give him a leg up when it comes to language.
Which is why I was so horrified to find out that I am in fact a hypocrite. Not about the reading thing, I really do the reading thing. No, I discovered, just last Monday night in fact, that I don't actually want him to be entirely verbally expressive. I am not interested in opening the big world of language to him. I actually CENSORED his book!!!
To give you some background, we've finally started the Harry Potter collection. I say finally because I can remember wanting to read this series to my children, before they even existed, because I loved it so much. I figured that by six, Asher was ready so we started on the first book this year. We are currently reading the third book and I was totally shocked when I came across the word "bitch." It read as follows:
"You see it all the time with dogs. If there's something wrong with the bitch, there'll be something wrong with the pup."
I was shocked. I couldn't read it to him. Now don't misunderstand me, I don't have any problem with the author using that word, it was more than appropriate given the context of the dialogue. I just didn't want to open that door. I didn't want to explain the appropriate and inappropriate use of the word, so I replaced it with "mother." Asher had no idea because he can't read yet, but I knew that I'd censored his book and that really gnaws at me. I don't believe in censorship even when the subject matter is foul so why did I feel compelled to omit that word? It's not like he's not going to, or hasn't already, heard that word. Wouldn't it have been better for him to learn the true meaning of "bitch" from me before his friends introduce him to the slang version? I believe that because of my fear we both missed out what probably would have been a really interesting teaching opportunity.
Oh well, hopefully Ms. Rowling swears in one of the next four books!
