A book wins the prestigious Newbery Medal award. It is “The Higher Power of Lucky,” by Susan Patron.

It becomes controversial because it uses an anatomically correct word. This word use is fitting with a theme of the book.

And one of the themes of the book is that Lucky is preparing herself to be a grown-up, Ms. Patron said. Learning about language and body parts, then, is very important to her.

With One Word, Children’s Book Sets Off Uproar – New York Times

This word is used as a descriptor between boys (and overheard by a girl) about the location of a dog’s snakebite. By 9 or 12 years of age, I hope that boys understand that there is another word for their private areas other than “family jewels” or “crotch”–if only so that they can talk with their doctors about jock itch, concerns about development, and what not. I expect that knowing the terms for various anatomical parts well enough to describe a dog’s snake bite will not cause the spontaneous spread of immorality. The boy explained to his friend that his dog was bit on the scrotum. The girl, overhearing, wonders about the word. I’ll bet that a similar book, aimed at the same age group, would be quite acceptable in mentioning that a pup nursed at it’s mother’s teat, or found a nipple to suckle.

“The people who are reacting to that word are not reading the book as a whole,” she said. “That’s what censors do — they pick out words and don’t look at the total merit of the book.”

With One Word, Children’s Book Sets Off Uproar – New York Times

By the way, all three of my sons know that there are seven continents, and my sons know the terms urinate, bowel movements, and scrotums. They don’t often mention these things in conversation, but if they did, it wouldn’t be for titillation effect–just for factual information.

Read the book. Then decide.

Perhaps every generation that experiences a major, powerful change faces this same dilemma. Powerful tools can be dangerous, even when they are extremely useful. Gunpowder. Lasers. Cell phones with cameras.

Cell phones, being fraught with danger? I’m not talking about brain tumors from overuse, either. The recent New York Times article, Teenagers Misbehaving, for All Online to Watch – New York Times has me thinking.

The article details that children are misbehaving for the camera phone–the images are then uploaded onto the web. They are hoping for notoriety. Is this notoriety causing students to act in new and more dangerous ways? It’s worrisome. I appreciated Chris Lehman’s thoughtful post about this article, especially:

We have no choice but to teach students to own the stories they tell about themselves and to consider thoughtfully and powerfully the way in which they allow their online persona to be created — much like we would talk to them about the way they portray themselves offline. We cannot pretend these things aren’t happening, and we cannot pretend that the curriculum of schools cannot teach kids about all of this.

The Dark Side of Web 2.0 and Kids – Practical Theory

He’s right, we have no choice. And we can’t pretend these things aren’t happening. I appreciate the imperative nature of Chris’ statements, since I know there are parents and teachers out there who will be hoping to put the issue off for later. We have a duty to our students and children, a duty not to sidestep the issue and let our young people explore these new tools unaccompanied by older guides who care about them–even if, sometimes, the older people have less web2.0 presence than the younger!

It is difficult to have discussions about behavior when it is behavior you don’t expect or anticipate. That’s one reason why we parents and teachers need to explore these new tools, too. And why it is good to be sure our children have a balanced introduction to these web2.0 things.

Balance. We don’t want to encourage misbehavior by glamorizing or inspiring it, but we have to talk about the possibilities and responsibilities. It is not good to broach some important topics too late OR too soon (educators and parents must work out when to introduce some often hot-button topics, such as gun safety, stranger danger, and online safety and behavior). We won’t be able to anticipate all of the possibilities. We have some naive parents, teachers, and kids in the mix, with some students out there in the web20 world before we expect them to be.

My Quaker and librarian background doesn’t look lightly on censorship. We can’t hope to respond just by restricting cell phones and filtering the internet at school (that’s only putting the responsibility for teaching web wisdom off onto others). Our students are using these tools at home, on the bus, in the cafe or public library–even those students without home access get some exposure.

I think we older people need to prepare to be good guides by exploring the powerful, useful practices web20 will allow. As Will Richardson says, we need to get out there and use these tools ourselves. In addition, we need to keep up to date and knowledgeable about what our young people are doing. One powerful way: begin a conversation with them. Explore alongside them. Ask them to show you what they know and do online.

I have an example that shows how clever some of our children are, and how hard it is to see all the possible wrinkles before they do. It’s also an example of how important it is to have the conversation, and anticipate good responses with them. Some 9 to 11 year old students were talking about the very popular Club Penguin site with me. I mentioned some of the features of the site that help protect kids and help parents feel good about letting their children play there. I asserted that some people would always try and see what they could get away with, and that no site will be perfect. One 11 year old offered a tale of being invited to a “bad word” party at someone’s igloo. She went, not thinking it would be anything really bad (yes, we talked about avoiding the urge to check out this kind of thing, later). The igloo owner had avoided the chat filters by arranging his furniture into a bad word! She was quite shocked, and responded appropriately by reporting the igloo owner. I was glad that she shared her experience with her classmates. We had a good conversation.

It was about a week later when I noticed my son seeking attention on that same website. He had sent a chat message out to everyone at a popular gathering spot. He asked the other penguins nearby, “Who wants to hear a ghost story?” Phew. That kind of notoriety I can deal with.