I am working out in the suburbs and the client I’m working with has experienced some negative press lately. To catch up on the news, I find myself reading the Daily Herald online. Today I noticed a strange tidbit: “Geneva schools might pull Calvin and Hobbes”

Calvin and Hobbes, Bill Waterson

I loved Calvin and Hobbes when it was a comic strip and own all the Calvin and Hobbes books (except that really expensive one that came out recently). As I read the article it really wasn’t clear to me on why the book may be pulled off the school shelf other than the reference that “it was written as an adult book” (big surprise to me) and that “it does refer to violence and sex” (really? sex – where? I missed that). But, if that is the case then movies such as “A Bug’s Life”, “The Incredibles”, “Monsters”, “Bambi” or “March of the Penguins” which either have PG or G ratings should be rerated as PG13 or R.

I find it sad when books are banned. There are more important issues like the health care crisis or the homeless and hungry or parents abandoning their children. Banning books doesn’t seem to accomplish anything except for imposing one person’s (or a group’s) views on the rest of us. Really, if you don’t want your child to read a book that is carried in the Elementary school library, then let your child know and trust that they won’t read the book.

What’s even sadder is that there are limited funds for education and that some institutions decide to spend their money not on teacher salaries or on students, but on administrative staff. It sickens me to see that at my client, the IT staff has decided to pay themselves a “stipened” taking money away from support and training, leaving their users to fail and causing bad press to appear in local newspapers. Even worse is that one of the IT managers orders a $750 “stipend” each month for HIMSELF and still has no idea how to log into the support site or support the newly implemented system.