Famous American actor and Christian evangelist Kirk Cameron recently sounded off on Scholastic Books over the content it is pushing on children. In recent years, Cameron has partnered with Sky Tree Book Fairs, a nonprofit organization that seeks to promote the positive values in the content children consume. Cameron and Sky Tree Book Fairs are competing against Scholastic Book Fairs, the world’s largest children’s book publisher.
According to Cameron, much of the content that children consume distorts the fundamental truths of reality. “We see that there is such an avalanche of filth and material that’s twisting the minds of children about the most basic things of reality and families, gender, faith, what is America,” Cameron unapologetically told CBN News.
He particularly addressed Scholastic, which is known for publishing some of the greatest children’s books in history. However, Cameron stated that their modern book fairs now featured heavily politicized topics that undermine traditional American values.
“We all grew up with Scholastic, everyone, as the publisher of these great books, and Clifford the Big Red Dog and Stuart Little and James and The Giant Peach and all the fun little crossword puzzles. Well, their book fairs are now filled with the kind of progressive, socialist Marxist material that is undermining God, family, and the country,” Cameron said.
As the culture war has impacted the education system over the past few years, parents, teachers, and students have called for standards to be imposed in school libraries. Many believe libraries should be a carefully curated source of “uplifting” literature that simultaneously seeks to give children an educational understanding of the world around them.
“I think we should fill our limited space in our libraries with books that are uplifting, that help to develop children and that achieve our primary task which is to teach them to read, write, understand science, appreciate great literature, understand history,” stated Virginia Beach School Board Member David Culpepper. He added, “Those books should not be harmful.”
Cameron noted the success of his alternative to Scholastic book fairs, where more than a thousand schools have partnered with him. “We already have over a thousand schools, public and private that are replacing Scholastic book fairs,” he explained. “When we first showed up at a library to read one of these books with pro-God, pro-America values, the leadership at the library said, ‘Our people wouldn’t be interested. We’re more of a progressive community and we don’t align with your values.'”
The actor further claimed that American children are battling an “identity crisis” in light of the confusing messaging propagated by society. Cameron explained that he seeks to spread the message of Christ to children, giving them a grounding in the Christian faith.
He said, “Our kids are having an identity crisis in our country. They don’t know who they are. They don’t know where they are. They don’t understand right from wrong or even if they’re a boy or a girl. So, we want to tell stories that are going to give kids their identity in Christ. They’re going to teach them values. Think of Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood only modernized with hilarious dialogue, beautiful animation, and it’s called Adventures with Iggy and Mr. Kirk. I’m Mr. Kirk and my little sidekick is an iguana named Iggy and he is being puppeteered by a world-renowned creator of puppets who worked with Jim Henson and the Muppets on Sesame Street.”
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