Read, but not the new stuff

I often do school visits. I like them. I like the kids. I like the energy. I like demystifying the writing process as much as possible. I love going to  rural places, the initial drive through the country, the feeling that I am leaving the claws of the city to go to a fresher more simplified place, Afterwards is the restorative drive home, the depleted feeling of good energy given, of having done something good for kids who may come a little closer to themselves through the documentation of themselves, the process of processing experience. I like it.  I like sharing my ideas on the hows and whys of writing

In the last two school visits, I've been told to stick to old material. Someone (the high school board of Education, I assume) has deemed Body Trade and Released  too hard for high school students even though they are hungry to read the material. Domestic violence, teenage sexuality, institutional manipulation, friendship, betray...hummmm all the things they are experiencing in the school yard and outside the walls of higher education, but not inside, no never inside.

It reminds me of the librarians who legislate the moment you can go from the children's library to the adult section, that glorious moment that opens up when the censor falls asleep, the guard is dropped and the world of real life opens up. I mention my books. I do not read from the. Perhaps the students are not ready. I wonder if this is so. And who calls that shot?