Censorship Question

How do you establish when a student is mature enough to deal with certain text? This is a good quesion and a very difficult question to answer, as it can be different for every single person. I believe the readiness of a person depends on theri own life experienes. Some students have been exposed to and learned about many of the controversial topics today, such as drugs, sex, violence, abuse, rape, etc. and therefore are more than likely ready to deal with such issues within a text. However, this is vague as well as many students, unfortunately, may have been exposed to these things too soon, and perhaps a book would bring back bad memories or would simply be innapropriate for the age level. Also, there are many students who have had little or no exposure to such things, and to introduce texts that deal with such things to such students could lead to confusion or perhaps even a more traumatic reading of the text than other students may get. It is very hard to tell who can handle what and who is ready to read certain texts. There are obvious markers, such as making sure the books are overall age appropriate, like not having third graders read The Perks of Being a Wall Flower or other such texts, but there are many other aspects to think about that are unique to each individual, so it is an extremely difficult question to answer.