TALLAHASSEE, Fla.-Feeling a little rebellious?
How about picking up a copy of "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn," "Of Mice and Men" or "Catcher in the Rye"?
While the American Library Association is encouraging people to read these classics and other titles during "Banned Books Week," Sept. 22 -29, Florida State University Professor Eliza T. Dresang and Professor Emeritus John S. Simmons are helping teachers and librarians deal with the ever-present threat of censorship.
In a new book, co-authors Simmons and Dresang contend that censorship is alive and well in America's schools and say teachers and librarians will likely face a challenge from a parent, school board member or political or religious organization at some point in their careers.
"School Censorship in the 21st Century: A Guide for Teachers and School Library Media Specialists," published earlier this year by the International Reading Association, explores the history and legal precedents of school censorship cases in this country and offers advice and resources to educators and librarians. Attempts to censor books in schools rarely succeed in the long run, the authors say, but the cases they cite demonstrate how censorship issues can divide communities and destroy careers.
To prevent divisiveness, Simmons and Dresang recommend that teachers and librarians establish coalitions with residents and young people in their communities to study past cases and set a policy that would be enacted should a challenge arise. The authors point to academic research teachers can use to defend their choices, as well as organizations, such as the Freedom to Read Foundation, which can provide legal support to fight challenges.
Helping teachers prepare for a parental objection or legal challenge may prevent them from trying to avoid giving worthwhile but possibly controversial assignments. The danger of self-censorship by teachers is that literature may be relegated to a smaller part of the curriculum or eliminated altogether, said Simmons, a professor emeritus of English education and reading.
"It's virtually impossible to find completely 'safe' curricular material," he said. "You don't read reading, you read something, and that something is going to be offensive to somebody."
Both conservative and liberal groups have challenged books in U.S. schools over the past century, according to Dresang, a former school librarian who is now an associate professor of information studies. Occasionally, a single book has been the target of groups on both ends of the political spectrum at different times and for different reasons.
Mark Twain's "Huckleberry Finn," for example, was banned in a Massachusetts public library in 1885 for its "rough, course and inelegant language." Twenty years later, the book was banned because Huck's behavior was deemed to be a bad example. Objections to the book's portrayal of Jim the slave began to surface during the civil rights movement, and in the 1990s the Pennsylvania chapter of the NAACP characterized mandated reading of the book as a "hate crime."
No matter how well intentioned objections may be, Dresang and Simmons believe librarians and teachers should not cave to demands to pull a book from the library shelves or from the class curriculum. It is one thing for a parent to decide that their own child should not read a certain book, but quite another for a parent or group to decide that nobody's child should read the book, they said.
"There are good people on both sides of the issue, but one of my interests is to help teachers and librarians defend their choices," Dresang said. "The whole thing comes down to 'what is a democracy?' It's based on a free exchange of ideas, and you have to have an educated citizenry to participate."
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