Mediaboss Marketing

Silencing dissent has an ignoble and inglorious history reaching far back to ancient times. Socrates was made to pay the ultimate price for corrupting the minds of youth in fourth century BC Athens. According to the American Library Association (ALA) Office of Intellectual Freedom, there has been a 60% increase in book challenges in 2021 compared to 2020. The office tracked 729 challenges to library, school, and university materials in 2021, resulting in more than 1,597 individual book challenges or removals. According to the ALA most targeted books were by or about Black or LGBQ+ persons. Over the same period, a total of 26 states have banned books. Texas leads but sadly PA ranks second behind Texas in banned books 456 bans in 16 school districts.

In 1982, the Supreme Court provided clear guidance regarding censorship. It upheld First Amendment rights of students including the right to access information and ideas and affirmed that school boards cannot remove books simply because it or someone doesnt like its ideas, and, in this way, attempt to establish what is orthodox teaching. It also focused on the need for adherence to procedures to removing books. And to ensure First Amendment Rights, formal procedures have developed for parents and school boards to use when the need arises. Unfortunately, over the past year 98% of efforts to remove books violated these procedures.

It is of interest to note that authoritarian regimes tend to suppress politically unwelcome books while democratic countries are obsessed with problems of decency and immorality. (Harris, B; Banning Books: Media Law and Practice, June 1988.) While todays ban the books fever is as fierce and destructive as in years past, it is also cynically deceptive. Over the past year, book banning is characterized by an effort to stop students from learning while using the foil of restoring parental control.

Disruptions in the wake of the Trump administration, the arrival and lingering persistence of the pandemic together with cancelled school days, and heightened fears following the murder of George Floyd have all created a cauldron of bewilderment, belligerence, and violence. According to the Gettysburg Times, at a July 31, 2021, meeting of the Gettysburg Area School District Board, a member of a national organization known as Moms for Liberty accused the board of instructing students in CRT, i.e., Critical Race Theory. Republican Glenn Youngkin successfully used the foil of parental control to subvert instruction in CRT and won election as governor. Youngkins victory resonated widely among Republicans and resulted in calls by people like Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) to create a Parents Bill of Rights. An examination of claims suggests that most people who try to ban books dont even read the literature they hope to ban (Banned Books, a Study of Censorship: Banned Books Literature and Digital Diversity, northeastern.edu). Importantly neither Virginia nor Pennsylvania mandate instruction in CRT!

The pandemic has been hard on teachers, school boards, and parents. Is it not time for all to take stock and refocus on the needs of our children? Recent polling shows that a vast majority of voters, Democrats (70%), Independents (58%), Republican (70%), oppose removing books from public libraries while 74% of polled parents express a high degree of confidence in the decisions made by school libraries (Hart Research Associates and North Star Opinion Research on behalf of the American Library Association). The recent uptake to ban or remove books from school libraries is the result of a small cohort of parents funded and supported by far-right organizations who are driven to full-throated public displays before school boards while bypassing the classroom teacher.

Teachers know how important parental involvement is and perhaps, if there were more systematic avenues for parents to become involved, we would not see a drop in public-school enrollment PA saw a drop of 5.3%. (Digest of Educational Statistics) Few if any schools provide funding for parental involvement strategies, leaving it up to individual teachers to carry the burden. At the same time, if parents would rely upon the proven goodwill of teachers and their commitment to their students, we would not be witnessing the very tragic loss of teachers across the country. In PA, there has been a 66% drop in new teaching certificates over the past 11 years. (Testimony by PA Deputy Sec. of Ed.)

No one suggests that engaging parents is an easy job, yet everyone knows how critical their involvement is for the academic success of their children. If parents had a better understanding of the challenges facing school administrators and teachers, fewer would listen to the far-right messaging. Our future and indeed the future of democracy depends upon success in our classrooms. If anger and belligerence are the only things we bring to school board meetings, our future is in question.

Tony McNevin is a member of the Democracy for America Education Task Force. He resides in Gettysburg.

More:
Censorship: The child of fear and the father of ignorance - Gettysburg Times