The Kids’ Right to Read Project is urging the general public to speak out against book censorship at two high schools, one in Pennsylvania and the other in California where Laurie Halse Anderson’s Speak and Jeannette Wall’s The Glass Castle are being challenged. KRRP is calling on supporters of free speech to advocate for students’ right to read everywhere, especially in light of this year’s upcoming Banned Books Week. These stunning books are eminently appropriate for high school students as they enlarge students’ knowledge of the world and prepare youth to face the real challenges in life.
For more information and to read KRRP’s official letter to the Temecula Valley Unified School District click here.
Click here to read KRRP’s official letter to North Pocono High School.
To find out what you can do, click here.
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Why assume off the bat, right in the title, that it is book “censorship”?
Communities have every right to decide if certain materials are right for their own children. Why are the views of local communities worthy of a call by an outside organization, which you are, KRPP, for “the general public to speak out against book censorship.” Meantime, people are supposed to be guided by the KRPP that instantly cries “censorship”?
“These stunning books are eminently appropriate for high school students as they enlarge students’ knowledge of the world and prepare youth to face the real challenges in life.” So says the KRPP. What, local communities can have no say without being shouted down as “censors”?
With legal backing from the US Supreme Court in cases like Board of Education v. Pico, the school may make a legally defensible decision to remove certain material from the school. KRPP can do nothing about that, except mislead the public, hence the current call for public action against “censorship” without anything but a single, conclusory statement for support.
Now I have not read either book, so I have no idea what the school may find objectionable that may be legally removed from a public school. But, KRRP, you make instant decisions in every case I have seen that “censorship” lies behind every single decision to remove inappropriate material from public schools.
I think KRRP would be taken more seriously if it actually thought through the issues instead of immediately shouting “censorship,” then defending instances of true censorship, rare as they may be.
“The … elites have convinced themselves that they are taking a stand against cultural tyranny. …. [T]he reality is that it is those who cry ‘Censorship!’ the loudest who are the ones trying to stifle speech and force their moral world-view on others.” By Dan Gerstein, an independent consultant, former communications director for Joe Lieberman and a senior strategist for his presidential campaign.
By the way, I just saw that Laurie Halse Anderson YouTube video from Sept 2009. That was outstanding. I recommend it highly.
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