Book Banning

[asteriskea]

<p>These days we have plenty of reminders that book banning and censorship are timeless. This post may seem slightly off topic but I think it deserves mention here because the issues at stake have direct bearing on free access to information. This thread certainly brought home to me just how precious the American Library System is - as well as the active role librarians play to protect and constantly defend our right to read. </p>

<p><a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/31/nyregion/31library.html[/url]”>http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/31/nyregion/31library.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

[asteriskea]

<p>Newbery Medal winning book shocks some school librarians “who have pledged to ban the book from elementary schools, and reopened the debate over what constitutes acceptable content in children’s books. The controversy was first reported by Publishers Weekly, a trade magazine.”</p>

<p>

Librarians from all over the country, including Missoula, Mont.; upstate New York; Central Pennsylvania; and Portland, Ore., weighed in, questioning the role of the librarian when selecting — or censoring, some argued — literature for children.</p>

<p>“This book included what I call a Howard Stern-type shock treatment just to see how far they could push the envelope, but they didn’t have the children in mind,” Dana Nilsson, a teacher and librarian in Durango, Colo., wrote on LM_Net, a mailing list that reaches more than 16,000 school librarians. “How very sad.”</p>

<p>The book has already been banned from school libraries in a handful of states in the South, the West and the Northeast, and librarians in other schools have indicated in the online debate that they may well follow suit. Indeed, the topic has dominated the discussion among librarians since the book was shipped to schools.

</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/18/books/18newb.html?_r=1&oref=slogin[/url]”>http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/18/books/18newb.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

[wharfrat2]

<p>A good book dealing with the topic of the censorhip of books is The Day They Came to Arrest the Book by Nat Hentoff. Also, Hentoff’s book, Free Speech for Me But Not for Thee deals with censorship in it’s many forms.</p>

<p>In our area we had a school board that banned Song of Solomon on the basis of two pages. Board members read two pages of the book out of context and decided that the book was unsuitable for students to read.</p>

[citygirlsmom]

<p>the word in question</p>

<p>scrotum,</p>

[asteriskea]

<p>

An award-winning memoir about growing up poor and black in apartheid-era South Africa was banned from an intermediate school after a parent complained about a two-paragraph scene of men paying hungry boys for sex.</p>

<p>Superintendent Sonny Da Marto ordered an eighth-grade teacher to stop using “Kaffir Boy” in her English classes even though a literature review committee composed of parents, teachers, a librarian, a student and a school board member approved the book.</p>

<p>“The kids were angry,” said English teacher Amelia Ramos, whose four classes were about halfway through the memoir when the superintendent stopped them from reading it. “They were frustrated. They were appalled.”…</p>

<p>The American Library Association included the “Kaffir Boy” on its list of “Outstanding Books for the College Bound.” The child rape scene also gave the memoir the No. 31 spot on the association’s list of the 100 most frequently banned or challenged books.</p>

<p>Ramos taught the book to her students last year after the literature committee approved it. School board member Liz Gindraux, who participated in the screening process, said it was inappropriate to pull the book without any discussion.</p>

<p>“I feel we jumped the gun a little,” she said.

</p>

<p><a href=“http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070413/ap_en_ot/banned_book_3[/url]”>http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070413/ap_en_ot/banned_book_3&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

[Treetopleaf]

<p>Regarding post #29 (page 2):
“This lady sounds like she got her ideas straight from our schools. We’ve been through the last 18 months of two or three women gathering the people from their church to sign petitions banning books.”</p>

<p>Apparently there is a somewhat coordinated campaign afoot to get like-minded people elected to school boards. Prior to her election the original agitator said she’d use her Christian beliefs in all decision-making while on the board. Currently two more candidates, supported by Phyllis Schlafly, are running for this same school board. If you feel strongly about this issue, be sure you’re informed about your local school board candidates before you vote.</p>

<p>This blogger has some interesting comments on ‘book banning’ and uncomfortable subjects: <a href=“http://cpqe.blogspot.com/[/url]”>http://cpqe.blogspot.com/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;