Censorship

Censorship has a long history dating back to Socrates who wanted to ban all fiction as being unworthy of a reader’s time and harmful to his intellect.

Young Adult Literature Most literature for young adults was innocuous until Girls dreamed of the prom, boys drove hot rods and played sports – Marks the beginning of modern young adult literature Mr. And Mrs. Bo Jo Jones by Ann Head The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton Too Bad About the Haines Girl by Zoa Sherburn The Contender by Robert Lipsyte

Assumptions About Censors and Censorship 1.“Any work is potentially censorable by someone, someplace, sometime, for some reason.” (Donelson & Nilsen, 1997) No piece is safe no matter how long it has been on your shelf and how many people have praised it. 2.New books tend to be more often censored than established ones. 3.Censorship is completely arbitrary. It can change from teacher to teacher using the same text. 4.Censorship usually comes from “within” the system.

5. Censorship has a ripple effect in that it spreads fear outward without respect for the actual danger. 6. Censorship “will” happen to you. 7. Districts, schools and teachers without well articulated plans for dealing with censorship are accidents waiting to happen. 8. Censorship works like an avalanch. Remove one book, then there are two challenged. Then three and so on. 9. The clash of those interested in education and indoctronation are doomed to clash. Be ready for it!

Censors believe that there is a straight line relationship between words and deeds. Bad books produce bad actions. Read profanity…you will swear. Read about sex….you will have sex. Read about abuse….you will abuse.

Censors often have a sense of “the good old days” of education when we all read books we hated and these were good for us.

Secular Humanism? Secular Humanism is a term which has come into use in the last thirty years to describe a belief system with the following elements and principles: 1. A conviction that dogmas, ideologies and traditions, whether religious, political or social, must be weighed and tested by each individual and not simply accepted on faith. 2. Commitment to the use of critical reason, factual evidence, and scientific methods of inquiry, rather than faith and mysticism, in seeking solutions to human problems and answers to important human questions.

3. A primary concern with fulfillment, growth, and creativity for both the individual and humankind in general. 4. A constant search for objective truth, with the understanding that new knowledge and experience constantly alter our imperfect perception of it. 5. A concern for this life and a commitment to making it meaningful through better understanding of ourselves, our history, our intellectual and artistic achievements, and the outlooks of those who differ from us. 6. A search for viable individual, social and political principles of ethical conduct, judging them on their ability to enhance human well-being and individual responsibility.

7. A conviction that with reason, an open marketplace of ideas, good will, and individual responsibility. 8. A conviction that with reason, an open marketplace of ideas, good will, and tolerance, progress can be made in building a better world for ourselves and our children.

Island Trees School District v. Pico, 1982 "Local school boards may not remove books from school library shelves simply because they dislike the ideas contained in those books and seek, by their removal, to prescribe what shall be orthodox in matters of opinion." The decision in this case should be seen as having a narrow scope. The Court ruled only that the "deselection" of the books violated student rights. Furthermore, the Court did not deal with the selection or deselection of "curriculum materials," thereby avoiding the more difficult question of who judges what materials to be "appropriate" for public school use.