‘GOING EVERYWHERE’ TRAVEL RESTRICTED; REASON MURDERED

“Logic will get you from a to b. Imagination will take you everywhere.” Albert Einstein, @ 1948

“…he who destroys a good book, kills reason itself.” John Milton, 1644

Banning books in schools is akin to banning imagination, reason, and everything in between. Yet that’s exactly what is happening in this country.

As if there wasn’t enough to be concerned about and fight for, now (as it has been in the past here and there), what we can and cannot read. More importantly, what our children/ grandchildren cannot read. I grew up with books, my mother being a direct descendent of the Houghtons of Houghton Mifflin Publishing Company. I love my Kindle for travel, but at home, give me a book produced on paper; AND let me obtain any book I want to read! Reading is a path to knowledge, understanding self and the world, vicarious travel and adventure, empathy for others, escape when necessary, and so much more!

Although this blog focuses on banned books in public schools, how long do you think it will be before our public libraries are a target? In reality, they already are, but to a lesser extent.

“In one Virginia school district this fall, parents will receive an email notification every time their child checks out a book. In a Florida school system, teachers are purging their classrooms of texts that mention racism, sexism, gender identity or oppression. And a Pennsylvania school district is convening a panel of adults to sign off on every title that school librarians propose buying.”[i]

PEN America, 100 years old as of April this year, includes Book Bans as one of its top focus issues. “Today, books in the US are under profound attack. They are disappearing from library shelves, being challenged in droves, being decreed off limits by school boards, legislators, and prison authorities. And everywhere, it is the books that have long fought for a place on the shelf that are being targeted. Books by authors of color, by LGBTQ+ authors, by women. Books about racism, sexuality, gender, history. [History?! “Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe.” H.G. Wells] PEN America pushes back against the banning of books and the intolerance, exclusion, and censorship which undergirds it.”[ii] That last sentence is important. Make no mistake, banning books is about banning knowledge…potential knowledge of others. Fear of the Other is what drives the far-right and the banning of books.

PEN America describes itself as a “literary and free expression organization [that] defends free expression, supports persecuted writers, and promotes literary culture.” Originally PEN was an acronym for Poets, Essayists, Novelists, but that soon expanded and today is no longer considered an acronym. PEN organizations exist throughout the world.[iii] The problem of book banning in schools is so severe, they have released a major study entitled: REPORT: Banned in the USA, which includes The Index of School Book Bans. What is unique about this report is the Index, which is the first to delineate specific books in specific school districts, and the procedures by which the ban is being committed. The lead author and Director of PEN America’s Free Expression and Education program, Jonathan Friedman stated: “What is happening in this country in terms of banning books in schools is unparalleled in its frequency, intensity, and success [Note the last word: SUCCESS]…. We are witnessing the erasure of topics that only recently represented progress toward inclusion.” [iv]

Here are some of the primary take-aways from this report:[v]

• Texas led the country with the most bans at 713; followed by Pennsylvania (456); Florida (204); Oklahoma (43); Kansas (30); and Tennessee (16).
• The Index of School Book Bans in the report lists districts that represent 2,899 schools with a combined enrollment of over 2 million students by state, school district, and specific books banned; 1,586 book bans have occurred in 86 school districts in 26 states between July 1, 2021 and March 31 of this year.
• Processes aimed to uphold the First Amendment in the context of school book challenges are not being followed. Of bans in the Index, 98% involve departures from best practice guidelines for how school authorities may remove books; most bans and restrictions have occurred without proper written forms, review committees, or transparency. While school boards and administrators do have some discretion over library and instructional materials, there are safeguards and best practices meant to protect students’ First Amendment rights that are being widely abrogated.
• 42 children’s books were censored, including biographies of Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr., Ruby Bridges, Duke Ellington, Katherine Johnson, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Cesar Chavez, Sonia Sotomayor, Nelson Mandela, and Malala Yousafzai.
• 1,145 unique book titles have been targeted by these bans by 874 different authors, 198 illustrators, and 9 translators, impacting the literary, scholarly, and creative work of 1,081 people altogether.
• The majority of the books targeted have been works of fiction, however 28% are non-fiction and include history books, analytical and/or personal essays, and children’s reference and informational works.
•  467 titles (41%) included protagonists or prominent secondary characters who were people of color; 379 titles (33%) explicitly address LGBTQ+ themes, or have protagonists or prominent secondary characters who are LGBTQ+;  247 titles (22%) directly address issues of race and racism;  184 titles (16%) are history books or biographies;  107 (9%) have explicit or prominent themes related to rights and activism. Note that these are overlapping categories, not a breakdown of the 100%.

Curious about the most banned books? Here are the top 5: The top 3 banned titles all are centered on LGBTQ+ individuals or touch on the topic of same-sex relationships: Gender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe banned in 30 districts, All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson, banned in 21 districts, and Lawn Boy by Jonathan Evison, banned in 16 districts. Out of Darkness by Ashley Hope Pérez, a love story between a Black teenage boy and a Mexican-American girl set in 1930s Texas, was also banned in 16 districts. The Bluest Eye by the late Nobel Prize laureate Toni Morrison is the fifth most banned book, in 12 districts.

Public school book banning is serious. This is not another news story to be ignored after the next COVID outbreak, mass shooting, or Trump crony subpoenaed takes over for a day or two. The intelligence, knowledge, and imaginations of this country’s children are being curtailed, controlled, and policed by what is still a minority of fear-mongers. It HAS to be stopped.

The report goes on to state: “ National groups including Moms for Liberty, No Left Turn in Education, and Parents Defending Education are collating lists of books that they view as ‘racist’ and ‘indoctrination’ to mobilize under the banner of ‘parents’ rights’ and press their case to disaffected parents and responsive school authorities. At the same time, state legislators are introducing — and in some cases passing — educational gag orders to censor teachers, proposals to track and monitor teachers, and mechanisms to facilitate greater ease of book banning in school districts.” More on these gag orders in a future blog.

Suzanne Nossel, CEO of PEN America, wrote: “A probing look at the surge in book bans across the country exposes an alarming pattern of mounting restrictions targeting specific stories and ideas and the widespread abandonment of established procedures aimed to safeguard the First Amendment in public education.  Parents and community members deserve a voice in shaping what is taught in our schools; but the embrace of book bans as a weapon to ward off narratives that are seen as threatening represents a troubling retreat from America’s historic commitment to the First Amendment rights of students, and to reacting to speech considered objectionable with more speech [such as debate], rather than censorious prohibitions. By short-circuiting rights-protective review processes, these bans raise serious concerns in terms of constitutionality, and represent an affront to the role of our public schools as vital training grounds for democratic citizenship that instill a commitment to freedom of speech and thought.”

It’s important to reiterate that parents rightly have a voice in their child’s education, but they are only one of a variety of shareholders, which include the child; the education professionals, particularly teachers in terms of their specific curriculum and how to teach it, and the school administration; district school board; state school board; and the U.S. Department of Education.

If there is an opening for a school board position where you live, seriously consider running for it! You need not have a child in school to be on a school board. A commitment to public education is the primary essential requirement.

A small section of one of my bookcases. I wonder how many of these are banned?

[Usually, my books are a little more in logical order and categories, but these are some of the books I’m reading, re-reading, just read, or refer to.]

[i] Washington Post, 8/17/22, email to subscribers.

[ii] https://pen.org/issue/book-bans/  PEN America is an organization for writers and creators. Following quotes from the report use this source also.

[iii] https://pen-international.org/who-we-are/history for definitive information on PEN history, connection with WWII, and international members.

[iv] The reason I am relying so much on this report is that I know it to be based on specific documented data. PEN America is nonpartisan, although some may think their commitment to the First Amendment to be liberal.

[v] https://pen.org/banned-in-the-usa/ to read the entire report.