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The War on Learning & Literacy Continues [1]

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Date: 2022-08-18  

Sigh. I wish I didn’t have to do another one of these quite so soon. But here we are.

The war on teachers, librarians, learning, critical thinking, etc., continues. You may recall from my last diary that Sarasota County teachers have been banned from having classroom libraries, from Scholastic book orders, from holding book fairs, giving book or reading-related prizes, etc., and that any read-aloud books must be pre-approved by administration prior to using them.

Nothing says “we trust our teachers” than a bunch of arbitrary rules that are 100% designed to prevent students from learning to love reading, and preventing them from doing things like reading about people that might not be just like them or their parents, or teach them empathy, compassion, things like that.

But it doesn’t stop there.

The Washington Post notes some new examples:

The article continues a bit later,

In the past two years, six states have passed laws that mandate parental involvement in reviewing books, making it easier for parents to remove books or restrict the texts available at school, according to a tally kept by nonprofit EveryLibrary. Five states are considering similar legislation. Typical of these is an Arizona bill, signed by Gov. Doug Ducey (R) in April, that requires districts to send parents who ask lists of the books their children check out, as well as to publish the titles of all library materials bought after Jan. 1. Policies are proliferating at the district level, too: One Nebraska system will require that parents sign permission slips for library books. A Texas system will divide its library into “juvenile,” “young adult” and “adult” sections, with parents choosing the “level” their child can access.

Now, it’s fair to ask if a given book is appropriate for various reasons — for example, you wouldn’t drop G.R.R. Martin’s Game of Thrones books or War and Peace into an elementary library, not just for content but reading level.

But this is far above and beyond that. This is helicopter parenting at it’s worst, and removing agency not only from teachers and librarians, but students as well. During adolescence and young adulthood, students are exploring their boundaries, their place in the world, and their identity. Books are a wonderful way to safely do that, but if there’s one thing that modern conservatives have shown is that, by Gosh, the only way to think is the way I think, and any other thoughts Are Not Approved And Shall Not Be Allowed.

And of course it sends a very direct message to teachers and librarians that Sure, We Trust You To Take A Bullet For Little Jimmy If An Active Shooter Shows Up, But We Damned Well Don’t Trust You To Read A Book To Him Unsupervised.

Remember when these guys thought the solution to school shooter was arming all the teachers? They trust us to pack firearms around their kids, but not to teach them ideas.

But wait, there’s more! The Washington Post, in another story, reports that the Keller School District in Texas (a district of 35,000 students) ordered teachers and librarians to remove 41 books from their classrooms and library shelves, including a graphic novelization of Anne Frank’s Diary, for a last-minute review. Most of the books in question had been challenged the previous school year and had already passed through the school’s material challenge process and been left on the shelves.

So this seems like an end-run attempt to again try to remove books from the shelves, despite a perfectly legit review process involving review committees of parents, teachers, librarians and administrators.

The excuse given is that new school policies are forcing a review to ensure that these books meet those new policies (any guesses on whether they will? I’m not taking that bet).

I can only hope that the sane segment of our population realizes what is being done to strangle literacy, the love of reading, and critical thinking in our schools before it goes on much longer, and pushes back.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/8/18/2117506/-The-War-on-Learning-amp-Literacy-Continues

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