Books. A Thomas Jefferson Education: Teaching a Generation of Leaders for the One thing is certain, states DeMille: Tomorrow's leaders will determine whether the flame of freedom and FreedomShift: 3 Choice to Reclaim America's Destiny Oliver DeMille is a modern-day Founding Father and no patriot's library is.
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- Censorship in Schools: Learning, Speaking, and Thinking Freely: The First Amendment in Schools
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- Censorship and the First Amendment in Schools: A Resource Guide
- The Future of Education
Our systems are what control the flow of commerce, govern our effectiveness as members of society, and create much of the stress we face on a daily basis. The upside is huge. So what are some examples of restrictive systems that are preventing us from doing great things? Here are just a few examples:. Lest you think the United States is the only country with system problems, consider some of the major issues plaguing other countries:. So as you can see, we are a long way from optimizing the systems that govern our lives. The freedom that we value so highly in the United States is only a fraction of what it can be if we begin to seriously reinvent society one system at a time.
And the system that we see as the highest leverage point for improving society is our education system. The following are eight key trends that are driving change in the world of education. These trends will eventually define the size, scope, and speed of the emerging new system along with the characteristics needed for a global-scale adoption.
As you read through the following trends, it is our hope that you will begin to feel the forces at play, gain a sense of the undercurrent of influencers, and begin to understand the dramatic changes that will be happening only a few short years ahead. Education has traditionally consisted of the two fundamental elements of teaching and learning, with a heavy emphasis on teaching. Throughout history, the transfer of information from the teacher to the learner has been done on a person-to-person basis.
A teacher stands in front of a room and imparts the information for a student to learn. A teacher-dependent education system is also time-dependent, location-dependent, and situation-dependent. The teachers act as a control valve, turning on or off the flow of information. The education system of the future will undergo a transition from a heavy emphasis on teaching to a heavy emphasis on learning.
Experts will create the courseware and the students will learn anytime or anywhere at a pace that is comfortable for them, learning about topics that they are interested in. In the future, teachers will transition from topic experts to a role in which they act more as guides and coaches. Exponential Growth of Information During the time of Gutenberg, people tended to live and die within 20 miles of where they were born, not because they were afraid to travel, but because they had no reliable maps.
Censorship in Schools: Learning, Speaking, and Thinking Freely: The First Amendment in Schools
People during this era had a very limited understanding of the world around them. The flow of information was controlled by just a few elite members of society, and they understood well the concept of knowledge equaling power. We have gone from that time, just years ago, where information was precious and few, to today, a time where information is so plentiful that we feel like we are drowning in it — information overload.
Elite members of society still control the flow of information, perpetuating the notion that only doctors can understand medicine, only physicists can understand how the universe works, and only teachers know how to prepare us for the world to come. There are many ways to talk about the rapid growth of information that we have experienced over the past few years.
But it is important to pay attention to the changing dimensions of information as well as the sheer volume of it. Information is no longer just text-based, but graphical, musical, audio and visual. Courseware Vacuum After viewing the data above and thinking about the size and shape of information around the world, now consider the number of courses available, either online or in a classroom. Information is exploding around us in every possible form.
Yet, we do not have an easy way to translate these blocks of information into courseware. While some attempts are currently being made to unleash the public on this problem, we remain a long ways from solving the problem. Open Education Movement — The open-education movement was inspired by the open-source software movement i. It mixes in the powerful communication abilities of the Internet and applies the result to teaching and learning materials, such as course notes and textbooks.
Open educational materials include text, images, audio, video, interactive simulations, and games that are free to be used and also re-used in new ways by anyone around the world. It is estimated that more than well-intentioned initiatives have been launched in this area. Some open-education projects are already attracting a large number of users per month. While we applaud these efforts, there are some critical elements missing. The learning system of the future will have a single access point for all of its courses. Moodle is claiming over , courses but they are spread over 20, sites and many courses are duplicates.
We estimate the number of unique and different courses to be less than 50,, not in the millions like the number of available books and songs. Using books as a close analogy, it can be argued that every available book has the potential of being translated into courseware and, most often, multiple courses. There are currently far more topics discussed in books than there are courses to teach the material. This leaves an obvious courseware vacuum waiting to be filled, and the key to unlocking this vacuum is the participative courseware-builder described below.
The primary driver behind this ever-expanding dimension of vocabulary is the ongoing development of science and technology. Along with the creation of new science and technology comes the need to explain its attributes, its function in technical terms, and its overall purpose. New words and their associated colloquialisms help create meaning and structure around the emerging new concepts as they attract more research and come into focus. Young students can learn new words quickly: This, of course varies significantly from one student to the next. In the English language, the 2, most frequently used words account for percent of the words used in non-specialized written texts and about percent in conversational speech.
However, the total number of words in the English language tops out around one million words, and the vocabulary of some of our most gifted scientist and engineers tops out around , words. The distance between the functionally literate and the super literate is growing. Some people who have become expert on a specific topic have pushed the envelope of understanding far beyond the comprehension of the rest of the world.
And in doing so, have created whole new vocabularies to describe the concepts and phenomenon they encountered. These super experts often live in a research community where they are often the only living person who truly understands the topic of their research. Until now the primary tool for these super literates to pass along their understanding of research to future generations has been through papers that are published in technical journals. Because of the rigid requirements for publication, these papers often take months to compose, and are written in a vocabulary few can comprehend.
An alternative to publishing papers will soon be the creation of courseware. While developing courseware in the past has been laborious and poorly utilized, the new courseware builder described below has the potential to change all that. Courseware will become an alternative to publishing papers or writing books, and will serve as an additional channel for the super literates to disseminate their understanding of the world.
As an example, the average person comes in contact with the physical world through three primary physical touch points or interfaces — the shoes that we walk in, the bed that we sleep in, and the chairs that we sit in. These are the primary touch points for our physical body. While it is important to study the touch points for our physical body, it is even more important to understand the touch points for our mind. How does our mind interface with the rest of the world, and how can we improve the touch points to improve our abilities and capabilities?
The Classroom Touch Point: There has long been the pervasive notion that learning can take place only in a classroom. Classrooms are designed to focus attention, close off the rest of the world, and create a controllable environment where learning can take place. Most educators will argue that the real learning takes place inside the classroom.
Even though external activities such as doing homework, reading assignments, or writing papers happen outside the bounds of the school, the primary education interface remains the classroom. The person or education system that controls the classroom also controls the time when learning can take place, the students who will participate, the lighting, the sounds, the media used, the tools, the pace, the subject matter, and in many cases, the results. Learning takes place from the moment a person wakes up in the morning until they fall asleep at night. In fact, learning continues even while a person is sleeping.
We may not be learning about math and science while we watch a movie, but we learn about the characters in the movie, the plot, the setting, the drama, the resolution of the problem, the kind of popcorn a theater serves, and how comfortable the seats are. Indeed some topics like math and science require a more structured form of learning for most students to grasp the information being imparted, but learning is not dependent upon the classroom.
In some cases the classroom may be the optimal environment for learning to take place, but most often it is not. Important new touch points for our mind include our computers, electronic newspapers, video magazines, handheld televisions, cellphones, MP3 payers, video games, artwork, and much more. Learning Drivers Why do people need to learn? Why do people want to learn? What are their motivations? Within the deficiency needs, each lower need must be met before moving to the next higher level. Once each of these needs has been satisfied, if at some future time a deficiency is detected, the individual will act to remove the deficiency.
The first four levels were:. According to Maslow, an individual is ready to act upon the growth needs if and only if the deficiency needs are met. Self-actualized people were characterized by: Maslow later add a new dimension to the growth need of self-actualization, defining two lower-level growth needs below self-actualization and one above that level. Our motivations for learning form similar patterns. For this reason, our desires to learn, and the topics we want to learn about, transition depending on the situation we find ourselves in.
As an example, we will have very little desire to learn math and science if we are worried about survival. However, we will have a great desire to learn about survival topics. The problem sets that surround us, and our ability to solve those problems, are a constantly refocusing lens into our learning motivators.
His ultimate conclusion that the highest levels of self-actualization are transcendent in their nature may be one of his most important contributions in this area of study. Instead, we are much more concerned about finding products that will satisfy our own particular needs. We live in an era where we are approaching million products in the marketplace, and depending on how you define a product, some would argue that we have already far exceeded that number. Suffice it to say that we now have products that are much more aligned with the needs of a very wide range of consumers, and consumers are voting with their debit cards for uniqueness and individuality.
So much so that we have dubbed this the age of hyper-individuality. When the cable TV companies started offering different channels they found that all of the channels had an audience. When Amazon started offering over 2 million different books for sale on its website it found that all of the books had a market. Our need for hyper-individualized solutions is driven by several factors including our time, our personality, and an overwhelming need to feel special in a world of over 6 billion other people wanting many of the same things.
Today the average person sleeps two hours less than a person in the s. We have gone from 8. With time being one of our major constraints, we are continually searching for products that will save us time, and if we can find that left-handed, counter-balanced, pocket-sized device that we can operate efficiently on moon-lit nights when the stars are aligned, we will make the purchase. Transition from Consumers to Producers As we transition from a predominantly passive society to a more active one, people no longer want to just sit on the sidelines and watch.
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They want to participate. And a whole new generation of tools and equipment are allowing people to shift their role from consumer to producer.
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This transition began with the introduction of comment sections at the end of online news posts. People began to voice their thoughts on whether or not a piece of news was accurate, timely, or in any way news-worthy. Many commenters added additional information. Suddenly it became easy for anyone to create a blog site, and millions of people began to experiment. As a site that allowed users to generate their own website and connection to friends, MySpace quickly became the dominant player in the emerging category of social networking with the millionth user account created in August As an enormously popular and free video sharing website, YouTube lets users upload, view, share, and rate video clips.
As a result, millions of people have transitioned from video consumers to video producers with an average of 65, new video clips uploaded onto YouTube every day. While each of these are examples of runaway success stories, the world of user-generated content is not without its own set of problems. Each has managed to handle the challenges in their own unique way. It is easy to fall into the trap of thinking in terms of past top-down approaches.
Instead, we need to focus on the key elements, the seeds of innovation, which will allow this new organic form of education to spring to life. New forms of education are not achieved by putting an umbrella over our existing education systems and networking them with hopes that they will get better.
Education in its current state is the equivalent of Roman numerals, a system that is preventing us from achieving great things. Since most people still believe that education must take place in the classroom, and only educators can create new courses, we have placed a very constrictive valve on the inflow of new courseware.
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The retail world had very similar restrictions just a few years ago, with the cost of shelf space being one of the primary constraints to the introduction of new products. But the online marketplace has given us unlimited shelf space at a near-zero cost. This combination of super cheap and unlimited shelf space has caused an exponential growth curve in the introduction of new products. The notion that education can take place only in a classroom is similar to the notion that purchasing a product can only take place when you see it on a store shelf.
Removing the classroom constraints to learning is similar to removing the shelf space constraints to the marketplace. At the same time that we have been experiencing the exponential growth of information, the amount of available courseware has remained rather static and consequently, our education systems have not kept pace. Only a small percentage of the information being developed today is being passed on to future generations in the form of classes or courseware.
Certifying Accuracy — Truth vs. Untruth As we contemplated the education system of the future, one of our biggest concerns was finding a way to ensure the accuracy of the information presented. Initially our thinking centered around the idea of selecting a central authority, some sort of governing truth authority, to authenticate the accuracy of information in each of the courseware modules. But this approach became unworkable as we considered the implications. To begin with, a high percentage of what is taught in classes today is theoretical, ranging from theories of gravity, to theories of evolution, to music theory.
None of these topics end up being percent provable, and so from the standpoint of passing muster with a governing truth authority, none of these topics could be included. Further, we realized that virtually every aspect of society has its own version of truth — religious truths, scientific truths, legal truths, etc. For this reason we concluded that any governing truth authority would quickly deteriorate into a highly politicized authority, and the politicalization of any aspect of this future learning system will quickly compromise its usefulness.
As an alternative, we are proposing a checks-and-balances system where individual groups can create their own central truth authority and place their tags of approval or disapproval on courses. These tags will be a central feature of the search criteria used by the smart profiler and the recommendation engine.
For example, organizations like the American Chemical Society, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, Focus on the Family, American Civil Liberties Union, National Rifle Association, National Education Association, or the Catholic Church can all review the new courseware that is being introduced and make a determination as to whether or not it meets their criteria. We think that such organizations will quickly gear up to develop their own line of courseware so they can have better control of the content. This type of tagging system holds value on many levels.
First, it creates ways for virtually everyone to participate, and in fact, demands participation. Participation is an essential ingredient in a truly pervasive education system. While many different learning methodologies will be experimented with, one that holds considerable promise is confidence-based learning.
Some experiments in this area have demonstrated a significant reduction in learning time. Her goal was to improve the validity and reliability of standard musical assessments at the time. She did so by adding confidence assessment to knowledge. Fron , Confidence-Based Assessment focused on statistical validity and reliability. In it was discovered that Confidence-Based Assessment also improved memory retention. This is the discovery where people began to realize that the process of taking a test can and will make you smarter.
What started as a breakthrough approach for measuring knowledge and confidence is now moving front-and-center into corporate training centers in the form of a fast and accurate learning methodology. Confidence-based learning is on the rise among organizations that are transitioning their companies from training organizations to learning organizations. Confidence-based learning is designed to ensure that learning actually takes place and mastery of a topic is achieved.
It is much more than simply delivering information to students. Determining what people need to learn starts by understanding what ignorance, doubts and misinformation presently exists. Unlike traditional learning methodologies that measure only how many questions someone answers correctly, confidence-based learning assesses. Distinguishing between a person guessing correctly and one who answers correctly with confidence can have a major impact.
An assessment process that is built into the system can capture and validate knowledge confidence because of the unique structure of its multiple-choice questions and detailed analysis. With the completion of an assessment, confidence-based learning is designed to close knowledge gaps at the moment users are most inclined to learn — right after being evaluated and their own misinformation and doubt has been exposed.
Archiving Knowledge While rarely viewed as such, education is a system for archiving a culture by passing down the knowledge of one generation to the next. Museums, written documents, books, photos, videos and audio recordings typically come to mind when considering a cultural archive.
Craftsman guilds such as tilers and bricklayers are a good example of trades that require hands-on experience. The intricacies and nuances of piecing together building materials into artistic patterns cannot be adequately conveyed through books or even video. The tactile feel of textures, tapping, testing for hollow spots, and cleaning off excess material are all part of the experiential learning that cannot be conveyed through some other medium.
The concept of archiving knowledge is just one of many theories that will emerge as strategies around the new system begin to develop. As we begin to peel back the layers of the system we are envisioning, we will use a number of different descriptors and definitions to describe the nature of the new, new era of learning. The key to this whole system is an easy-to-use courseware builder that catches the imagination of the general public and inspires participation.
Several features will be necessary to give this system both the range and functionality of a truly rich learning environment. We have identified 12 critical dimensions of the future learning system. However, only the first two need to be in place for the revolution to begin. The two critical components that will define education for centuries to come will be a standardized architecture for developing a courseware unit, and an organic distribution system that allows anyone around the world access to it.
In the past, creating a standard was often a long and tedious process where smart people gathered around tables and argued about where to place the comma in a sentence. But times have changed, and so has the development process for standards. Very likely the development of a standard will happen concurrently with the early testing of courseware modules, with the drafting of the standard document happening in parallel to the testing of the architecture.
The final standard may not be finished for several years. Competing standards can be divisive, creating temporary chaos in the industry, and greatly delaying market acceptance. Also, the path to market acceptance would end up being far more expensive. So, what will a standard courseware unit look like?
The short answer is that it is too early to know, but we have to have a starting point. For this reason we have put together a list of attributes and features that we think will be necessary components:. The Courseware Builder — Envisioned as a smooth, fill-in-the-blanks templated process, the courseware builder will carefully step courseware producers through the design, build, and launch phases of each course.
We schedule our time in one-hour units, we plan our days in one-hour units, so building educational modules around one hour units makes sense. Some learning experiences may involve a grouping of 2, 5, or even 10 units, but the majority will be centered around the basic one-hour unit. Yet profanity appears in many worthwhile books, films, and other materials for the same reasons many people use it in their everyday language—for emphasis or to convey emotion. Works with profanity often contain realistic portrayals of how an individual might respond in a situation, and some teachers intentionally select such materials to remove the allure from cursing.
But even minor use of profanity has not shielded books from attack. Katherine Paterson's award-winning book Bridge to Terabithia contains only mild profanity, but it has been repeatedly challenged on that ground, as have long-acknowledged classics like Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck. Profanity, however, is only one of many grounds on which books are challenged. As these examples illustrate, censorship based on individual sensitivities and concerns restricts the knowledge available to students.
Based on personal views, some parents wish to eliminate material depicting violence; others object to references to sexuality, or to racially-laden speech or images. If these and other individual preferences were legitimate criteria for censoring materials, school curricula would narrow to only the least controversial—and probably least relevant—material.
It would hardly address students' real concerns, satisfy their curiosity or prepare them for life. Censorship also harms teachers. By limiting resources and flexibility, censorship hampers teachers' ability to explore all possible avenues to motivate and "reach" students. By curtailing ideas that can be discussed in class, censorship takes creativity and vitality out of the art of teaching; instruction is reduced to bland, formulaic, pre-approved exercises carried out in an environment that discourages the give-and-take that can spark students' enthusiasm.
Teachers need latitude to respond to unanticipated questions and discussion, and the freedom to draw on their professional judgment, without fear of consequences if someone objects, disagrees or takes offense. When we strip teachers of their professional judgment, we forfeit the educational vitality we prize.
When we quell controversy for the sake of congeniality, we deprive democracy of its mentors. Censorship chills creativity and in that way impacts everyone. According to one frequently censored author, Katherine Paterson: But without mystery and complexity, there is no wonder; there is no awe; there is no laughter. Norma Fox Mazur added: That's bad for me as a writer, bad for you as a reader.
Censorship is crippling, negating, stifling. It should be unthinkable in a country like ours. Readers deserve to pick their own books. Writers need the freedom of their minds. That's all we writers have, anyway: To allow the censors even the tiniest space in there with us can only lead to dullness, imitation and mediocrity. Censorship represents a "tyranny over the mind," said Thomas Jefferson—and is harmful wherever it occurs. When the classroom environment is chilled, honest exchange of views is replaced by guarded discourse and teachers lose the ability to guide their students effectively.
Censorship occurs every day. Sometimes it's obvious even if no one uses the "C" word. Sometimes it's invisible—when a teacher decides not to use a particular story or book or when a librarian decides not to order a particular magazine because of fears about possible complaints. No one can quantify this kind of "chilling effect" and its consequences for education. After discovering his novel Boy Toy fell prey to such "self-censorship," acclaimed YA author Barry Lyga called it " sort of a soft, quiet, very insidious censorship, where nobody is raising a stink, nobody is complaining, nobody is burning books….
The American Library Association ALA , which tracks and reports censorship incidents, records a problem of significant magnitude, and they estimate that for each incident reported, there are four or five that go unreported. ALA states that between and , 5, challenges were reported to or recorded by its Office for Intellectual Freedom. During the school year alone, there were challenges to educational materials, according to People for the American Way PFAW.
Most of the remainder are aimed at public libraries. The ALA offers an instructive analysis of the motivation behind most censorship incidents:. Such a picture, however, is misleading. In most cases, the one to bring a complaint to the library is a concerned parent or a citizen sincerely interested in the future well being of the community.
Although complainants may not have a broad knowledge of literature or of the principles of freedom of expression, their motives in questioning a book or other library material are seldom unusual. Any number of reasons are given for recommending that certain material be removed from the library. Complainants may believe that the materials will corrupt children and adolescents, offend the sensitive or unwary reader, or undermine basic values and beliefs.
Sometimes, because of these reasons, they may argue that the materials are of no interest or value to the community. Of more than 5, challenges recorded by the ALA over the past eight years, 1, challenges alleged the materials' content was "sexually explicit;" 1, objections concerned "offensive language" in the material; 1, alleged the material was "unsuited to age group;" complained about an "occult theme or promoting the occult or Satanism;" and concerned objections about homosexual issues or "promoting homosexuality.
While demands for censorship can come from almost anyone and involve any topic or form of expression, most involve concerns about sexual content, religion, profanity or racial language. Many incidents involve only one complaint, but can nonetheless trigger a contentious review process. Often, parents who support free expression do not step forward to the same extent as those seeking to remove materials, leaving school officials and teachers relatively isolated. It is then their task to carefully assess the pedagogical value of the materials, to avoid simply giving in to angry demands that could undermine educational objectives and invite additional challenges in the future.
One of the most common demands for censorship involves the claim that certain school materials are not "age appropriate. The objection usually comes up when the material concerns sexuality, reflecting a fear that exposure to this subject undermines moral or religious values.
Censorship and the First Amendment in Schools: A Resource Guide
Since many non-objecting parents support informing even young children about sexual matters, it is clear that the content of the material as much as the age of the child lies at the heart of the objection. Acceding to pressure to censor in this situation can be tantamount to endorsing one moral or religious view over another. Conversely, educators generally use the term "age appropriate" for the point at which children have sufficient life experience and cognitive skills to comprehend certain material.
Education proceeds in stages, with increasingly complex material presented as students gain the intellectual ability and knowledge to understand and process it. For this reason, young children usually do not learn physics or read Shakespeare. Similarly, educators may decide that detailed scientific information about human reproduction might not be age-appropriate for six-year-olds, but would be appropriate for year-olds who have been introduced to basic biology.
She observes, however, that the rationale for psychological descriptions of the age at which certain behaviors generally occur has limited relevance to the selection of educational materials and literature in the classroom. If students understand the sexual allusions in Hamlet , she believes the discussion of it is "age-appropriate.
Indeed, for such adults a pristine vision of youth often forms a wall between themselves and any adolescents they happen to know. Responding to questions about age appropriateness, the National Council of Teachers of English noted that "materials should be suited to maturity level of the students," and that it is important to "weigh the value of the material as a whole, particularly its relevance to educational objectives, against the likelihood of a negative impact on the students.
That likelihood is lessened by the exposure the typical student has had to the controversial subject. The books targeted by censors included both popular and classic titles, affecting almost every age group. PFAW's list of most challenged books from included:. According to the ALA , the most frequently challenged books in included:.
The school board's role is to define an educational philosophy that serves the needs of all its students and reflects community goals. Most districts see a role for parents and other community members in this process. Educational advisory boards can also assist educators in discerning the community's needs and perspectives.
Open school board meetings can keep the public informed about the school district's educational philosophy and goals, encourage comments, questions, and participation, and increase community support. Although public debate provides opportunities for community input and can assist educators in meeting students' needs and concerns, actual curriculum development and selection are tasks uniquely suited to the skills and training of professional educators. While curriculum development relies heavily on the professional expertise of trained educators, it is also controlled by state law and policy.
Educators' choices are influenced by competency standards, graduation requirements, standardized testing, and other decisions made at the state level. School officials also have the constitutional duty to ensure that curriculum development and selection decisions are not made with the aim of advancing any particular ideological, political or religious viewpoint. Many professional educational organizations and individual school systems have articulated the principles that should ideally govern selection and retention of materials; they uniformly emphasize reliance on the expertise of professional educators in developing materials that will best serve the needs of students.
NEA Resolutions state that "quality teaching depends on the freedom to select materials and techniques. Similarly, the National School Boards Association NSBA policy on textbook selection emphasizes that its "first commitment" is "preservation of the student's right to learn in an atmosphere of academic freedom," and that "[s]election of materials will be made by professional personnel through reading, listening, viewing, careful examination, [and] the use of reputable, unbiased, professionally prepared selection aids.
Educators' primary allegiance must be to the integrity of knowledge and the welfare of students … materials must never be removed or restricted for the purpose of suppressing ideas. Policies governing school libraries and classroom resource materials reflect the priority placed on inclusion of a wider range of materials, because of libraries' traditional role to offer choices for all readers. The ALA Library Bill of Rights, first adopted in , recognizes the library's essential role in providing resources to serve the "interest, information, and enlightenment of all people of the community.
As is true with curricular materials, the ALA cautions that library materials "should not be proscribed or removed because of partisan or doctrinal disapproval. Many school districts adopt formal policies and procedures for responding to complaints about materials—and for good reason. They clarify how complaint processes work; help faculty, staff, and administration fulfill their legal obligations; let parents and students know what criteria are used for removing materials and how they are applied; provide opportunities to understand more about community perspectives and values; and protect teachers' academic freedom.
When materials are challenged, schools with well-articulated processes for handling complaints and reviews are more likely to resist censorship pressures than districts that lack such guidelines. Having policies in place and following them scrupulously ensures that complainants will receive due process, and that challenged materials will be judged on their educational merits rather than personal opinion. It is important for teachers and administrators to be familiar with these policies and understand their significant function.
Armed with knowledge of these policies, schools officials are less likely to submit to pressure or react with unilateral decisions to remove books. Different school systems implement complaint procedures in different ways, but most provide that:. It is advisable for policies to contain a statement supporting intellectual and academic freedom, and an explanation of the importance of exposing students to a wide variety of material and information, some of which may be considered "controversial.
Disagreement with a specific idea or message—and personal objections to materials on religious, political or social grounds—are the most common grounds for challenges and the most suspect. Such concerns may justify a parent's request that his or her child be assigned alternate material, and if shared more widely they may suggest the need for discussion about how teachers and school officials can better explain the material's educational value, and ways in which any perceived harms can be alleviated, perhaps through inclusion of additional materials.
But such personal viewpoint-based concerns, standing alone, rarely justify removal of material, and may raise First Amendment issues. A committee—often composed of instructional staff, library staff, and administrators, and sometimes including students and parents—ordinarily processes complaints. Their recommendation is usually subject to a review process, but such a committee's professional judgment is entitled to deference if grounded in sound educational and pedagogical principles.
Its decision should only be reversed for compelling educational reasons. Materials should never be removed unless the complaint procedures are followed, and materials should never be removed prior to completion of the complaint process. These principles, if uniformly and consistently implemented, protect students whose right to learn should not be limited by some other individual's or family's preferences.
They also protect educators in their exercise of professional judgment, and help insulate them and the school district from legal challenges and community pressure. Many national and international organizations concerned with elementary and secondary education have established guidelines on censorship issues.
The Future of Education
While each organization addresses censorship a little differently, each is committed to free speech and recognizes the dangers and hardships imposed by censorship. The organizations couple their concern for free speech with a concern for balancing the rights of students, teachers and parents. Many place heavy emphasis on the importance of establishing policies for selecting classroom materials and procedures for addressing complaints. The following summarizes the censorship and material selection policies adopted by leading educational organizations.
The NEA is America's oldest and largest organization committed to advancing the cause of public education. Elected representatives from across the country are responsible for setting policy, which includes resolutions on selecting and developing education materials and teaching techniques. The resolutions embody NEA's belief that democratic values are best transmitted free from censorship and deplore "pre-publishing censorship, book burning crusades, and attempts to ban books from the … curriculum.
A 80,member organization devoted to improving the teaching and learning of English and the language arts, the NCTE offers support, advice and resources to teachers and schools faced with challenges to teaching materials or methods. The NCTE has developed a Statement on Censorship and Professional Guidelines recognizing that English and language arts teachers face daily decisions about teaching materials and methods. The IRA has 90, members worldwide, working in a variety of educational capacities.
Its goal is to promote high levels of literacy by improving the quality of reading instruction and encouraging reading as a lifetime habit. Their mutual policy sets out four principles aimed at translating the ideals of the First Amendment into classroom reality: The ASCD is an international organization of professional educators committed to excellence in education. Its mission is to "forge covenants in teaching and learning for the success of all learners. At the same time, educators should insist that, as in other fields, professional judgment must not be completely subservient to the popular will.
The ASCD stresses the importance of establishing complaint procedures and affirms that materials are never to be restricted for the purpose of suppressing ideas. The ALA's policies stipulate that libraries should provide materials from all points of view; challenge censorship; cooperate with free speech groups; grant access to all regardless of origin, age, background or views; and provide exhibit space on an equitable basis. We believe that ideas and information topple the walls of hate and fear and build bridges of cooperation and understanding far more effectively than weapons and armies.
Dedicated to assuring that every American boy and girl receives the world's best elementary and middle school education, NAESP sets policy on curriculum and instruction. In its statement on censorship and academic freedom, "NAESP affirms the right of the student and teacher to use a wide variety of curriculum and literary materials and to explore divergent points of view. These procedures are to be carried out "professionally and equitably," according to established professional criteria and the values and needs of the community.
Founded in , NCAC is an alliance of over 50 national non-profit organizations—including literary, artistic, religious, educational, professional, labor, and civil liberties group—united in their support of freedom of thought, inquiry and expression. NCAC works with teachers, educators, writers, artists and others around the country dealing with censorship debates in their own communities; it educates its members and the public at large about the dangers of censorship and how to oppose them; and it advances policies that promote and protect freedom of expression and democratic values.
Efforts to remove books and other materials from the classroom, curriculum and school library represent one of the most significant forms of censorship in the United States. Sometimes these efforts are initiated by a parent or other member of a community; sometimes organizations campaign to change educational norms and practices to reflect their particular views and perspectives. They may circulate a list of "objectionable" books, stimulating challenges in communities around the country.
Local school boards generally have the authority to prescribe the curriculum, within state-approved guidelines. Kuhlmeier and Bethel School District v. Fraser grant administrators considerable discretion in deciding what is educationally suitable. For example, lower courts upheld action against one teacher for permitting violations of school policy against profanity in teaching creative writing Lacks v. Ferguson Reorganized School District 8th Cir. Buncombe County Board of Education 4th Cir.
However, courts defer to administrators and educators equally when their decisions promote, rather than suppress, speech—as when schools administrators elect to include controversial materials in the curriculum Monteiro v.