Where suspicion fills the air and holds scholars in line for fear of their jobs, there can be no exercise of the free intellect. . . . A problem can no longer be pursued with impunity to its edges. Fear stalks the classroom. The teacher is no longer a stimulant to adventurous thinking; she becomes instead a pipe line for safe and sound information. A deadening dogma takes the place of free inquiry. Instruction tends to become sterile; pursuit of knowledge is discouraged; discussion often leaves off where it should begin.
Justice William O. Douglas, United States Supreme Court: Adler v. Board of Education, 1951.
The INVALUABLE resources available on the
National Council of Teachers of English
Included on their website is a list of the "5 Most Helpful Resources" which include the following:
1. Students' Right to Read (click here to be directed to this site) - describing how censorship is a threat to a child's and community's education, the responsibilities a community has in regard to censorship, the importance of informed book selection (please visit TEXT SET - Creating your own with a Book Rationale within this blog for more information), legal issues and the appropriate response to a challenged book, including a fantastically useful form to use when someone challenges a book choice, entitled "Citizen's Request for Reconsideration of a Work."
2. Guidelines for Selection of Materials in English Language Arts Programs (click here to be directed to this site) - which discuses how essential instructional material is (and why!) within the classroom, selecting a wide range of materials used in various teaching strategies, and how to set the criteria for selecting such material.
3. Rationales for Teaching Challenged Books (in addition to visiting this blog's page on book rationales [see number 1 above!], click here to be directed to this site) - this section includes a deluge of information including an alphabetical lists of rationales on file, instructions for writing a rationale and sample rationales for two books which are commonly challenged.
4. Guidelines for Dealing with Censorship of Nonprint Materials (click here to be directed to this site) - in today's new classroom which incorporates multimedia as instructional material, this site is invaluable as it offers suggestions for teachers and their responsibilities in using nonprint and multimedia materials as well as responsible use of the Internet. Additionally, they offer an enormous number of print, non-print, multi-media and orgazational resources.
5. Defining and Defending Instructional Methods (click here to be directed to this site) - discussing, with rationales, objections, and suggested reading material, the teaching and learning of written and oral expression, spelling, mechanics, and usage, reading, literature nonprint media, and cooperative learning in language arts programs.
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OTHER WEBSITES TO VISIT:
The Cooperative Book Center (click here!) has a useful page on "Intellectual Freedom" (click here to go directly to this section of their website) which specializes in issues as they relate to children's and teens' access to materials within their schools.
For lists of banned books, visit the American Library Association's page by clicking HERE
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