Wonderful to Take Part in the Library's Annual Conversation About Banned Books and to Join Forces with Dr. Gwen Alphonzo Again.

I've been keeping tabs on banned books for the past 31 years. I'm 100% for parental rights to protect their children, but get frustrated when they deny learning opportunities for children who want to learn history, read, ask critical questions, and prepare themselves for college. I also teach graduate courses where I survey students on their reading experiences. Despite a plethora of diverse texts available for readers, the same canonical texts that I read in high school tend to be the ubiquitous norm. There is no indoctrination. Instead, some teachers have book options for kids to read should they choose. This is how libraries function, too. 

We screened Banned Together: The Fight Against Censorship last night with several political science students and hosted a discussion afterwards. The documentary shares the work of several southern high school girls advocating for the right to read in their school after book censors began to attack their school boards in organized ways. The censors are well funded, often operate with religious overtones, and are good at flaming parental paranoia. Many of the books banned were ones that I've read, enjoyed, and never taught, but know are available for young people should they need or desire them. Ironically, one of the books they were most against was a story of school shootings by Jodi Picoult called Nineteen Minutes. Parents don't want their kids reading about school shootings, but are okay with the gun drills that have been in operation since their children were in kindergarten. They are claiming books are killing America's kids. Actually, humans are killing humans and access to artillery is part of the reason. 

We should be reading about such violence and we should be discussing it. That's what books do. They help us to educate ourself and embrace our humanity. 

I'm always engaged by hearing the political perspective of Dr. Gwen Alphonso, especially her politics of care and how people need to come together to discuss commonalities over the fire waved by the extremes on both sides. I personally think books allow for this, and although I'm cautious of what I assign and how I approach it, I'm also not one to push a room full of young kids to read collectively unless I see the literary merit. 

Banned Book Week used to be A Right to Read, which I think is a human right. The best education a young person can give themselves is with a library card and a willingness to counter all the distractions thrown our way through instant gratification, social media, and hyped bait clicks. 

It's not an easy conversation to have in such a short time (especially since it's so central to what literacy scholars do), but I enjoyed viewing another region's efforts to fight against censorship. I know it's everywhere, and the best way to we can fight those who are anti-knowledge is with knowledge. 

Read more. Explore. Ask question. Adhere to freedom and free will. Do your thing, but treading on others of what you feel is acceptable and not acceptable is tricky territory. Do so for your own kids, but don't deny the kids of others the right to access important books. Period.