Censorship in the Classroom
By NOISEmaker kinipela (17, F, CA)
Buster Baxter, close friend of Arthur the aardvark, is currently traveling the country with his father, and narrating his own children's television program "Postcards from Buster". In a combination of live action and animation, Buster sends video postcards to his friends back home. The PBS spin-off of the popular "Arthur" has been on the air for roughly a year. Developed in part to expose younger children to diversity, the video segments offer glimpses into the lives of real children. In an episode scheduled to air on February 2, 2005, Buster visits a home in Vermont where 11-year-old Emma teaches him about making syrup and milking cows. Most PBS stations did not air this episode because the program was recently denounced by Education Secretary Margaret Spellings. Emma lives with her mother and step-mother.
Spellings admonished PBS for exposing the children of the nation to "such lifestyles". Despite the fact that the episode focuses mostly on milking cows and making maple syrup, Spellings found the episode unfit because Emma lives with lesbian parents, who are barely seen in the episode.
This incident is a continuation of a trend in the nation. In last November's election, 11 states voted to enact bans on gay marriage. Cartoon favorite SpongeBob Squarepants has also recently come under fire for "promoting homosexuality". Civil Unions between gay and lesbian couples are legal in Vermont, and San Francisco's gay marriages are awaiting judicial review. More importantly though, this incident highlights another issue: censorship in education. What should or shouldn't students be exposed to in the classroom?
The key to the success of a democracy is a well-educated electorate. This fact makes what students learn, and the quality of their education one of the most important issues facing our country today. What exactly though is being used to teach the future of our country? In many classrooms textbooks provide the core information students will learn. The startling truth about this main and often only source of information is that they are frequently sanitized and politicized, sacrificing fact in the process. What is presented as fact is often fiction. Other books are banned completely, or edited beyond recognition. Censorship has quietly wormed its way into American schools, and is eating away at what is being taught to students. It takes many forms, from self-censorship to the institutionalized censorship found in textbooks.
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benj informs: "They are now banning Schindler's List from the history class & blacking out words in Romeo & Juliet." |  |
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Texas and California have the most influence over what goes into textbooks because of their size. Textbook publishers loose large profits if Texas and California don't adopt their books. The majority of complaints from conservatives originate in Texas, while the objections from the left are centered in California.
Ever since the 1960's, any textbook company wanting to successfully publish a book in Texas has to meet the requirements of Mel and Norma Gabler. The Gablers reviewed textbooks looking for any shred of anti-Christian, anti-family, leftist, or anti-American content. Because of their ability to arouse public support and outrage, textbook companies often complied with their demands to prevent any confrontation. Criticism of tradition or the nation, violence, indecency", alienation, death, "humanism", "one-worldism", and "women's lib" are among the topics they found unfit. As of 2003 the Galbers' textbook review company, Educational Research Analysts, is active in the textbook screening process. Today their topics of concern include "scientific flaws in arguments for evolution", "respect for Judeo-Christian morals", and "phonics based reading instruction."
What first started as an attempt to remove race and gender bias in textbooks in the 1970's has transformed into a political correctness crusade. Textbook censorship from the left takes the shape of extreme political correctness. In striving for diversity, reality is sometimes pushed aside. There are instances of textbooks being rejected because they do not have equal numbers of male and female characters, or enough minority representation. Facts and historical events are spun or omitted in order to not offend any ethnic, religious, or racial group.
Textbooks go through an intensive screening process before they finally wind their way into the classroom. Aside from external reviews, textbook companies have their own reviewing process to weed out anything that might cause controversy. In an attempt to please both the extreme right and left, anything that could conceivably cause controversy -- even a lively discussion -- is omitted. This form of self-censorship has become the norm in the textbook industry, because controversy of any kind means almost certain financial ruin. Passages about women and patchwork quilting in the nineteenth century are removed because of gender stereotypes, despite the fact that women routinely made quilts in that time period. An article about a gay Wyoming teenager murdered because of his sexual orientation titled "To Be Young and Gay in Wyoming: Despite its dangers, Matthew Shepard loved his home state. Now he is part of its legacy" was supposed to appear in a twelfth grade textbook. An editor responded: "Even though the article focuses on tolerance and acceptance, Shepard's homosexuality can't be mentioned. Can you redo the article so that Shepard's sexuality is ignored?"
Textbook companies have lists of topics and words that are to be avoided. They preemptively censor themselves to avoid controversy. Often it is a small, but boisterous, group of people who decide what students will, or will not, read in their textbooks. It is not teachers and educators, but lobbyists groups and extremists on both sides of the political spectrum that decide what is included.
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• Protect Your Civil Rights! • Face Off: Is Censorship Unconstitutional? • Face Off: "They Should be Teaching Us, Not Policing Us" |
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Sources:
Bald, Margaret, Nicholas J. Karolides, and Dawn B. Sova. 100 Banned Books. New York: Checkmark Book, 1999.
Board of Education v. Pico. Legal Information Institute The United States Supreme Ct. 1982. 2 May 2004
Brannen, Daniel E., and Richard C. Hanes. Supreme Court Drama:Cases That Changed America. Vol. 1. Detroit: UXL, 2001.
Censored Books: Critical Viewpoints. Ed. Lee Burress, Nicholas J. Karolides, and John M. Kean. Metuchen, NJ: The Scarecrow P, Inc., 1993.
Challenged and Banned Books. 2004. American Library Association. 20 May 2004
Delfattore, Joan. What Johnny Shouldn't Read: Textbook Censorship In America. New Have, CT: Yale UP, 1992.
Freedom to Read Statement. American Library Association. 20 May 2004
Gold, John C. Board of Education v Pico (1982). New York: Twenty-First Century Books, 1994.
Ravitch, Diane. The Language Police: How Pressure Groups Restrict What Students Learn. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2003.
Salamon, Julie. "Culture Wars Pull Buster Into the Fray." The New York Times 27 Jan. 2005. 30 Jan. 2005
The Mel Gablers' Educational Reserach Analysts. 21 May 2004
Top 100 Challenged Books 1990-1999. American Library Association. 20 May 2004
