Great question! Most of these are purchased either by classroom teachers or by local districts with district funds, so I would reach out to schools in your area and see what they are planning to do with books that are no longer allowed on the shelves. I imagine many librarians would love to do something constructive with the books.
In addition to the infringement on free speech, these removals are problematic because one entity (the state) is depriving another entity (district/school/teacher) of property without compensation, almost like an eminent domain situation. Have you heard of anybody lodging claims for financial compensation or replacement with another title against the state board in response to these removals?
Interesting point. I haven't heard about anything like that yet, but lawsuits do feel inevitable given that the Board doesn't seem to have a clear definition of "violative" content, so the decisions have struck many folks as viewpoint discrimination.
Like a high percentage of those who vote to ban these books, I haven't read them myself. 99% of those who read about these decisions (if not slightly more than that) have not read them. The conversation around the books - even if it's ancillary to conversations expressing alarm - ends up giving voice to the decision to ban them. Understandably.
I appreciate more than ever the call to "read banned books" yet that reading list grows faster than my free time allows.
Rather than hearing the cherry-picked objections and debates led by those with a predisposition to ban, are there reviews available from educators, librarians, and people we can trust to genuinely be protective of children and their education and development?
I can read the defense of the books subjected to the bans, but even those are framed against the attacks. What did literary people have to say about these titles before they were targeted by the Christo-Fascist Taliban? More than hearing why the banning decisions were wrong, I want to learn more about these titles outside of debates framed mainly by contrived outrages.
I am wondering, Steve, if you can point me and other beleaguered readers to some source(s) to go back to and consult the OG collective acquisition and curriculum decisions of professionals - what Mary Foster referred to - where we can understand the significance and merits of these banned (or ban-targeted) books we don't get around to reading ourselves? A source where the books' merits are not reduced to how they are merely worthy of being found in stacks or on a syllabus?
Is there any process for collecting the banned books that are removed by school librarians, and placing them in free little libraries?
Great question! Most of these are purchased either by classroom teachers or by local districts with district funds, so I would reach out to schools in your area and see what they are planning to do with books that are no longer allowed on the shelves. I imagine many librarians would love to do something constructive with the books.
Thanks for the update, Steve.
In addition to the infringement on free speech, these removals are problematic because one entity (the state) is depriving another entity (district/school/teacher) of property without compensation, almost like an eminent domain situation. Have you heard of anybody lodging claims for financial compensation or replacement with another title against the state board in response to these removals?
Interesting point. I haven't heard about anything like that yet, but lawsuits do feel inevitable given that the Board doesn't seem to have a clear definition of "violative" content, so the decisions have struck many folks as viewpoint discrimination.
Like a high percentage of those who vote to ban these books, I haven't read them myself. 99% of those who read about these decisions (if not slightly more than that) have not read them. The conversation around the books - even if it's ancillary to conversations expressing alarm - ends up giving voice to the decision to ban them. Understandably.
I appreciate more than ever the call to "read banned books" yet that reading list grows faster than my free time allows.
Rather than hearing the cherry-picked objections and debates led by those with a predisposition to ban, are there reviews available from educators, librarians, and people we can trust to genuinely be protective of children and their education and development?
I can read the defense of the books subjected to the bans, but even those are framed against the attacks. What did literary people have to say about these titles before they were targeted by the Christo-Fascist Taliban? More than hearing why the banning decisions were wrong, I want to learn more about these titles outside of debates framed mainly by contrived outrages.
I am wondering, Steve, if you can point me and other beleaguered readers to some source(s) to go back to and consult the OG collective acquisition and curriculum decisions of professionals - what Mary Foster referred to - where we can understand the significance and merits of these banned (or ban-targeted) books we don't get around to reading ourselves? A source where the books' merits are not reduced to how they are merely worthy of being found in stacks or on a syllabus?