Reading Teacher
Oral Presentation
Chapter 17: Academic Freedom and Censorship: Teacher Rights or Responsibilities
How should the proper balance between teacher freedom and responsibility be determined?
Position 1: Fir increased Academic Freedom: * Schools are at the center of local debates about touchy subjects such as, morals, sex and sexual orientation, religion, politics, economics, racism, and a host of other social value controversies. * Censorship denies, defeats, or diminishes academic freedom! * Sex, Politics, and Religion: A few Cases * A parent in Loathe, Kansas, demanded that John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men be banned from the school curriculum and classroom because the book is “worthless” and “profanity filled.” The Majority rejected the effort. * In Oakley, California, some parents wanted the same Steinbeck book banned for racial descriptions. * Schools use the popular Philip Pullman book The Golden Compass was protested by a group of parents and Christian leaders in Winchester, Kentucky; because Pullman was call “an atheist” and the book “anti-Christian.” * A high school history teacher in Denver Public Schools was dismissed because the city newspaper published his and other candidates’ views as they ran for congressional seat” the district thought his views were too controversial. He won the case but the district limited him to teaching Basic English and erased his teaching history. * A high school student paper in Bakersfield, California, was prohibited from publishing a story with interviews about gender identity, but a county judge ruled that student to have the right to exercise freedom of speech. * Most frequently banned books: Harry Potter, Diary of Anne Frank, Catch-22, Farewell to Arms, Deliverance, The great Gatsby, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Chocolate War, and Slaughterhouse Five. Even some comic books suffered censorship. * Most censored authors: Judy
Chapter 17: Academic Freedom and Censorship: Teacher Rights or Responsibilities
How should the proper balance between teacher freedom and responsibility be determined?
Position 1: Fir increased Academic Freedom: * Schools are at the center of local debates about touchy subjects such as, morals, sex and sexual orientation, religion, politics, economics, racism, and a host of other social value controversies. * Censorship denies, defeats, or diminishes academic freedom! * Sex, Politics, and Religion: A few Cases * A parent in Loathe, Kansas, demanded that John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men be banned from the school curriculum and classroom because the book is “worthless” and “profanity filled.” The Majority rejected the effort. * In Oakley, California, some parents wanted the same Steinbeck book banned for racial descriptions. * Schools use the popular Philip Pullman book The Golden Compass was protested by a group of parents and Christian leaders in Winchester, Kentucky; because Pullman was call “an atheist” and the book “anti-Christian.” * A high school history teacher in Denver Public Schools was dismissed because the city newspaper published his and other candidates’ views as they ran for congressional seat” the district thought his views were too controversial. He won the case but the district limited him to teaching Basic English and erased his teaching history. * A high school student paper in Bakersfield, California, was prohibited from publishing a story with interviews about gender identity, but a county judge ruled that student to have the right to exercise freedom of speech. * Most frequently banned books: Harry Potter, Diary of Anne Frank, Catch-22, Farewell to Arms, Deliverance, The great Gatsby, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Chocolate War, and Slaughterhouse Five. Even some comic books suffered censorship. * Most censored authors: Judy