(Morning Edition (NPR))
ALEX CHADWICK, Host: Each year, the group People for the American
Way, compiles a report on censorship in schools. The new study for
this last year is just out, and it finds more books, instructional
materials, plays, and newspapers, banned from public schools than
ever before. Some see rising censorship as the work of extremist
religious groups. Others say it's a sign that parents are exercising
their right to oversee what their children learn in school. NPR's
Claudio Sanchez reports.
CLAUDIO SANCHEZ, Reporter: In its report, titled Attacks on the Freedom
to Learn - The Liberal People for the American Way, documented 462
attempts to censor books, plays, films, student newspapers, and entire
lesson plans. In at least 194 cases, school officials did in fact
remove, or restrict, access to these items. The Catcher in the Rye
by J.D. Salinger was deemed obscene. African-American groups sought
to ban as racist Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and
The Color Purple by Alice Walker. Jewish groups denounced the Brothers
Grimm collection of fairy tales as anti-Semitic, and native Americans
lobbied to censor Peter Pan for its insensitivity to native Americans.
But, the most organized effort to ban books and materials has come
from conservative Christians, says Dianne Dubee [sp], one of the authors
of the report.
DIANNE DUBEE, Author, `Attacks on the Freedom to Learn': In a small
town called Vacolony [sp], Texas, objectors tried to pull the Bram
Stoker classic, Dracula, from a high school honors class. The charge?
It is a mockery of Christianity. Homophobia spilled into the Kansas
City schools, where the donation of gay-themed novels sparked seven
separate challenges and an actual book-burning on the steps of a school
district office.
SANCHEZ: California, Texas, and Florida, had the greatest number
of censorship cases this year, but, Mike Ebert [sp], a spokesman for
Focus on the Family, a Colorado-based Christian group, says Christian
parents are being singled out unfairly for becoming more involved
in their children's education. Questioning what one's child is being
taught, or asked to read, is not censorship, says Ebert.
MIKE EBERT, Spokesperson, Focus on the Family: It's more a question
of judgment, and we wished that People for the American Way would
let parents and schools work that out, as they have for decades, without
issuing this report, which we think really drives a wedge between
parents and educators each year. It creates suspicion on both sides
that we don't think is necessary.
SANCHEZ: Parents' suspicions and fears are often well-founded, says
Rita Woltz [sp], an attorney with the Rutherford Institute, a conservative
legal advocacy group in Charlottesville, Virginia. Woltz represents
parents who have accused school officials of keeping them in the dark
about their children's education.
RITA WOLTZ, Attorney, Rutherford Institute: We have parents that
contact us because their children are being exposed to psychological
testing without their consent. We've had several parents contact
us about math programs that are using hypnotism, a lot of meditation,
things like that. In a math class it just seems very incongruous
to me.
SANCHEZ: Parents have every right to question these methods, or reading
materials, says Dianne Dubee, of People for the American Way.
Ms. DUBEE: It's when they take that next step and ask that it be
removed for all students, whether taken out of the library, not used
in the classroom for any student. Then they have crossed a line
into what we would call an attempt to censor, and part of the reason
for that is that they have trampled on the parental rights of other
parents, the parents who want their children to read that material.
SANCHEZ: But, school officials often don't respect parents' request
to exempt their children from certain classes or reading assignments,
says Woltz.
Ms. WOLTZ: Schools would do well to continue to teach the basics.
It's when they begin to get into areas of values, and trying to teach
students values, that they run into trouble. They run into a clash
with parents because they're trying to usurp an area that's traditionally
been left to the parents.
SANCHEZ: School reform experts say censorship from any sector may
or may not threaten the ongoing efforts to improve American schools,
but, reform by its very nature has raised some very difficult questions
about parental authority, where it begins, and at what point it must
give way to educators' legitimate responsibility for overseeing the
intellectual and emotional growth of children. Because the relationship
between parents and schools has been so disjointed, they say, complex
decisions about curriculum content and reading assignments are going
to be questioned. The larger question is will it happen in a climate
of intolerance, or in the interest of children? In Washington, I'
m Claudio Sanchez reporting.
[The preceding text has been professionally transcribed. However,
in order to meet rigid distribution and transmission deadlines, it
has not been proofread against audiotape and cannot, for that reason,
be guaranteed as to the accuracy of speakers' words or spelling.]
Author not available, Variety
of Groups Try to Censor Materials for Schools. , Morning Edition (NPR),
09-01-1994.