Defense Tactics: Combatting Censorship

Within the last decade, librarians and educators have reported alarming increases in the number of challenges to books for children and adolescents and, in many cases, subsequent censorship of the challenged materials. The media have focused national attention on the Longview, Texas, home of textbook "reviewers" Mel and Norma Gabler, on the violence of the 1974 "textbook war" in Kanawha County, West Virginia, and most recently on the 1982 Supreme Court decision in Board of Education v. Pico upholding the right of individuals to sue a school board in order to stop the board from removing controversial books from school libraries. To assess the extent and effects of censorship challenges, the Association of American Publishers, the American Library Association, and the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development conducted a nationwide survey of public elementary and secondary librarians, library supervisors, principals and district superintendents in 1980. More than one-fifth (22.4%) of the 1891 respondents reported challenges to classroom or library materials between 1978 and 1980, in communities of all sizes and in every region of the nation. One-fourth (26.5%) of those who reported challenges indicated that the number of challenges in their districts was higher in 1978-80 than in the previous two-year period. Nearly one-third (29.4%) of the challenges resulted in a change in the availability or use of challenged material. Alarming as these statistics are, they do not constitute a peak in the frequency of challenges. According to the American Library Association's Office for Intellectual Freedom, the number of reported challenges tripled between 1980 and 1982, with the probability that a large number of challenges go unreported.

While "New Right" groups like the Moral Majority or the Gabler's Educational Research Analysts are often perceived as the source of censorship challenges, the fact is that challenges arise from nearly every political and social perspective—conservative and liberal, feminist and traditional, hawk and dove, left-wing and right-wing. Herein lies the real danger of censorship: when one book is banned, no book is safe. Every book is vulnerable.

What is the best protection against the attack of the censor? As an old saying reminds us, "the best defense is a good offense." The National Council of Teachers of English has urged that every school take two initial steps to protect the freedom to read.

First, the Council recommends that schools establish a permanent committee of teachers to develop procedures for book selection and to screen challenges when they arise. At both elementary and secondary levels, committee review of selection policies for school libraries and media centers helps ensure that materials are fairly selected on the basis of their literary quality and educational value. There is no doubt that self-censorship, especially at the point of selection, is as great a danger as censorship from outside the school; in the 1980 national survey on censorship, school librarians reported that nearly a third of the challenges received were initiated by school personnel, and the extent to which controversial books are avoided by those charged with selection is unmeasured. By selecting only books that support their own beliefs or avoiding books that might stir controversy, educators do the work of the censor. Nevertheless, committee approved policies for book selection help ensure fair exchange of ideas and open access to books reflecting multiple perspectives.

Second, schools should seek to create a community atmosphere that supports the right to read. Because the school is an arm of the community, it has the responsibility to make public its purpose and seek community support for academic and intellectual freedom. The NCTE publication The Student's Right to Read says,

No community is so small that it lacks concerned people who care about their children and the educational program of the schools. No community is so small that it lacks readers who will support the English teachers in defending books when complaints are received. Unhappily, English teachers too often fail to seek out these people and to cultivate their good will and support before censorship strikes.

Where required readings are a part of the curriculum, teachers have a responsibility to communicate why...