Here’s a fact for you: One in every eight births in Talladega County, Alabama is to a teen mother, according to the Alabama Department of Public Health.
You might be thinking what that has to do with censorship and banned books. Well, not much- unless you happen to live in Alabama.
A recent study by journalism students at the University of Alabama, in partnership with The Anniston Star, sought to find out which books were most frequently banned in the state by collecting challenge forms from the past five years from each of the state’s public school districts.
Out of 132 districts, 9 reported challenges and 77 reported no challenges.
The analysis found a disturbing trend- most often the books were objected to on a purely personal level by a single individual or set of parents, even if the book had an essential social or educational merit. One person’s sensitivity is more valuable, it seems, that the constitutional right of the many.
The scary truth is that this trend is national, not just isolated to Alabama. Barbara Jones, director of the American Library Association’s Office of Intellectual Freedom, says that only about 20 percent of all book challenges are typically reported.
Are library and school officials trying to hide something from the public trust? The answer is rather disturbing.
Back to those 132 districts in the study. Did anyone stop reading to do the math? I only counted 86 districts. What of the rest?
The University of Alabama study was incomplete because 46 districts refused to comply with requests for information. Why?
Many librarians chose not to report any censorship requests out of fear of attracting attention from higher administrators or other officials. Simply put, many librarians are afraid to report most challenges because librarians and local school administrators are afraid to lose their jobs.
That’s good, though. Isn’t it? Aren’t libraries supposed to defend our right to read what we want?
There’s a good reason for that fear. Many still can’t grasp the lack of integrity, reasoning, and intellect in the Alabama State Textbook Committee’s 1983 proposal to ban “The Diary of Anne Frank” for the solitary reason that the book was “a real downer,” which I discussed here in the early days of Banned Books Awareness.
A library is supposed to protect the freedom to read; but one in Talladega decided to remove “The Complete Book of Pregnancy and Childbirth,” by Shelia Kitzinger, from shelves after a B.B Comer High School parent protested the reference material’s presence because it showed “explicit drawings of how to make love while pregnant” and “pornographic pictures that should not be viewed by children.”
Like many schools and libraries around the country do when challenges like this arise, a committee was assembled to review the “offensiveness” of the book.
In the end, the committee agreed to keep the book on shelves, basing their decision on the worldwide reputation of its author and publisher and the committee’s belief that the book did contain helpful and necessary information on the process of childbirth.
The committee did agree, however, to a compromise of moving the book to a reference shelf and include a parental permission policy.
“It is a slippery slope at times,” Teresa Offord said. “As a media specialist [at the school], I want to supply my students with informational books, books that show all sides of a story, not just one viewpoint.”
“I feel the most important things to consider when reviewing a book are: is the material appropriate for the age level, is the material well presented, (and) does the material support the curriculum of the school?”
It’s disturbing that so many challenges, and official bans, go unreported. That’s why we need things like the Freedom of Information Act.
“Transparency is important for democracy,” Jones said. “Schools are no different. We need to know what’s going on.”
At least one district lets kids have a voice in the debate over what is on their library shelves.
In 2011, a parent challenged Pete Hautman’s novel “Invisible” at Sanford Middle School in Lee County.
The school district convened a panel to review the book and asked two 12-year-olds, who had read the book in the fifth grade, to complete forms describing their experience with it.
One student wrote that the book was appropriate for fifth-graders “because it talks about things that could actually happen.” The other wrote that it was a good book, but “had some parts that aren’t appropriate for fifth- and sixth-graders.”
The school panel declared the book “thought-provoking” and said its virtues outweighed the language. They kept the book, but flagged it for mature readers.
The Complete Book of Pregnancy and Childbirth was published in 1980 and has since been completely revised with the latest advances in scientific knowledge to guide readers seeking a woman-centered birth experience.
Sheila Kitzinger is natural childbirth activist and world-renowned author and social anthropologist specializing in pregnancy and parenting, and advocate for women to have the information they need to make choices about childbirth. Although she teaches the MA in midwifery in the Wolfson School of Health Sciences, she has never been a midwife. She is honorary professor at University of West London and. She also teaches workshops on the social anthropology of birth and breastfeeding.
For more information on the Banned Books Awareness and Reading for Knowledge project and the complete list of titles covered, please visit the official website at http://bbark.deepforestproductions.com/
Sources: Yahoo News, The Daily Mail (UK), The Atlantic Wire, Amazon
© 2013 R. Wolf Baldassarro/Deep Forest Productions
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