Baffling Boundaries Begetting Banned Books
In chapter 3 of Democratic Education the Guttmann addresses the scope of democratic control in schools. In a democratic society, educational policy that is nonrepressive and nondiscriminatory is suitable for implementation, though it may not inherently be the best policy. In order to avoid repressive “one size fits all” solutions, educational policy decisions are divided in a democratic federalist system. Federalist delegation grants local communities the flexibility to tailor their individualized education needs in line with state and federal policy.
The frontline operating within the boundaries of democratic authority are teachers whose “responsibility… is to uphold the principle of nonrepression by cultivating the capacity for democratic deliberation” (76). While professionalism and competence bestow democratic autonomy to the teacher, schools do not extend the same level of democratic autonomy to students. In closing the chapter Gutmann advocates “the cultivation of participatory virtues…. [as children] become more capable of engaging in free and equal discussion with teachers and their peers” (92-93) as a means to inculculate democratic virtue.
After identifying the range of democratic control appropriate in schools, Gutmann delineates the limits of democratic authority in chapter 4 with education policies that challenge the boundaries of nonrepressive and nondiscriminatory standards. Gutmann tackles book banning, teaching creationism, sex education, and private education (most notably religious education) to demonstrate these challenges.
Of the challenges to democratic boundaries, I find the notion of book banning to be a practice antithetical to democratic values. (I am willing to admit that this revulsion is further intensified as a German instructor.) On page 98, Gutmann advocates a nonrepressive standard that prevents educators from “shielding students from reasonable (not correct or uncontroversial) political views… [and] reasonable challenges to those view.” As long as material is reasonable within appropriate nondiscriminatory community guidelines, I agree that it should be included in the library. In practice, however, Gutmann notes that a majority of bans are carried out in an “erratic, arbitrary and free wheeling manner” after individuals raise concerns. I feel that Gutmann’s standard is consistent with democratic values, and that her excoriation of real world application is spot on. How appropriate that we discuss this during Banned Book Week.
According to this map located on the official Banned Books Week website, Wisconsin is no exception to incidents of book banning. In the incident in West Bend, four librarians were dismissed for refusing to allow a group opposed to GLBTQ content to ban “award winning novels, and works of non-fiction.” The challengers may have won this round, but one of the great things about censorship in a democracy is that it has a sociological mechanism of self-correction. In the West Bend incident, one of the people involved notes that “library usage is up and there has been an increase in new library cards being issued since this whole debate began.” Isolated efforts to quell material often end up seeding interest in those censorship seeks to protect.
I also question book banning efficacy in the modern information age. If ideological groups succeed in banning content from school and public libraries, is it not a pyrrhic victory for the winners? How can you prevent citizens in a democratic society from doing a google search without violating their right to exchange ideas freely?
~Ken Fager
September 30th, 2009 at 6:46 pm
Nice alliteration! First, I like how you pointed out that Gutmann’s discussion of private schools mainly focused on religious schools, primarily Catholic. Good observation.
Second, as a librarian, I sympathized with and enjoyed reading your post. The map was interesting but it’s data can be looked at two ways. Of course it looks like Wisconsin has a lot of censorship issues. But also, we have books in our libraries that parents or community members want to ban. And for every book that gets questioned, there are at least 10 or more others that fly under the raider. Some other states might have library media specialists in place that censor their collection right from the beginning, thus making book banning obsolete because it’s already been done. At least we have librarians that purchase and circulate these materials even though they are risking their reputation and sometimes their jobs to do it.
September 30th, 2009 at 8:30 pm
You brought up a great point in your post about banning books and I liked your example. When a book is banned, interest in it usually spikes and people who never thought about reading it do. It is sad that our society sometimes fails to act with the majority and let a few get their way. I do believe that in time everything works out. Also, what we ban in books from our children is usually already being discussed by them with their peers.
September 30th, 2009 at 8:58 pm
I like that you discussed book banning it was hard for me to choose which issue to discuss in these chapters because there were so many. You mentioned the use of the internet to simply do a google search of a banned book. Had I had more than 800 words for my blog I would have brought up the blocking of internet sites as a new form of book banning. There are so many web sites that are blocked at any school now because they mention one or two words that is on a list for it to be blocked. Many of these sites are actually educational in nature they are banned because of some arbitary word or two.
October 1st, 2009 at 10:42 pm
I also thought it interesting to be reading about banning of books during Banned Books week. I agree with you that the reasons for banning books are random and arbitrary rather than based on community discussion. It seems the policy makers often shrink in reaction to those extremely squeaky wheels who turn everything the wrong way. You bring in some great details to support your comments.
October 2nd, 2009 at 9:05 pm
I agree with the comments saying that when books are banned, interest spikes. Really, when this happens, all it does it trigger the rebellious portion of being. Tell someone what they can’t do, and they are bound to want to do it. Interestingly enough, when I was in middle school, we had a book get banned from our classroom mid-unit. As a result? My Dad walked into my teacher and requested two copies, one for me to finish and one for him to read along with me. And just last week in our own IMC, we had a Banned Book display, with books that have been banned in other locations, set out for viewing and able to be checked out. I saw quite a few students looking at this display, and have to admit I checked it out myself. It just seems to be human nature to want to find out what all the fuss is about when someone else decides they are going to make our decisions for us, and not even allow us the chance to deliberate, reason, and come up with our own opinion.