It is banned books week in the United States (September 26- October 3) , always a good opportunity to recall the importance of the profession’s commitment to freedom of expression and intellectual freedom more generally.
According to the Banned Books Week website, the tradition started in the early 1980s and has only grown since. The American Library Association has also put together a good Banned Books website. I have often thought that a course dedicated to reading banned books would be a great educational experience. In fact, some books that have been challenged frequently in the USA (e.g. To Kill A Mockingbird and The Lord of the Flies) were required reading in English while I read others (e.g. 1984 by George Orwell and Brave New World by Aldous Huxley; we like dystopian fiction here in Canada; “The Handmaid’s Tale” by Margaret Atwood was assigned reading and also good) for book reports with the enthusiastic support of teachers. I am also delighted to report that Google Books has put together a Banned Books website too. In reading through the list of books mentioned by ALA, I was surprised to see that the education authorities in Toronto sought to ban “The Lord of the Flies” in 1988.
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Hi Bruce,
I’m curious to know a little more about the definition of “banned” in these cases. Was there a movement to ban, say, “Lord of the Flies” from publication entirely or simply from school libraries or school curricula.If the latter then it seems these books have become flash points in the ongoing debate between school authorities and parents as to who should dictate what literature children should be exposed to at what age. I think there are certainly books that are far better appreciated by students in older grades rather than younger ones but I do not think that school library “book bans” are the solution to this complicated debate. Rather, it seems that improved communication between teachers and parents regarding the rationale for purchases to school libraries and assigned texts in English classes would help generate thoughtful solutions to this issue.
Hi Carolyn,
The definition of banned varies considerably. The most common type of ban that I’ve seen in North America is the attempt to remove an item from a class where it would be required reading. Also, there are some efforts to have items removed from school and public libraries though this seems quite rare in Canada. As far as I know, actually banning a publication has not happened recently as that would quite explictly violate Section 2(b) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (and the 1st Ammendment to the US Constitution). (Though I would add a caveat that Canada has had cases of banning something for violating the country’s anti-hate laws, but that is a different story). Resorting to banning books strikes me as a crude way of resolving the debate, a reponse that well educated people should be able to go beyond.