BFTP: Don't defend any book
Sunday, January 15, 2012 at 06:00AM A weekend Blue Skunk "feature" will be a revision of an old post. I'm calling this BFTP: Blast from the Past. Original post March 1, 2007. This post went on to bigger things as a column that can be found here.
Philosophy of Resource Selection
Public education in a democracy is committed to facilitate the educational growth and equal educational opportunity of all students. The freedom to learn, therefore, and the corresponding freedom to teach are basic to a democratic society. In order to meet these goals, School District 77 is committed to selecting educational resources which will aid student development in knowledge acquisition, critical thinking, objective evaluation and aesthetic appreciation. from Mankato Area Public Schools Board Policy 606: TEXTBOOKS AND INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS
The discussion over the Newbery Award winning book The Power of Lucky continues on LM_Net, the AASL blog and, I am sure, in meetings, phone conversations and e-mails throughout the country. I find it upsetting that so many professional librarians seem to have lost the basic understandings of selection, reconsideration, in loco parentis, and intellectual freedom. But perhaps it's time for a wake-up call that we all need to brush up on some of these concepts.
The main objection I have to the conversations has been that we are trying to defend a single book rather than defending a fair and open process for selecting and retaining any instructional material in our schools. Quite frankly, if a school decides to remove Lucky or any other book from its library or classrooms, so be it. If it decides to block every blog on the web, so be it. If it decides that Zeffirelli's Romeo and Juliet movie not be not be allowed because it shows a glimpse of Olivia Hussey's breasts, so be it. So long as due process has been followed in making the decision. While I can't imagine the circumstances under which I would do so, I like knowing that as a citizen I can request that ill-chosen materials be removed from a public school.
As I remember from li-berry school, this is how professionals deal with the selection of and potential censorship of instructional materials:
1. They assure that the district has a board adopted selection/reconsideration policy. Oh, and they've read it.
2. They select all materials based on the stated selection criteria in the policy. Here are ours:
9. To anticipate and meet needs through awareness of subjects of current interest.3. They select only materials based on authoritative and reliable review sources.
Criteria for the Selection of Resources. Selection of resources shall be constant with the following principles:
1. To consider the characteristics and philosophy of the school and community when selecting resources.
2. To select resources which will meet needs, find use, reflect current research, and meet current standards of excellence.
3. To provide resources that will enrich and support the curriculum, taking into consideration the varied interests, abilities, and maturity levels of the individuals served.
4. To provide resources that will stimulate growth in factual knowledge, literary appreciation, aesthetic values and ethical standards.
5. To provide a background of information which will enable individuals to make intelligent judgments in their daily lives.
6. To provide resources relative to controversial issues so that individuals may develop informed opinions and practice critical reading and thinking.
7. To provide resources representative of the many religious, ethnic, and cultural groups and their contributions to our American heritage.
8. To place principle above personal opinion and reason above prejudice in the selection of resources of the highest quality in order to assure a comprehensive collection appropriate for the users.
4. If they are asked to remove an item selected from the instructional program, they do not defend the material, but insist that the board adopted reconsideration policy and procedures be followed. This policy should require that a standing reconsideration committee be appointed at the beginning of each school year. When requested by the committee, they will provide the rationale and resources used for selection of the item under reconsideration.
5. Once a resource is selected, they do not restrict its use by any student. Professionals cannot act in the place of parents (in loco parentis) to restrict access to materials to individuals.
That's it. Know your selection policy, select from authoritative reviews, and insist on due process if a book is challenged. It's not hard, but it does take genuine courage at times. And it is not only why we need professionals in all our school libraries, but professionals who act professionally.
At some point in time, schools will need to wake up and realize that the principles of selection and reconsideration need to be applied to online resources, including the web, as well as print and audio-visual materials. Does your district have a
written policy that upholds the concepts of intellectual freedom in regard to the Internet? Who decides what is blocked and how are those decisions made? Are there resources from ALA and ISTE that can help schools formulate good policy in this area?
Other basic rules that I've forgotten? Library school was many, many, many years ago!
Image from <www.artlex.com>
Reader Comments (7)
How does this change now that we are all, in some sense, curators? Almost all of us collect resources, place them on wikis/blogs/twitter for our students.
Hi Brandt,
It seems to me that we should be apply the same selection criteria to those things we provide links to (and by association endorsing) as we do to those things we purchase. Is the library a "trusted source of information" or not????
Your thoughts?
Doug
OK. Next question: how do we balance being gatekeepers (only look at these resources that I have certify are free of any bad words) vs. access granters (these are good souces of information, but I haven't checked everything and I encourage you to find your won sources).
I don't have time to be a gatekeeper, yet some people expect it.
Hi Brant,
I hope by and large, we are access granters that impart some wisdom regarding self-evaluation of sources along with the access. (Try this with these cautions.) I don't think we really need to include YouTube or Wikipedia as links on our library websites, but we need to fight to keep them available to students in our school.
Does this make any sense? What's your take?
Doug
My take is that without a policy (formal or informal) its chaos where nobody knows what the "rules" are. Some people can get hurt.
I spend entirely too little time talking to smart people about important things. You might have gathered that....
Hi Brant,
If you can't find any smart people, you can always talk to me instead.
Have a good one!
Doug