{"id":8436,"date":"2012-01-06T09:05:28","date_gmt":"2012-01-06T16:05:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/?p=8436"},"modified":"2012-01-06T09:15:23","modified_gmt":"2012-01-06T16:15:23","slug":"you-can%e2%80%99t-read-that","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/?p=8436","title":{"rendered":"You Can\u2019t Read That!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>You Can\u2019t Read That! is a periodic post featuring news about banned and challenged books.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-8660\" title=\"can't read_3\" src=\"http:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/cant-read_3.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"450\" height=\"91\" srcset=\"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/cant-read_3.jpg 450w, https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/cant-read_3-300x60.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;What is the criteria for banning a book? Who gets to make that  decision? Is it one person&#8217;s opinion? Everyone sees things differently;  where will it stop?&#8221;\u00a0 Ignoring district procedures for making decisions about restricting student access to books,\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/canton-mi.patch.com\/articles\/hughes-yanks-book-from-ap-english-class\" target=\"_blank\">school superintendent unilaterally bans Graham Swift&#8217;s novel <em>Waterland<\/em> after one parent complains<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;As a former high school English and Latin teacher, I am certainly aware  that much of modern literature contains sexual material.&#8221;\u00a0 Responding to public outcry, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hometownlife.com\/article\/20120101\/NEWS27\/201010367\/1020\/rss17\" target=\"_blank\">school superintendent still wants to ban <em>Waterland<\/em> but will now follow district book review procedure<\/a>.\u00a0 Perhaps out of pique, he also wants to ban Toni Morrison&#8217;s <em>Beloved<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;&#8230; [I]t will end education in New Hampshire as we know it, allowing   children to be removed from any lessons their parents choose: algebra,   English language arts, health education, American history, the civil  or  women&#8217;s rights movement, science, absolutely anything.&#8221;\u00a0 The  implications of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/2012\/01\/04\/new-hampshire-legislature-curriculum-objection-law_n_1184476.html?ref=politics\" target=\"_blank\">New Hampshire&#8217;s school curriculum law<\/a> are staggering.<\/p>\n<p>Missouri library bans internet access to occult websites.\u00a0 But that&#8217;s not all.\u00a0 If you request access to those sites, they <a href=\"http:\/\/thehill.com\/blogs\/hillicon-valley\/technology\/202073-aclu-sues-library-for-blocking-wiccan-websites\" target=\"_blank\">report you to the police<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/moms.today.msnbc.msn.com\/_news\/2011\/12\/27\/9744840-controversy-grows-over-pro-spanking-book-after-abuse-deaths\" target=\"_blank\">Commie libsymps ban books too<\/a>!<\/p>\n<p>Keep your subversive books out of our town!  The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.abc4.com\/content\/news\/top_stories\/story\/Library-in-polygamist-town-vandalized\/W9pw8yoa7UCDNoXq4Dzcwg.cspx\" target=\"_blank\">Mormon Taliban trash public library under construction, burn books, dump others<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c[I]t&#8217;s not just the books under fire now that worry me. It  is the books that will never be written. The books that will never be  read. And all due to the fear of censorship. As always, young readers  will be the real losers.\u201d  A <a href=\"http:\/\/heydeadguy.typepad.com\/heydeadguy\/2012\/01\/a-seventh-graders-analysis-of-banned-books.html\" target=\"_blank\">7th grader&#8217;s essay on book banning<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s a breakdown, compiled by ALA\u2019s Office of Intellectual Freedom, of the <a href=\"http:\/\/world.edu\/worldedu_posts\/banned-books-awareness-retrospective-years-worth-censorship\/\" target=\"_blank\">reasons cited for the more than 11,000 attempts to ban or restrict access to books<\/a> in America from 1990 through 2010:<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_8659\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-8659\" style=\"width: 450px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/ALA-graph.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-8659  \" src=\"http:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/ALA-graph-450x287.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"450\" height=\"287\" srcset=\"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/ALA-graph-450x287.jpg 450w, https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/ALA-graph-300x191.jpg 300w, https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/ALA-graph.jpg 585w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-8659\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Click to enlarge image<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>You Can\u2019t Read That! is a periodic post featuring news about banned and challenged books. &#8220;What is the criteria for banning a book? Who gets to make that decision? Is it one person&#8217;s opinion? Everyone sees things differently; where will it stop?&#8221;\u00a0 Ignoring district procedures for making decisions about restricting student access to books,\u00a0school superintendent [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[496,493,48,495,494,492],"class_list":["post-8436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-banned-books","tag-ala-oif","tag-beloved","tag-censorship","tag-missouri","tag-new-hampshire","tag-waterland"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8436","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8436"}],"version-history":[{"count":23,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8436\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8670,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8436\/revisions\/8670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}