5/ Censorship and Freedom to Learn
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1. Censorship in public education, a perennial problem, has increased sharply in
recent years according to the American Library Association and the Association
for Supervision and Curriculum Development. The number of organizations
devoted to censorship activities and attacks on public schools has grown
dramatically. These attacks could threaten the future of public education.
2.
This article clarifies and explains the censorship movement and offers
suggestions for coping with it more effectively. It will be necessary first to
examine the ideologies of the censors and their justifications for censorship. The
grounds of freedom to learn and the differences between censorship and selection
are then explored. Finally, plans and tactics are proposed for dealing with censors'
attacks.
Ideological Grounds of Censorship
3. Censorship is the deliberate attempt to exclude material that may damage the
young, harm society, or offend the censor. Two dominant forms of public school
censorship are conservative censorship and liberal censorship.
4.
Conservative censorship itself appears in two forms. The purpose of the one
is to promote virtue and prevent vice. "Both vice and virtue are transmissible,"
according to J.F. Stephen, "and, to a considerable extent, hereditary." The object of
legislation is to establish and maintain what the legislature regards as a good moral
system. "The result is that the object of promoting virtue and preventing vice must
be admitted to be a good one and one sufficiently intelligible for legislative
purposes.” Law and public opinion, Stephen notes, are the two great instruments
for doing so.
5. The purpose of the second form of conservative censorship is not so much to
promote virtue and prevent vice as to combat forms of immorality considered
harmful to society. Patrick Devlin has sought to ascertain the connection between
crime and sin and the extent to which the criminal law should enforce morals. He
defines the function of criminal law as "the preservation of order and decency and
the protection of the lives and property of citizens.” He also recognizes that the
criminal law protects youth from corruption.
6.
What makes society possible, Devlin contends, is a community of political
and moral ideas. Without fundamental agreement on good and evil, a society fails.
History shows, he avers, that societies begin to disintegrate when no common
morality is observed. “I think, therefore, that it is not possible to set theoretical
limits to the power of the state to legislate against immorality.”
7.
Both types of justifications are found among conservative censorship
organizations. Taken collectively, these organizations endorse teaching
creationism to the exclusion of evolutionary theory and elimination of sex
education, secular humanism, values clarification, and textbooks that offend the
religious and moral values of parents; additionally, some organizations want
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textbooks that honor the family, monogamy, and the woman's role as wife and
mother and the man's role as provider and protector.
8. Of late, “secular humanism” has become the term used to denote and connote
most of the evils conservative censors deplore. Secular humanism, it is alleged,
denies God and is human-centered; it endorses evolution, sexual freedom, total
freedom to read, the Welfare State, and socialism.
9.
In June 1961, Justice Clerk of the U.S. Supreme Court, in a famous case,
termed secular humanism a religion. This interpretation has opened the door for
conservative censors to declare, by appeal to the First Amendment, that public
schools are attempting to establish a religion of secular humanism.
10. Other groups have engaged in what has been called "liberal censorship." The
term refers to the actions of minority groups (whether a numerical or a power
minority) to censor materials that they believe contain prejudicial stereotypes or
that place their group in a degrading position. Blacks have been offended by words
or caricatures in Little Black Sambo, Huckleberry Finn, and The Gold Bug. Jews
have objected to the characters Fagin in Oliver Twist and Shylock in The
Merchant of Venice; and feminists have sought to eliminate stereotypes of women
in readers and other materials.
Censorship and Freedom to Learn
11.
Some censors may charge educators with censorship under the guise of
selection, and some educators have themselves argued that censorship is inevitable
because no course can include all available material and it is therefore necessary to
select what will be included. The process of “selection entails exclusion and thus
censorship.”
12. Without adequate safeguards, selection could become a form of censorship.
Selection is the process of choosing materials for a course or a curriculum that will
help fulfill objectives and be appropriate to learners. Censorship can further be
distinguished from selection by the censor’s refusal to use the excluded material
and
the
imposition
of
punishment
if
the
learner
disobeys.
13. To avoid turning selection into censorship, educators would need to allow
students access to pertinent materials not included in the course, refuse to deny
access to any materials, and help students assess evidence for themselves in order
to become independent thinkers and educated people.
14. A distinction in this regard, however, could be made between textbooks and
supplementary and library materials. Since textbooks are to be studied by all
students, it could be argued that they should reflect democratic values, leaving a
wide range of divergent views to supplementary and library materials. Even then,
however, textbooks should present democratic values objectively and impartially
without any attempt to indoctrinate.
15.
John Stuart Shill made three trenchant points against censorship: first,
suppression of opinion may blot out the truth; second, even though an opinion is
false, truth is served by refuting error; third, no opinion is completely true or false,
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an unconventional opinion may be useful because it contains some partial truth.
Thus, he concludes, freedom of thought and opinion should not be curbed by
authorities.
16. Educators should recognize students' rights to freedom of expression in the
classroom and freedom of speech in general and to privacy rights and due process
rights. Schools should be centers of inquiry where students are not limited to
"safe" topics but are free to read and examine all points of view. Only under
exceptional circumstances, where it can be shown that introduction of
controversial matter will likely disrupt the educational process, should restrictions
be imposed.
17. Because First Amendment freedoms are not absolute, these freedoms, under
extraordinary circumstances, can be overridden when other rights are seriously
threatened. With student publications, restrictions on content should not be
imposed unless the material is libelous. Students will exhibit poor writing and bad
taste from time to time. They should be free from censorship in such instances and
be permitted to make their own mistakes and learn from the experience.
18. Democratic societies are founded on the belief that an educated citizenry can
govern itself intelligently and make wise decisions. Students develop ability
to choose intelligently not only by having an opportunity to read all points of view
on controversial issues. but also by learning to make careful observations,
formulate hypotheses, test ideas in experience, and engage in critical discourse on
issues of moment.
Coping with the Censors
19. Censorship organizations are numerous, militant, and usually well organized.
Censors seldom rest; therefore, administrators and teachers who are unprepared
invite quick and easy victory or protracted conflict that may leave enduring scars
on local schools.
20.
Schools should develop policies for selecting instructional materials and
define procedures with dealing with complaints. School libraries should also have
such policies and procedures: they may elect to be guided by those of the
American Library Association. Administrators and school board members should
be familiar with the above policies and procedures.
21.
Teachers, in self-defense, should prepare written justifications for
controversial materials, including novels and short stories, they use for
instructional purposes. These actions may not prevent censorship attempts but they
may ensure that challenges to school materials are resolved in a fair and orderly
manner.
22. Parents and other local citizens should be members of selection committees
to provide community representation, to air divergent viewpoints, and to build a
bridge to the larger community. Such representation may defuse attacks on the
schools, except those of more extreme censorship groups.
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23.
In developing selection policies, it is important that the school's goals be
clearly stated and that the rationale for policies indicates how they help the school
attain its goals. Criteria for selection should be enumerated. The objectives of the
different subject areas and of the library or media center should also be stated
along with any selection procedures peculiar to each area. Procedures should be
developed for periodic review of materials in light of curriculum changes.
24.
Educators should seek to build strong relations with local citizens of all
backgrounds and with various community groups, thereby developing a broadbased coalition to protect the freedom to learn. Quality public education and
freedom to learn are values that many in the community share, but they need to be
informed about the issues and school policies for handling censorship complaints.
25. Good working relations with fee local press will enable educators to alert the
media to the threat that censors pose and may ensure favorable press coverage
when a censorship dispute erupts and angry letters pour in. Local radio and
television interview programs may effectively inform the community of the
school's position, and educators can speak at meetings of local business and
professional organizations to inform influential community members and solicit
their support.
26.
Educators need to recognize that censorship groups have different
ideological grounds for their attacks. Though some groups pose greater threats
than others, these threats can be successfully met by careful preparation. The
proposed recommendations and procedures, if consistently implemented, may
promote a healthy, open atmosphere for freedom to learn and enhance schoolcommunity relations.
5/ Censorship and Freedom to Learn
Questions should be answered in English unless otherwise indicated. Use your
own words.
Answer the questions below.
1. What was the writer's aim in writing this article?
Answer: _______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
2.
3.
What is the underlying premise of-all forms of censorship, be it liberal or
conservative?
Answer: _______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
What goals do conservative censors believe they can achieve?
Answer:_______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
Choose the best answer.
4. In some conservative circles the criminal law is also conceived of as an
instrument
a. to prevent the outbreak of violence.
b. for the protection of property.
c. to inculcate morality. .
d. to maintain law and order.
Answer the question below in your own words.
5. How, according to J.F. Stephen and Patrick Devlin, would the social
fabric be affected by a plurality of views on ethical issues?
Answer: _______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
Answer the question below in either English or Hebrew.
6. What intellectual attitudes or views are absolutely unacceptable to
conservative censorship?
Answer: ______________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
Answer the questions below.
7. How is the belief that society should aim at the betterment of Man rather
than the glorification of one or another deity called in the terms of this article?
Answer:________________________________________________________
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8.
Name the person who indirectly made it possible for arch conservatives to
charge educationalists with an attempt to establish a secular religion.
Answer: _______________________________________________________
9.
What particular groups, and on what grounds, would be inclined to advocate
“liberal censorship”?
Answer: ______________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
10. List the various literary characters which one or another religious or ethnic
minority has considered offensive.
Answer: ______________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
Answer the questions below in either English or Hebrew.
11. What term used by the author is in essence a contradiction in terms?
Substantiate your answer.
Answer : ______________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
12. In what way are selection and censorship alike, and how do they differ?
Answer: ______________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
Answer the question below.
13. Study the two terms: a) Censorship; b) Selection. Which of the two is
inevitable and why?
Answer: ______________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
Answer in Hebrew.
14. Why did John Stuart Mill oppose censorship?
Answer: ______________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
Choose the best answer.
15. Which of the following principles underlies a democratic system of
government?
a. There is little chance of authorities abusing their power in democratic
societies.
7/ Censorship and Freedom to Learn
b.
c.
d.
People do indeed prefer to be governed rather tihan make flieir own
decisions.
People rarely elect their representatives judiciously.
A community should be self governed rather than ruled.
Answer the question below in your own words.
16. How are the critical faculties developed?
Answer : _______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
Answer the questions below in either Hebrew or English
17. Under what circumstances would the author justify some sort of censorship?
Answer: ________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
18. What course of action should be adopted by school authorities trying to protect
their freedom of action?
Answer : _______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
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Answer the guestion below in your own words.
16. How are the critical faculties dVyeloped?
17.
Under what circumstances would the author justify some form of
censorship? ~
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18.
What course of action should be adopted by school authorities trying to
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