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Common Core State Standard
SL.CCS.1/2/3/4 Grades 6-12: An essay of a current news event is provided for discussion to encourage participation, but also inspire the use of evidence to support logical claims using the main ideas of the article. Students must analyze background information provided about a current event within the news, draw out the main ideas and key details, and review different opinions on the issue. Then, students should present their own claims using facts and analysis for support. FOR THE WEEK OF JAN. 30, 2023 Book bans: Librarians, caught in political 'culture war,' defend their role![]() ![]() Is this a flashpoint in your state? Look for news or opinion page coverage.
![]() Summarize coverage of any other education issue.
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School and public libraries across the country feel intensifying scrutiny and pressure from some politicians, parents and activist groups. Activities include attempts to ban or restrict books dealing with race, gender, sexuality, bullying, assault and identity. In a few extreme cases, library directors are criticized harshly and sometimes harassed online for defending targeted books or authors. "There are these really high-profile people, like governors or congresspeople, who want to use a book ban as part of their political platform," says the American Library Association's president. That risks depriving readers of "access to certain ideas, or to ideologies that will help them create more empathy and understanding for one another even if we don't come from similar backgrounds," she warns. Here are examples of what's happening in four states:
Brian Hoffman, a parent in Naxa, Mo., told the school board in October: "I don't want pornographic material in a library where I can't supervise my children on what it is that they're picking up and reading and learning." A mom at that meeting, Rebecca Kaufman, said: "Erring on the side of caution with our kids' maturing hearts and minds isn't book banning." More than 50 organizations around the country push for library book restrictions and bans, according to the nonprofit PEN America group, which backs free expression. Moms for Liberty, the largest group, has over 200 chapters. Librarians and others are pushing back against what they see as part of a "culture war." "No one on the right side of history has ever been on the side of censorship and hiding books," Louisiana middle school librarian Amanda Jones told a public library board last year. "Once you start relocating and banning one topic, it becomes a slippery slope." She soon drew vicious personal attacks on social media. In Orlando, Fla., middle school art teacher Clinton McCracken says: "The governor and the Florida Board of Education are focused on creating unnecessary rules to fix a problem that didn't exist."
Front Page Talking Points is written by
Alan Stamm for NIEonline.com, Copyright 2023
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