See the Busy Book-Burners

It’s hard to believe, but, in the ninth decade of the 20th Century, “The Catcher in the Rye,” “Of Mice and Men,” “Huckleberry Finn” and “The Diary of Anne Frank,” among many other books, are still the objects of censorship in the nation’s public schools. And the incidence of book bannings is going up, according to a report by People for the American Way, the liberal watchdog group. In the last school year, the study found, there were efforts to ban books in schools in 46 of the 50 states, including California. Many of them succeeded.

The most troubling aspect of this activity is that nearly one-fourth of it is spurred by outside groups, aligned with the New Right, which have educational agendas aimed at tailoring students’ thinking to their point of view. While two-thirds of the censorship incidents were initiated by legislators, preachers or individual parents, their complaints closely paralleled objections to educational materials made by Jerry Falwell’s Moral Majority and Phyllis Schlafly’s Eagle Forum. In general the material singled out for controversy deals with evolution, sex education or personal values. Textbooks that reflect social, political or cultural change have also been targeted.

The purpose of education is to teach students to think, not to instill dogma or to train them to respond in predictable ways. Far from being banned, controversial material should be welcomed in schools. Students should be taught the critical ability to evaluate different ideas and to come to their own conclusions. It is a disservice to them and to society to restrict instructional material to a monolithic viewpoint.

The world is very complicated, and young people should be exposed to a wide range of opinions and attitudes that reflect that complexity. Otherwise society winds up educating its children too narrowly, and they are ill-prepared for the diversity of the real world. A democratic society requires well-informed citizens capable of critical thought. Political agendas have no place in the schools, and efforts to impose them must be resisted whenever and wherever they appear.