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Censorship in the Classroom
Your experience in having things banned by over-active filtering software [and having to move them to another site] reminded me of the situation not long ago in our school. Some parents objected to a book that was required reading in an English class, a book that I know students have been reading in schools for decades.
They wrote the principal about it, claiming among other things that the book was "unwholesome." Showing his characteristic backbone, the principal promptly suggested to the teacher that it would be best if another book was substituted.
Since the teacher was new and didn't want to make any waves, she quietly went along. But we can all see that the experience sapped much of her initial enthusiasm for teaching her class.
I recently read that fundamentalist parents in Alabama succeeded in banning 44 history, social studies, and health textbooks from their public schools. I bet most of all of these censorship-happy types are the first to jump up, wave the flag, and sing the phrases of "America, land of the free."
How are we supposed to get students engaged in healthy discussions if everything that isn't bland and G-rated is off limits? All it takes is one student with some sort of a grudge to claim that some discussion wandered into some "unwholesome" or nonpolitically correct area, and we are called on the carpet to have to defend ourselves.
I guess if a discussion gets into one of these areas, we are supposed to immediately stop the conversation and announce that we aren't allowed to talk about that.
Principles are scared of school boards; and it seems that religious-right zealots are being attracted to school boards because they feel some duty to impose their narrow religious views on future generations. These are the same types who recently condemned the content of "Sesame Street."
I guess this is just another reason why students say their classes are dull, boring, and not relevant to their lives, and that the majority of new teachers leave the profession after a few short years.
[Name withheld by request]
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