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Special
Interest Page
Censorship
Page
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- Examine the overall policies
and procedures of your local schools and libraries governing access
to materials and services to youth to insure that rights to intellectual
freedom are not restricted.
- Avoid a strong adversarial
position in discussions of intellectual freedom. Remind all involved
that everyone is assumedly acting out of concern for young people; and
it is those young people who are important, not the momentary validation
of any ideology.
- Help all participants distinguish
between literal and literary ideas, images, and messages. For example,
Robert Frost's "Mending Walls" is about repairing a fence,
but it might be interpreted as being literature about relationships,
individuality, and personal space.
- Beware of a cautiousness
in selection that becomes self-censorship.
- Remind those who would restrict
materials that the interpretation of those materials is grounded in
previous experiences, both actual and vicarious. The meaning one brings
to a text is at least as important in making sense of it as what is
taken from the text. Therefore, the best defense against "dangerous"
texts is a consistent background of reading and discussion in the home
and in schools and libraries.
- Be prepared to respond to
challenges to intellectual freedom by having clearly articulated policies
and procedures in place in your school and library.
- Develop a public information
program to inform all members of the community of school and library
activities and keep the channels of communication open.
- Be aware of the possible
consequences and the risks you are willing to take in defense of intellectual
freedom.
- Remain informed about matters
concerning intellectual freedom by personal reading and by following
the work of the appropriate offices and/or committees of professional
associations such as ALA, ACA, IRA and NCTE. At the same time keep track
of positions held by the ACLU, People for the American Way, and the
National Coalition Against Censorship. Also remain informed about the
work of those who would impose censorship, for it is information that
empowers.
- Distinguish between personal
and professional values.
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Created May 2, 1997 and
is continuously revised
SCILS, Rutgers, The State
University of New Jersey
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