Savannah, a current Possip reporter and former educator, shares her input on navigating the banned books sweep!
A recent book ban is sweeping across school districts in the United States. It’s beginning to attract growing attention as famous poets like Rupi Kaur begin to speak out about the controversial topic. However, banning books in and of itself is not a new phenomenon. Books were first banned in the US in the 1600s. So, why is this such a hot topic and how are schools navigating this?
Are that many books being banned?
PEN America, is a non-profit organization founded in 1922, that aims to protect free expression in the United States, especially as it relates to literature. Last year, PEN America researched and reported banned books across 26 states and 86 school districts. They found that 1,586 individual books were banned in school libraries or classrooms in the United States from July 1, 2021 to March 31, 2022. To put this into context, last year, the amount of books challenged doubled since the previous year.
What type of books are being banned?
Here are the most popular reasonings for the banning of books:
- 33% of the books banned have LGBTQ+ content or characters
- 41% of the books banned are protagonists of color
- 18 titles contain characters who are Jewish or Muslim
- 283 titles contain sexual or health-related content
With grade-level comes variation. 537 titles which are classified as “young adult”, and 209 titles (picture books) are the largest numbers. 
A few of the most recently challenged titles include:
- The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison
- Gender Queer, Maia Kobabe
- Lawn Boy, Jonathan Evison
- The Hate U Give, Angie Thomas
- Everywhere Babies, Susan Myers
Why are we banning so many books?
This is a difficult question to answer. As our political climate has become more charged, it has also become more polarized. The categories, “conservative” and “liberal” are more popular than “human.” Additionally, what is “grade-level,” or “appropriate,” has always been rather subjective.
The death of George Floyd served as a catalyst for reflection across the United States. Included in this reflection were school leaders and teachers, who sought to revamp curriculum to make it more culturally inclusive. Also, the attention around Critical Racy Theory also began to highlight school curriculum across the country. The exact reason for the recent increase in banned books is complex, but there is also a greater truth here. When we move away from a human-centered and student-centered approach, we begin to lose our why.
My Why
I recently left the classroom June of 2021 for many of the reasons highlighted in other Possip blogs. Some of these reasons include: teacher burnout, feeling undervalued, and not receiving adequate compensation that met my needs. When I left the classroom, I was the Upperclassman Grade Level Chair, English Department Chair, and AP Literature and Language teacher at a small high school. Never in my life did I think I would leave teaching, but I ultimately made that decision to meet my own needs.
However, I deeply miss the students, and more importantly, the impact literature had on their lives.
Almost every one of my students chose to write about Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye on the AP Literature exam. In our end of the year reflection, one of my students wrote, “My favorite book of this entire year would definitely be The Bluest Eye, due to it’s realness and being able to incorporate the Feminist Lens, as well as Critical Race Theory.” This novel is my favorite text to teach, albeit heartbreaking and difficult, because every year students devour this book. They connect to the characters, their experiences, and the topics. In my AP Language class, Trevor Noah’s memoir Born a Crime, is overwhelmingly the favorite text each year even though it is historically banned.
When I formally taught Creative Writing, Rupi Kaur’s Milk and Honey was beloved by many of my students. Milk and Honey, was supposedly recently banned in Texas and Oregon school districts. I pushed to incorporate The Hate U Give, by Angie Thomas into our sophomore curriculum, which at the time was heavily dominated by white canonical authors. Students were not just reading the book, they were reading ahead, turning pages in the hallways between classes. The Hate U Give, is yet another recently challenged title.
How Do We Navigate Banned Books?
- Practice Transparency: By practicing transparency, we can begin to navigate difficult discussions with teachers and students around banned books and sensitive content. When we ignore difficult topics, we inherently diminish topics of importance. We don’t always have to have the answers. Sometimes the conversation is enough.
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- Use Communication Tools: We can use communication tools such as Possip to gain insight on family perspectives to help us navigate choices in our curriculum.
- Invite Courageous Conversations: Get curious with students regarding this topic, and spend time researching the history of banned books. Invite students to share their perspectives through argumentative writing or debate. Or, encourage a more empathetic conversation by asking students to share how this greater conversation makes them feel. As educators, we do not need to share our opinions, but we can be space holders for theirs. Be sure to create a safe space for varying perspectives.
- Take Action: If a book was recently banned from your curriculum you disagree with, or if there is a book you believe should be banned, take action! Attend a meeting within your school district or reach out to board members. When we model this behavior for students, we teach them that our voices do indeed matter.
This issue is complex issue and very heated given our current climate. Take time to research banned books across the nation and in your school district. Invite courageous conversations, and consider taking action. Use tools like Possip to gather feedback from families so that together we can create a better and more human-centered world for our students.
The post Navigating the Banned Books Sweep appeared first on Possip | Engagement Platform | School Feedback App.
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