How Can Teachers EFFECTIVELY Cope with Book Bans and Censorship?

Hey, Teachers!

Book bans are nothing new, but can be very troubling in public school.

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We want to teach freely with joy, enthusiasm, and encouragement, in an effort to uplift and guide ALL students in our classes. We shouldn't have to be fearful about curriculum, fighting political agendas and wars (internally or externally) alongside librarians and public libraries caught up in this wildfire. We're hired to teach according to state, district mandates, and departmental and grade level guidelines. And we may be bothered, even sickened by some of the discriminatory practices coming down our chain of command that leave kids out and create more isolation...and once again, leave us feeling even more silenced about promoting what we know is good for kids. SO, WHAT DO WE DO?

HOW CAN TEACHERS EFFECTIVELY COPE WITH BOOK BANS?

What do we do as educators facing the tumult of what some of us may coin as extremism or hate seeping into our creative teaching worlds like a vile disease? Some of us have been targeted at work or at home for standing up for kids (that certainly wasn't in the job description). Of course, we can all agree that some books aren't age appropriate or school-appropriate, but we're talking about classic novels and much-needed storytelling that addresses historical realities, social injustices, and being a person who identifies differently than the mainstream. These are largely the titles under fire.

This battle called "book bans" falls under the umbrella of mandated job duties: reading instruction and literacy development (expected instructional emphases). There's no doubt about it: book banning these days is ugly, stressful, and wrong. Book bans put us in uncomfortable positions against parents and the community, and in political and First Amendment wars instead of remaining unified for one awesome and important goal: a positive educational experience for kids.

COUNTING WHAT'S POSITIVE RELATED TO POLICIES THESE DAYS IS A TOUGH ONE.

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Some PROFESSIONAL DO'S AND DON'TS for Teachers to Consider in This Controversy:

DO

• Be an advocate for your students in professional circles and in instruction
• Find colleagues who are like-minded
• Develop avenues for participating safely in legislative reform
• Maintain hope that better days are ahead

DON'T

• Fight book bans by being a defiant or non-compliant employee
• Risk losing your job
• Become a target at your school or in your community
• Sink into despair believing nothing will ever change

Common sense, right? Hopefully.

What's become a colloquial saying is true (and I'm quoting rapper Tupac Shakur): The struggle is real.

HOW DO TEACHERS BEGIN TO COPE WITH BOOK BANS?

• Again, find like-minded colleagues...If your school, district, and/or state empowers you to fight the good fight, do it as safely as you can. Join your librarians in dialogues about books and stories that you know kids need. Of course, adhere to the unique situation in your teaching setting while considering your civic duty.
• Be creative with the curriculum you are allowed to use...Our students must experience equity in the teaching and learning environment on all fronts, to the best of our ability. Teachers who understand this already realize that stories about all the "scary topics" grassroots organizations or political extremists may be trying to eliminate from schools are the very ones students want and need to read. Based on what you know to be true, where is there a silver lining in the resources that are allowed to be in your curriculum this year?
• Be a mature and loving voice for kids...Even if you feel entirely stripped of the opportunity to provide the kind of curriculum you believe should be in place (or was in place), and you're bound by nasty policies that hurt and leave student populations who are already marginalized out in the dust politically, emotionally, and culturally, you still have a voice when those students are listening to you, watching you, and learning from you. THAT'S A TOTAL OF 180 DAYS A SCHOOL YEAR (what a supreme opportunity with a group of learners, to promote positive influence and thinking.) 

Elnur

HOW DO WE AVOID NEGATIVE REPERCUSSIONS FOR ADVOCATING FOR KIDS?

Good question.

How do we help kids who may be wondering why books are being pulled, and provide transparent answers as to why their schools prohibit access to stories they should be allowed to read? How do we stay positive if we're being harassed or threatened daily? Aside from following administrative guidance and protocols at the school site OR in your online job, how do we rectify this frightening circumstance that cuts at the very heart of why we became teachers?

TAKE SOME TIME TO PONDER WHAT'S REALLY HAPPENING, NOT HOW YOU FEEL ABOUT IT.

Start by defining what's really driving the book banning movement. Get your internal thoughts clear so you can inform your external behaviors, including how you cope with the challenges.

Be realistic about today's educational climate. Book banning (at its core) isn't truly about LGBTQIA+, race, sex, and other hot topics in this heated and spiritually exhausting debate. It's not about teachers on the whole who are infiltrating students with filthy thoughts and intentions, as if the majority of us are evil, just waiting to ensnare young minds, snatch them from safety, and hurl them into the unknown, the pornographic realm, and into personal anguish and unwarranted chaos and confusion...(Sounds extreme, doesn't it?) As in every industry, there are employees who shouldn't be in the building (or in virtual spaces). And yes, some teachers shouldn't be teaching for various reasons and do break the law and seek to do harm. But the majority of us are diligent, caring, and concerned about student mental health, social-emotional learning, and personal growth. I believe that wholeheartedly. Or the entire profession would collapse.

We're the machine that keeps this industry moving, so that means WE need to keep moving with integrity.

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Elnur

TEACHERS NEED TO BE CLEAR ABOUT THE FORCES BEHIND BOOK BANS

Book banning movements aren't about kids. Large scale book banning is about politics and fear. It's about winning the "fight" for justice in numbers, with a platform and a loudspeaker to persuade the masses. It's about attacking power and truth at the core in the most influential (and most easily attacked) of all fields: education.

IT'S A HISTORY LESSON...

And we're in the middle of it. (Breathe. We'll get through this.)

Book banning has been going on in this country for centuries, and some of the BEST literature in the world makes the language/content "hit list". We all know that destructive efforts to censor the living experience in classrooms go nowhere except to create fear, control, and compliance with authoritative structures...at the expense of children. 

The books we love that are now in the trash aren't the culprit here. The sheer irony of extremist groups is worth examining for a moment: the shouts of "liberty" for "student" and "parent rights" when in fact, what happens during widespread book bans is the dismantling of those rights. How can one group decide (and especially in a public school or library) what's available, accessible, worthwhile, or educational for all? You could make a long list of removed or confiscated book titles that have positively influenced kids for decades, and have wonderful merit in the world of literacy development today. Talking about the human condition is the only way we survive the human condition. And "banned books" are all about the human condition.

THE CONTENT IN MANY BANNED BOOKS IS THE VOICE OF EQUITY AND INCLUSION. 

And in some places, that's not a popular rhetoric or value.

How do we wear valiant robes in our efforts to promote equity and inclusion when our administrators, school districts, and legislators have told us merely to comply or else, that our jobs (and safety) are at stake for speaking out or using curriculum that defies new policies?

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WHAT TEACHERS CAN DO TO ACCOMMODATE BOOK BANS AND CENSORSHIP SAFELY 

Focus on the students. This is where teacher accountability stops and starts. 

Use your teacher voice. This is the voice that addresses ALL kids in your spheres of influence; this means something different than your "playground" or "auditorium" voice...

What we can do as educators, aside from following the protocols and mandates that govern our professional thinking and decision-making, and limitations on the job, is magnify TEACHER VOICE. We must stop wondering why this is happening and start questioning how we can make things better in our individual teaching environments.

Easier said than done?

Depends on your school district and administrative policies--and motivation.

• If you're in a school where several books you thought were valuable are gone, and your hands are tied related to the kind of curriculum you're allowed to promote now or can share freely in your classroom, you're not alone.
• If you're in a less threatening or stifling environment, you may have more options with your classroom library and picture book, chapter book, short story, grade level novel selections, and literacy projects. Whatever the case may be, one thing is for certain: your students need to see themselves in the literature they are studying. And they'll see that because of you, the teacher.

How do we magnify TEACHER VOICE if our hands are tied and the curriculum is bare bones, homogeneous, or greatly curtailed in terms of equity-driven practice?

TEACHER VOICE is about what you say and what you do when you're working with students. Period. This is where YOU take the reins as steward of a classroom.

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SOME WAYS TO BE A CREATIVE TEACHER-LEADER OF YOUR CLASSROOM (AND NOT JUST IN THE FACE OF ADVERSITY)

• Teachers must encourage students to explore the world that is in front of them. Wherever you are in what feels like a wicked web of lies burgeoning from a larger societal fear of losing control and visibility or fear of annihilation of the status quo, our students still remain our top priority as teachers.
• We are all required to follow and uphold a code of ethics including standards that center on honesty, respect, and lawfulness.
• Our central duty as teachers in any school district (or online learning environment) is to ensure a rich educational experience for kids. That means cutting our losses and allowing what's left in the garden to flourish. Sure, you may miss certain enriching titles that you would love to share and teach if you could (and maybe used to), and the important life-giving, current topics you wish you could speak about freely without political safeguards. And you may sit dumbfounded or concerned when a student brings to your attention issues you may not feel equipped to handle or your school district/state has prohibited you from discussing on the job.
• Know that there's creativity in positivity. Teaching and learning is always about discovery and never about all the talking heads who've tried to control what we do for decades. 
• Remember, you're the teacher. That's your name on the classroom roster. That's your seat in front of the computer or at the head of the room. Consider what you still CAN DO to help kids.

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SOME WAYS TO STAY POSITIVE ABOUT TEACHING WITH BOOK BANS

• Find ways to brighten your students' worlds. Illuminate their stories and words, their views, their challenges, their understandings, their hopes and dreams, their passions, their values.
• Find ways to do this without being non-compliant or defiant of book bans and governing policies. There's such a thing as being too vocal at the wrong times, but there's also such a thing as not being vocal at all. Where can you weave in your teaching philosophy, your values about individualism and equity, without "sounding the alarm" and getting written up, or worse?
• Find ways to brighten your own world. Avoid getting or staying angry. The tides will likely turn again, and those trashed books will hopefully resurface on our bookshelves in the not-too-distant future. No angry "parent group", board member, superintendent, politician, or legislator can remove good literature from existence. Have faith your students will eventually come across the literary treasures you wanted them to see and study. Fantastic publications in children's literature and adult fiction continue to emerge online and in bookstores yearly. The industry of storytelling remains more powerful today than it ever was, and includes grand themes of equity, diversity, and inclusion in all forms of media.

The good news here? Kids aren't clueless. They have the world at their fingertips. We can't silence our youth through policies we may or may not agree with. Believe in the students in your classes. They know what's up (no matter how shackled the textbooks become).

Our greatest "fight" against book bans is not a direct one, rather, an inherent one that stems from a good teacher's decision-making. It is believing in the integrity, self-worth, and power of younger generations. That's power right alongside the demands of professional compliance.

No angry "parent group", politician, or new policy or law can truly stop us or strip us from educating students on their own strengths and discovering their own values. No policy can silence our work around educational themes that promote unity and harmony in this world. We're hired to educate and that has always carried the burden of moral education boundaries and necessities. 

Additionally, I believe it is the hope of all teachers to work WITH parents, guardians, and the surrounding community. When teaching is a team effort, it yields the most promising outcomes.

STAY HOPEFUL AND COURAGEOUS, TEACHERS!

Hope is the answer here, not hate or outward resistance that yields punishment instead of reward.

When we remain hopeful about what IS possible with kids, we begin to see tiny cracks in the confining spaces of censorship, conceptual brutality, and fear. 

And if we believe in what's truly best and right for kids, we will find ways to bring that light to our school buildings. 

Even though we may feel completely crushed about the books we love that are lying in a ditch somewhere, realize they are not in that ditch. We're not in a ditch. The literature is going nowhere. We may wonder if our schools are going nowhere. And for some us, maybe there are some real issues with leadership. But that isn't what's relevant in book bans.

What's relevant is what you do when class starts.

Our students need us. Where we are and where they are. 

SOME WAYS TO KEEP BOOK BANS IN PERSPECTIVE

• Work with what you've got. Miracles can emerge in the darkest of circumstance. When one person believes something better and more wonderful is possible, hope can grow.
• Navigate your territory. Feel out the pathway. It may be hidden but it's there. Find other teachers to connect with.
• Recognize that "banned books" are probably your favorite books which is why it hurts (if you're like me). They're the ones that teach us who we really are and what we need to do to be happy individuals and productive people.
• Fill your personal home libraries with all the titles that you have come to know and love and make you happy. Celebrate diversity, love, and acceptance as much as possible. It's likely you can read whatever you want on your own time.
• And keep things in perspective. We may wonder how the authors whose tried-and-true publications are off the shelves are handling these events. They likely aren't hurting the way we might be. They help to provide a platform for students to envision what's possible in this thing called life. Current celebrated authors will continue to write. Banned books are published many times over and will continue to sell. Rightly so!

We as teachers must be creative thinkers in helping students to actualize their own potential, despite the hardships.

A teacher's greatest weapon against adversity is...love.

Hang in there. This could be a vicious cycle or massive wave that lasts a while, but we won't be sucked under. The ocean that is the heart of a good teacher, is wide and deep.

"Banned books" is definitely a symptom of what you and I know to be a much larger educational challenge. We've come this far under similar pressures. We'll get through this storm too. As stewards over our students, we must be the strongest link between what was and what will be.

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