From: Brooklyn
Category: Other
Date: 7/7/99
Time: 11:12:41 AM
Remote Name: 207.238.28.10
But seriously, "land of the free" has in a sense caused the banning of books. Before the 1950's most of the kids in school were white and middle class. The minorities, for the most part, were poor and did not attend school but rather went to work. As the US. sorta developed after The War, education became a much greater priority as we tried to live up to the "equal opportunity" promise being spouted about.
Thus the 50's & 60's saw a huge increase in the % of school age children who were actually IN school. Most of this increase came from minority children. So now, for the first time, questions were raised about how certain books related to students from so many disparate backgrounds. Up until this time most of the books taught in school were probably by 19th century British writers. When American writers began creating their own body of work it was often controversial. Partly in that it sought to distance itself from the same 19th century British writers currently taught and partly because, well, America was a much more free-wheelin place back then and the mind-set was probably more rebellious than it has ever been since. Unfortunately I don't have any examples, but the main gist is that there were many new constituents that needed and demanded to be heard. The public school system in America is pretty good (exempting the inner cities) but their extremely idealistic aim at teaching common values is fraught with problems. Often difficult decisions devolve to the least common denominator.
In my opinion the only thing worse than banning a book it teaching a censured version.