School Girl Circulates Banned Books

Traveling to a conference yesterday a co-worker was discussing a link her daughter had sent her. It was written by a school girl who attends a private school. Her school sent out a large list of books that they decided to ban. The student was baffled as to why the books were banned and felt the school had made the wrong decision. She brought one of the books to school to “test the ban.” Another student ended up asking if he could borrow and read the book. One thing led to another and she ended up having a personal circulating library in her locker. In the end the ban ended up promoting the banned books.

Below is the link. It may be a totally made up story but after reading the post and responses several thoughts came to mind:

Should we encourage children to participate in civil disobedience? I hope I will always encourage my child to stand up for what they believe. Is independent thought not the root of intellectual freedom?

Even though this student was trying to support intellectual freedom she too was self-censoring. She “…took care only to bring the books with literary quality.” She also limited her library to students in grades 10-12. In our attempts to do what we believe is right it is important to remember that we too have failings and not stand too proud in our actions. Self reflection is always good.

It seems as if trying to ban books is counterproductive, it entices people to see what is so bad. On the other hand librarians and book-sellers self-censoring seems to be able to “kill” a book. A librarian self-censoring may end up doing much more damage than someone trying to ban a book.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090305151758AA7dWwd

Aborted Fetuses and Free Speech

There have been several weeks of protest leading up to Presidents Obama giving the commencement address at Notre Dame. The protests are protected by free speech. The methodology of some of the protesters raise the question of how far is to far? For weeks box trucks have driven the streets and small planes have pulled banners both showing graphic images of the remains of aborted fetuses. A May 3rd issue of the South Bend Tribune stated there is no law against the images. But as Troy Gebhardt said in the article, on TV one can change the channel, in a magazine turn the page and even avoid certain signs in town but since the trucks are roaming the streets someone cannot chose to avoid these images. Children on school buses were also exposed to the images. When is the line of free speech crossed? Does our view change when we personally find something offensive?

Ironically in the May 14th issue of the South Bend Tribune I read about Indiana Atheist Bus Campaign to purchase space on public transit buses that read: "You Can Be Good Without God." They too wanted it leading up to President Obama's visit. The campaign was delayed, although the check was cashed, until the Transit board could meet to make sure it was not too controversial. There are many differences in the two situations but it does highlight the need to make sure that free speech is not protected on a selective basis.

Greetings Classmates

I look forward to communicating with each of you this term. Intellectual freedom is near and dear to me. While I feel strongly about intellectual freedom, my hope is that through this class I will become more articulate about the topic.

I am a novice blogger.. thus the boring blogspot! Hopefully I will learn how to pretty it up as I use it more.