Combating Censorship
Teachers, policymakers, parents, and librarians will find the following materials valuable in their efforts to combat censorship. These resources were developed by NCTE and SLATE (Support for the Learning and Teaching of English -- NCTE's intellectual freedom network).
(Please note that some documents are available in PDF form and Adobe Acrobat is required to open them.)
NCTE Resolutions
NCTE Position Statements and Guidelines
- "Students' Right to Read," which has been adapted as a model for processing censorship complaints in hundreds of school districts and English departments throughout the country (see especially, "Citizen's Request of Reconsideration of a Work," pp.12-13)
- "Guidelines for Dealing with Censorship of Nonprint Materials," developed in response to increased attempts at limiting teachers' use of students' access to films, video, and other nonprint materials
- "Guidelines for Selection of Materials in English Language Arts Programs," a preventive document; strong selection procedures and criteria ensure sound curriculum and are a buffer against future challenges
- "Defining and Defending Instructional Methods" presents rationales for methods that are sometimes challenged--journal writing, role-playing, whole language approaches, and others.
- and more
SLATE Starter Sheets and Newsletters
Browse the NCTE Catalog
Additional Support from NCTE and SLATE
Besides providing these materials, NCTE and SLATE offer assistance when particular censorship problems arise in a school or district. Upon request from teachers, central office leaders, or parents, NCTE and SLATE send dozens of letters each year in defense of instructional materials that are under attack. Such letters--to curriculum review committees, superintendents, school boards, or other key people identified by local contacts--frequently have an impact on tipping the decision in favor of access over censorship. Also, materials from the SLATE collection of over 200 rationales for challenged books are sent to teachers when a particular work that they teach is being protested. See the NCTE Anti-Censorship Web site for more information.
Contact NCTE and SLATE for Help
If a challenge arises in your school or district and you would like such help, contact Millie Davis at NCTE Headquarters at 800-369-6283, ext. 3634. You may also visit NCTE's Anti-Censorship Web site and click on the "Report a Censorship Incident" option.
Join the SLATE Network
Although NCTE and SLATE anti-censorship activities are carried out at no charge, the cost to the Council is considerable, and we ask interested individuals to support the fight against censorship. A $15 donation to SLATE (payable to NCTE/SLATE) will help to assure the continuance of this important work. Each year SLATE contributors receive three issues of the SLATE Newsletter and at least three SLATE Starter Sheets -- action oriented materials for teachers and other leaders. Recent SLATE Starter Sheets and Newsletters have included materials on testing, grammar, whole language, effects of television on students, and other topics.
More Resources
"Ten Steps Toward the Freedom to Read: Step-by-step procedure for dealing with censorship" by Ken Donelson, The ALAN Review, Winter 1993
"Somnolent Bulls, Revisited" by Ted Hipple, English Journal, July 2001
The Most Frequently Challenged Books, reported by the American Library Association
"The New Censors: Assaults from the Right and the Left" by Charles Suhor, AHP Perspective, November/December 1992
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