All parents who are limited to sending their kids to public schools should be very active in how those schools are run. Attend school board meetings and voice your concerns when needed and your support when earned. If you can’t pick your school it is incumbent that you help influence a positive direction for the school. And above all - speak truth to power 
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Hmmm…seems like those statements should apply to all parents to all schools that their children attend. Public, private, chartered, home school groups/curriculum. For book banning or ANY purpose.
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God, it’s so strange to see such books in the “banned” column. Do they really know what “banned” means?
Real question. What’s getting approved? Lots of angst over “banned” but the real topic should be “are the books being approved furthering your kids education or not?”
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I volunteered in the class- I realize not everyone can do that, but if you are able, it is the best way to be involved. Our school system has 163,000 kids- it’s really hard to change anything in a school system that big at the school board level. I actually gained a lot of appreciation for the thankless job those people had throughout Covid. Hours of school board meetings- on top of their real jobs. I didn’t always agree with their decisions, but at least I could see the process and reasoning behind it.
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Efforts to ban books often correspond with broader educational movements, including efforts limit, reshape, control, and narrow what is being taught and how is being taught. The ahistorical “patriotic” recommendations by the 1776 Committee and one example, and multiple states have tried (and are trying) restrict curriculum to reflect only a certain vision of America to the exclusion of others. For example, last year Texas tried to further focus its teaching of history in a move with potentially wide ranging impact.
The proposals in Texas, a state that influences school curriculums around the country through its huge textbook market, amount to some of the most aggressive efforts to control the teaching of American history. And they come as nearly a dozen other Republican-led states seek to ban or limit how the role of slavery and pervasive effects of racism can be taught.
Idaho was the first state to sign into law a measure that would withhold funding from schools that teach such lessons. And lawmakers in Louisiana, New Hampshire and Tennessee have introduced bills that would ban teaching about the enduring legacies of slavery and segregationist laws, or that any state or the country is inherently racist or sexist.
And it is not just social sciences that are impacted:
So to answer your question, I’m not sure that the books being approved are exactly “furthering education.”
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In the absence of textbooks explaining the history, Texas school teachers who want to teach about the state’s history with respect to slavery need to go to primary sources like https://www.tsl.texas.gov/ref/abouttx/secession/2feb1861.html .
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can we get back to Florida, the topic of this thread?
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As is the case in Texas and a number of other states, the efforts in Florida to ban bookscorrespond with broader societal and educational efforts to limit reshape, control, and narrow what it is taught and how it is taught. Examples abound, but this isn’t the place to get into Florida politics.
On a more general note of relevance to the topic of this thread, there is nothing new about efforts to use curriculum guides and book bans/censorship to try to promote and preserve particular vision of America, to the exclusion of others.
Below is a link a pamphlet called A Measuring Rod to Test Text Books, and Reference Books in Schools, Colleges and Libraries, from 1920. The pamphlet (and related, more detailed material) were used as a measuring rod “by which every text-book on history and literature in Southern schools should be tested by those desiring the truth.” While the pamphlet may be old, is hardly a one-off or an antiquated relic. It and similar guides helped create and preserve the “Lost Cause” mythology, and helped define the curriculum of the South (and parts of the North) for the entire Jim Crow era, and some would argue that its vestiges are still present in curriculum today in and beyond the South. IMO, the pamphlet provides some historical context to what his happening today. Whether you agree or not, it is worth a read . . .
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But they also NEED to respect that their views aren’t the only views out there. Public schools need to be inclusive of all (religions, races, genders, etc), not just a few. If one wants tighter restrictions, then head private or homeschool.
We don’t get to parent other people’s kids and in the same respect, no one should be limiting public schools from including everyone.
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That is utterly fascinating. Thank you for posting it.
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Sounds like a good bill to me.
I think it is very unfair and inaccurate to characterize supporters of the ban as intolerant of LGBTQ and POC. Multiple posters have done this.
One of the books is about a gay couple trying to set a record for longest kiss. That’s disgusting, as it would be if it were a hetero couple. 50 Shades is gross. Everywhere Babies, that’s pretty cool. But, as I mentioned in my first post on this thread, this issue is designed to be divisive, by everyone involved. A person can’t partially support the ban. You’re either for it or against it, and if you’re on the wrong side, you’re cancelled.
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When a poster talks about taking issue with “normalizing” homosexuality, it is intolerance, plain and simple.
Andsomeone thinking something is “disgusting” isn’t getting them cancelled- it’s the iron fisted attempt to force others to think as you do.
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If one is against books BECAUSE they’re about LGBTQ and people of color, then one should ABSOLUTELY be cancelled. There’s no “right side” or “wrong side” when it comes to intolerance and racism.
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Move on from the cancel culture discussion please
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From the Washington Post article about the board book “Everywhere Babies” being banned in Walton County:
From WaPo’s interview with the author: “Authoritarian and fascist communities, this is what they always go for, they always burn the books. It actually shows the power of books…So that’s one thing to remember and celebrate: The power of books.”
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Ummm, per USAToday, Walton County did not ban the book. (Other than that, the story was accurate!)
" Last week, news outlets incorrectly reported that a northwest Florida school district banned a baby book, “Everywhere Babies,” due to LGBTQ imagery.
As of April 26, no schools have reported removing “Everywhere Babies” from libraries due to the list."
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Well, that may be true (new news?) but it was on the initially published list (I don’t have that link at the moment) and interesting that that correction did not come out right away.
Also still a valid point on ANY banned book list or intentional list if a non-profit group would like to see it banned.
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Disagree. Anyone (or nonprofit) can prepare a list for government action. Doesn’t make it valid. (That said, the WaPo could write an article describing the nonprofit and its Board members who made those recommendations. But that would be much different, would it not?)
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