For my Civic Issues blog this semester, I will be discussing censorship in the American K-12 education system. I will be covering the history of censorship in American education, movements associated with it, issues of social justice and omission of diverse perspectives, and what can be done to fight against unjust censorship.
What is Censorship?
According to The American Association of School Administrators (AASA), educational censorship is “[T]he removal, suppression, or restricted circulation of literary, artistic, or educational materials — of images, ideas, and information — on the grounds that these are morally or otherwise objectionable in light of standards applied by the censor.” They specify that, “…censorship rests on an exclusion of materials, while selection involves an inclusion of materials carried out by trained professionals, familiar with the wide variety of available choices and guided by a clear grasp of the educational purposes to be fulfilled” (Miner).
Censorship can be a localized issue, but it can also span to national levels. Challenges to school materials generally occur on three levels: parents who do not want their child exposed to specific materials, school officials who argue that no one in their class, school, or district should be exposed to certain content, and organized campaigns (local or national) who challenge content to make a broader political point. Most recently, there have been censorship attempts by state officials who have passed legislation to prevent the teaching of specific topics state-wide. The most well-known example of this is Florida governor Ron DeSantis’ passage of the Parental Rights in Education Bill (colloquially known as the Don’t Say Gay bill) in March 2022. Bills like this one as well as the failed Stop W.O.K.E bill, censor education surrounding LGBTQ+ topics, racial justice and slavery, and white supremacy (ACLU).
The Dangers of Educational Censorship
These legislative efforts to censor “controversial” topics pose a significant threat to students’ freedom to learn accurate history and freely access literature. These bills, which PEN America calls Educational Intimidation Bills, “do not constitute direct forms of censorship or curricular prohibitions. But they facilitate the conditions for a chilled climate in public education by radically expanding avenues for parents, government officials, and citizens to intervene in curricular and extracurricular decisions in public K–12 schools.” (PEN America). In other words, these bills allow for legal censorship by allowing a greater number of individuals to decide what gets taught to students. The number of bills attempting to restrict educational liberty in this way has increased dramatically in recent years. PEN America states, “392 of them [were] introduced between January 2021 and June 2023, 39 of which have passed into law.” The below chart indicates what these policies allow for:
What is especially important to note is that these laws specifically target marginalized groups. Many censorship attempts in K-12 education focus specifically on erasing LGBTQ+ identities and issues of race and equity. This often means teaching a “revised” version of history that ignores systemic inequalities and can stigmatize BIPOC and LGBTQ+ students by denying them representation. This also spreads dangerous information to young people, creating an educational bias that allows yet another generation that refuses to acknowledge important issues of justice, as well as issues like climate change.
Censorship of any kind is reason to be suspect, but educational censorship is an incredibly potent tool for disseminating propaganda and pushing ignorance in service of a sociopolitical agenda. This is a significant threat to the principles of public education; every student receives a standardized, accurate, quality education.
In my next post, I will explore the history of educational censorship and its ties to “parental rights in education” movements.
This was a great first civic blog post. You’ve got me all riled up; this issue makes me so angry. Obviously, I agree that censorship is a huge problem in education. I think the job of our schools and teachers is to give us information from all points of view and teach us how to use it to learn on our own and form opinions for ourselves. You’ve done a great job introducing this topic (the chart and links are very helpful) and stressing just how dangerous censorship is. I look forward to your next post.
I really enjoyed your blog post; part of the civic issues blogs that is incredibly difficult is that we choose a topic we are passionate about and then have to address it as objectively as possible, and I think you did a fantastic job of it. You included evidence against censorship laws in education that is irrefutable because we know the dangers of censoring education or a biased education with some of the most extreme examples being the education systems of Nazi Germany and present day North Korea. I look forward to reading your next post as this was a fantastic start to this topic.
This is a great post, Teja! I’m really excited to continue reading your civic issues blog. I’m really interested in your topic of educational censorship, because it hits really close to home. My brother’s middle school, for example, is the middle of extremely white, extremely conservative PA. There are maybe one or two mixed race families – almost no diversity. LGBTQ+ awareness is nonexistant. When my brother dyed his hair blue for fun, he was teased about it on the bus. One kid sneered that my brother “looked gay.” So my brother responded “that’s not a bad thing” (I’m so, so proud of him for that). Still, there are so many negative cultural and societal connotations surrounding that “insult.” I’d like to think that without the educational censorship that exists in schools like my brother’s, perhaps kids could learn to be a little bit more open. Or at least not use “gay” as an insult.
In highly conservative places like my area, I feel that school is the one place that kids can potentially get a diversity of perspectives, and can learn about topics concerning racial justice, LGBTQ+ issues, etc. Even if they had books in the school library with protagonists from a variety of backgrounds.
Anyways, all this to say that I love your post and I can’t wait to read more! 🙂 There’s so much to explore with this topic..