Part 1:
Day 1:
- Went over roles:
- Oscar – scribe
- Surya – Goalkeeper
- Shawn – Park ranger
- Brainstormed Potential Topics:
- Banned books
- Texas/Florida textbooks
- Affirmative Action
- Civil Rights, particularly the one case where a bakery refused to bake a cake for a gay marriage
- Gun control
- Minimum wage
- Felon voting
- Picked our topic:
- Banned books (with respect to education) – what is acceptable for children to learn at what age, how does different information affect development, consequences of removing certain information.
Day 2:
- Found sources:
- Yanking Books From School Libraries: What the Supreme Court Has Said, and Why It’s Murky (edweek.org)
- A Brief History of Banned Books in America | History| Smithsonian Magazine
- Created a general outline:
- Comparison to Germany book burning (45s)
- Book Burning | Holocaust Encyclopedia (ushmm.org)
- History of banned books in US, why do people want to ban books? (1:30)
- Those who wish to ban books cite often: Sexual Content, Offensive Language, Lack of Literary Merit,
- https://lithub.com/the-history-and-present-of-banning-books-in-america/
- https://www.ala.org/advocacy/sites/ala.org.advocacy/files/content/Top%20Ten%20for%202016.pdf
- Half of the most contested books for 2016 cited reasons related to LGBTQ+ content
- 8/10 cited sexual explicitness
- 1/10 cited the fact that Bill Cosby was the author
- Florida and revised textbooks, textbooks were rejected because of “political indoctrination,” under Ron DeSantis
- One such revised topic was activities. Such as the activity to ask parents about kneeling during the national anthem and how ti represented the US
- Is every book considered an important part of the “intellectual freedom search”? (1:30)
- https://www.procon.org/headlines/banned-books-top-3-pros-and-cons/
- Sexually explicit content, offensive language, and “unsuited to any age group”
- Children should not be exposed to sex, violence, drug use, or other inappropriate topics in school or public libraries.
- Against: Many frequently challenged books help people get a better idea of the world and their place in it.
- Keeping books with inappropriate content out of libraries protects kids, but doesn’t stop people from reading those books or prevent authors from writing them.
- At what age should people have access to all information? (1:00)
- Several Viewpoints (Immediately, other ages)
- https://www.ala.org/advocacy/intfreedom/librarybill/interpretations/minors
- The above source states “article V of the Library Bill of Rights states, “A person’s right to use a library should not be denied or abridged because of origin, age, background, or views.”
- The access to this information is a first amendment right according to the opinion of the American Library Association
- Anyone should have at least access to all information
- Yes: Chris Rufo
- No: Yascha Mounk
- How does censorship affect the education and perspectives of children (45s)
- What Students Are Saying About Banning Books From School Libraries – The New York Times (nytimes.com)
- Students feel like if the books are relatable, reading can help them feel supported and understood.
- Many LGBTQ students feel discriminated against when books are banned just for LGBTQ content
- To read or not to read: a meta-analysis of print exposure from infancy to early adulthood – PubMed (nih.gov)
- Exposure to printed books can explain 34% of the variance in oratory skills of college students/ young adults
- If students do not have books they can relate to, they won’t read as much and won’t be able to develop their linguistic skills fully
- What legal precedent is there for banning books in the US (2:00)
- Island Trees School District v. Pico, students found that school was going to ban books and sued.
- Outcome of previously mentioned case was that librarians cannot ban a book just because they dislike it, but can ban it if it is inappropriate for the children.
- Recently, Florida approved a law that states only books approved by certified media specialists can be included in a library, mainly to focus on excluding sexually explicit material.
- Conclusion, wrap up and evaluate the similarities and differences between burning books and censorship (45s)
Day 3:
- Completed research and reviewed the sources we found
- Began to write the script, wrote the intro together.
- Split up tasks for writing remainder of the script as homework.
- Oscar – Censorship effect and legal precedent
- Surya – History
- Shawn – Should kids have access / what age
- Plan to write conclusion and determine visuals in class on Wednesday
Day 4:
- Wrote the remainder of the script
- Planned to add visuals and audio to storyboard on Friday
Day 5:
- Completed storyboard
- Plan to split up the rest of the work based on the sections of the script we wrote
Part 2: Our group will be discussing the controversy of banned books in the US school system. First, we will examine the history of banned books, and common reasons for banning books in the past. Then, we will look at different perspectives on book banning: That books in schools must be educational and it is the school board’s responsibility and authority to choose which books remain in schools, or that all books should get to be represented to expose children to diverse perspectives. Then we will look at the legal precedent set in place for book banning, Island Trees School District v. Pico.
Some framing questions that we will examine will be: “Why do people want books to be (not) banned” “What kinds of people are on each sides?”, “What are the books that people currently want to ban?”, “What is the effect of censoring books for children?”, and “What is the legal precedent surrounding banning books in the US?”
Our media choices will be mostly relevant to the content that we are discussing. We will use stock footage to generate interest from the viewer, and we will use specific photographs from the events we discuss to emphasize certain points and provide clarity. We will use a variety of tempos and tones of music, in order to audibly break up the video into smaller segments.