The Supreme Court of the United States has declined to hear Curious Theatre Company v. Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, meaning that the Colorado Supreme Court’s ruling that smoking can be banned from a stage stands. This means that issues could arise in any state where there is a catch-all smoking ban in public areas, without an exemption [...]
NCAC recently fielded a plea for help from a Boston University student filmmaker, at the College of Communication, whose film Wake Up had been removed from regular class consideration and critique for reasons which depended very much on point of view. The student thought it was art. The faculty called it pornography. What was not in dispute was that the [...]
NCAC recently fielded a plea for help from a Boston University student filmmaker, at the College of Communication, whose film Wake Up had been removed from regular class consideration and critique for reasons which depended very much on point of view. The student thought it was art. The faculty called it pornography.
Get news in your inbox. Submit your email address to receive Censorship News delivered straight to you. You’ll get a pdf of the print version of Censorship News as well as regular updates on censorship issues. In this issue of Censorship News, an Indiana community ponders the value of Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon: To read, or Not to Read, [...]
In this issue of Censorship News, an Indiana community ponders the value of Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon, and we discuss the recent controversies over textbooks in Tennessee and Texas.
In Tennessee and Texas, two states where the chainsaw-roar of censorship has been heard for generations, today’s textbook censors are wielding subtler weapons in their efforts to get rid of ideas which don’t conform to their political and religious beliefs.
What a year, and it’s not over yet. Whether by happenstance or design, the Supreme Court is knee-deep in free speech cases. It’s too early to say where we’ll be when the dust settles.
Kids today have less time on their own to play, run around outside, ride their bikes aimlessly, or simply do nothing. Their lives are heavily programmed and supervised. This state of affairs makes it all the more important that children’s imagination, curiosity, and intellectual development is not similarly programmed and supervised to limit their world to one that offers no unexpected challenge.
Censorship news roundup, Summer 2010.
This April school administrators of Franklin Township in Indiana pulled Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon out of the hands of AP English students, who were half-way through reading the book. The following comments, selected from a heated discussion on a local paper's website, shed light on what's at stake for students, parents, and community members whenever a book censorship incident occurs
Whether summer means time to read for fun or to prepare for teaching in the Fall, I bet you’re beginning to gather that reading list. You probably know where to find details on the year’s award-winning children’s and teen books. You can always c...
“FIT endorses the right of artists to freely express their views through their work” reads a sign at the beginning of a student photography show on display in one of the institute’s lobbies. The sign also warns that artwork may be inappropriate for some people. That didn’t stop the Dean from requesting that a photograph by Jessica Chow be covered [...]
Earlier this month, I had the chance to attend a talk given by Diane Stephens, who was sharing her research on teachers’ attitudes toward literacy coaches in the South Carolina Reading Initiative. While I found value in the entire presentation of he...
Violence against those who create and disseminate controversial words and images is not new. But for the last couple of centuries, commitment to free speech has trumped fear of violence in Western liberal democracies. As late as 1989, Salman Rushdie's Satanic Verses continued to be published and read in the face of a fatwa issued against its author and in the face [...]
Violence against those who create and disseminate controversial words and images is not new. But for the last couple of centuries, commitment to free speech has trumped fear of violence in Western liberal democracies. As late as 1989, Salman Rushdie’s Satanic Verses continued to be published and read in the face of a fatwa issued against its author and in [...]
The Rancocas Valley School Board in Mt. Holly, New Jersey, chose to remove one of the three challenged books at its meeting on May 4. Revolutionary Voices: A Multicultural Queer Youth Anthology and two other books were challenged because they appear on a list of books on GLBTQ themes created by the Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network (GLSEN). The objectors [...]
Temecula city management, which was responsible for removing a nude artwork from an exhibition in January, has decided not to create a written policy for the selection of artworks in city-owned exhibition spaces. Instead, Temecula’s Community Services Director Herman Parker (or someone designated by him) will partake in the selection process. NCAC Director of Programs, Svetlana Mintcheva, says: It is [...]
This week in the United States is Teacher Appreciation Week, a time set aside each year to honor the hard work that educators do every day in the classroom and beyond. The challenge of the celebration is to try to remember every teacher I need to than...
