Display of Banned Books Removed at Harrisonburg High School
Superintendent Encourages Reading Because of Content, Not Controversy
From the Daily News Record, October 4, 2006
By Jeff Mellott
A display at Harrisonburg High School of books that have, at some point in history, either been banned or challenged was ordered removed last month by Harrisonburg Schools Superintendent Donald Ford.
The display, which Ford ordered removed Sept. 27, was part of the American Library Association’s annual Banned Books Week, the last week of September.
Ford said he was concerned the school division would encourage students to read banned books because they are on a controversial list and not because of their content.
Diverse Views
The high school library has participated in at least the past two Banned Books Week, said librarian Elsie Garber, who is in her third year at the library.
Garber would not comment on the display, other than to say it included several books.
School administrators would not release a complete list of the books in the display.
However, High School Principal Irene Reynolds recalled that the titles included "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" and "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn," by Mark Twain; "Fahrenheit 451" by Ray Bradbury; "The Diary of Ann Frank," and "The Bible."
The American Library Association has held Banned Book Week since 1982.
According to its Web site, the ALA’s banned book week celebrates freedom to choose or to express an opinion that otherwise might be considered unorthodox or unpopular.
"After all," the site said, "intellectual freedom can exist only where these two essential conditions are met."
Reading For Content
The high school library display, Ford said, seemed to entice students into reading the books because they are on a list.
"We are not going to send a message to kids encouraging them to read ‘banned’ books. Our message should be to read books, a wide variety of books.
"But I don’t think we should tease kids into reading a book by trying to say, ‘there might be something juicy or controversial in this book. Therefore, it would be a good one for you to sneak home and read."’
That is not the message, Ford said, that he believed librarians were trying to send with the display.
"I don’t believe there’s a significant difference in what they wanted to accomplish, and what I want to accomplish in terms of our libraries and reading," he said.
5 comments:
I can see limiting access to certain books in grade school, but not high school. And what's with Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn? Overtones of racism? The Diary of Anne Frank? Nazi atrocities? Let's use the books as springboards for discussion. And Farenheit 451? Heaven forbid we read about a world where ALL books are banned......so we better ban THAT book. And course there's the Bible. Enough said.
:)
i think they should be happy that kids have something they want to read. heaven forbid someone might actually learn something or be motivated to take an action. heaven forbid we let the children learn and form their own opinions and ideas...
Wow. I know I was scarred when I read those books, especially the ones by Mark Twain. There's a school board member in a small town here who wants to review all the books before they go to the HS library. if she got her way, there'd be no books at all!
this makes me think of the harry potter phenomenon - like mom said, why not use these titles to encourage literacy ESPECIALLY at the high school level. \ Harry Potter, by the way, has also a peered on Banned Book lists.
- s
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