ELP One Pager - PREPARATION IN CENSORSHIP

Rachel Rolfsmeier
CO301D
Ethnography Learning Paper
December 5, 2008

PREPARATION IN CENSORSHIP - ONE PAGER

The results found throughout this study were based on the following research questions: What role does preparation play in the censorship process? What is the most effective way to protect a book or a teaching method before or when it is challenged? What does it take to be successful in defending oneself and one’s choice of texts in the classroom?
In doing this research, I was able to contact two teachers of English who have had a fair amount of experience with book (and pedagogy) challenges and censorship. The first is Dr. Pamela Coke, now a professor at Colorado State University, who taught for several years in a junior high school, and who also worked as a librarian/media specialist there. The second is Mrs. Rene Dill, a teacher of Theater and English at Northglenn High School, and also the director of the Theater program there.
I was presented by these two teachers with a plethora of data to analyze for this study. They seemed to agree and focus on the same three points. First, there are various ways and reasons to justify assigning/teaching a certain text in class. This justification differs from a rationale because it is the means by which a teacher actually decides which text is most worthy and will benefit his/her students most. Second, there are various techniques a teacher may use to prevent a book from being challenged in the first place. Most of these techniques revolve around parent involvement. If a parent/guardian knows exactly what will be taught in his/her child’s class (and how it will be taught) right from the start, they are less likely to present a challenge later on. Finally, rationales are essential for teachers in regards to defending a book, a teaching method, or one’s own teaching career.
What does all of this mean? It implies that teachers most definitely have their work cut out for them. As censorship issues arise more and more often, it becomes even more essential for teachers to be prepared, to have a clear understanding of why they are teaching what and how they are, because their careers may rely on this. This research has also led me to beg the question, how does a teacher decide which texts ought to be used in his/her classroom? What makes one book, one which may be found controversial, more preferable for the classroom? This, also, is an essential question to answer before I have a classroom of my own.
Here is a list of the secondary sources I consulted throughout my research for this study:
Brown, Jean E. “How to Write a Rationale.” NCTE. April 1994. 25 October 2008. http://www.ncte.org/about/issues/censorship/resources/115785.htm.
Donelson, Ken. “Censorship: Some Issues and Problems.” Theory into Practice. Vol. 14, No. 3. (1975): 186-194.
Greenbaum, Vicky. “Censorship and the Myth of Appropriateness: Reflections on Teaching Reading in High School.” The English Journal. Vol. 86, No. 2. (1997): 16-20.
Lent, ReLeah Cossett. “Facing the Issues: Challenges, Censorship, and Reflection through Dialogue.” The English Journal. Vol. 97, No 3. (2008): 61-66.
Samuels, Barbara G., Leila Christenbury, Arthea J. S. Reed, Hazel K. Davis, and David M. La Mar. “Selection or Censorship: Responses to Edwin Greenlee.” The English Journal. Vol. 81, No. 4. (1992): 25-30.