🧵 In light of the national book banning trends, I’ve been researching student engagement with controversial literature. For some context, last spring, I faced an emotionally taxing curriculum challenge over a book I taught in my AP Literature course.
I decided to use my summer grad courses to research, write, and reflect upon my experience to help others. Here are a few interesting findings.
Reading controversial literature helps students engage in civic dialogue.
(For the sake of this thread, controversial literature is defined as books that have been banned or challenged at some point.)
Given the world our students live in, we have to recognize that adolescents cannot escape difficult conversations. Reading controversial literature with responsible facilitation by an educator gives students the opportunity to practice listening to others’ perspectives
and articulate their own beliefs, even when discussing contentious topics.
Successfully engaging in civic discourse a necessary skill for participation a democratic society.
Additionally, it’s no secret that books by LGBTQ+ and black authors are being censored disproportionately.
@PENamerica collected titles of novels challenged over the course of nine months and found that stories with protagonists of color were banned most frequently. Stories with LGBTQ+ characters followed closely behind. 
Censoring books silences marginalized voices. We know that most censorship is a form of denial—denial of people’s real and lived experiences.
It’s also worth noting that often, books are banned because the adults see the children in the book as “rude” or defying authority.
Taken together, this information should be very concerning to Americans; banning books is not a victimless act.
Participation in a democratic society requires students to learn about perspectives different than their own, articulate their own beliefs, and understand how to question authority.
There are a few things we can do to support #fREADom. Get plugged into the work of @ACLU for starters. Read and discuss banned books. Pay attention to which stories are being denied and why.
Additionally, I encourage you to check with your school’s media center specialist about the challenged materials policy.
The best defense against censorship is having a clear and solid policy for challenged materials.
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