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'"The Diary of Anne Frank" is critical race theory' is not a sentence I thought any sentient being could say, and yethttps://t.co/JIBYjFE84J

— William D. Adler (@williamadler78) August 17, 2022

Texas Tribune:

“Attached is a list of all books that were challenged last year. By the end of today, I need all books pulled from the library and classrooms. Please collect these books and store them in a location. (book room, office, etc.),” Jennifer Price, executive director of Keller ISD’s curriculum and instruction, wrote in an email sent to principals, obtained by The Texas Tribune.

Attached to the email was a list of 41 book titles to be removed, including all versions of the Bible and “Gender Queer: A Memoir,” by Maia Kobabe, which depicts Kobabe’s journey of gender identity and sexual orientation.

The direction to remove all 41 books surprised some local residents because a school district committee made up of members of the public met last year and recommended that some of the books now being removed — including Morrison’s “The Bluest Eye” and “Anne Frank’s Diary” — remain in student libraries.

But since that committee met and recommended keeping some challenged books, three new conservative school board members, all recipients of a Christian political action committee’s donations, were elected to the district’s seven-member board of trustees. And according to the school district, all 41 challenged books are now to be reviewed again by campus staff and librarians to see if they meet a new board policy approved last week, according to Bryce Nieman, the Keller ISD spokesperson.

Nieman said the school board, with its three newest members elected last spring, unanimously approved a new policy for acquiring and reviewing books. The policies are, in part, based on the Texas Education Agency’s model policy released in April after calls from Gov. Greg Abbott to come up with a state standard for these procedures. This includes the school board members or someone appointed by them, having the power to accept or reject any materials.

The first day of school for Keller ISD is Wednesday.

I can say from recent personal experience that the three new board members of this district brought a policy on books with them, probably derived from the internet, and foisted it on the board proper without any process involving "a school district committee made up of members of the public" because "We don' need no steenken' committees!"  I've seen that dynamic at work at my school district.

Pause for personal anecdote:  my school board had a "workshop meeting" earlier this month where they had a second reading of the book policy the three new members brought with them, one to usurp the policy worked out by a district committee made up of administrators, teachers, librarians, and members of the public.  Fie on that!, and the new board threw it out in favor of their pre-packaged version.  Except on second reading they began to discuss how to remove books from shelves so that they weren't accessible except upon request.  Our district, no doubt unlike Keller's, has a lawyer on staff, and she advised the board in that meeting about 1st Amendment issues when you keep children from books you don't like just because you don't like them. (Children have rights, too.)  So they decided the books should be hidden, available only upon demand.

But then the issue was raised about library infrastructure.  I kid you not.  The perfectly reasonable issue was raised that some of the libraries in some of the schools might not have cabinets and other ways of "hiding" books.  Hmmm…said the new board members; we hadn't thought of that.  Finally they had to table the second reading of the new policy (third reading would make it policy) because, well...this thing was only half-baked.

Which is why the district uses committees that take months, sometimes years, to formulate a policy the Board can implement on behalf of the district.  But this board wants to implement policy on behalf of...three members.

Just like Keller ISD.  It's gonna get bad before it gets worse before it gets better.

I'd like to say I'm upset about all this "book banning."  In my earlier days, I would have been; mickle in my wroth and righteous in the anger flashing from my eyes.  Maybe it's because I'm old (yeah, probably, says my inner child), but I reflect on the fact that, by junior high (now "middle school"), I was pretty much the only person ever in the school library.  I did read my way through the elementary school library, the junior high library, and the Carnegie library downtown (both children's and adult sections, at least as far as I was interested.)  Most of the adult stuff I read (meant for older readers, not "adult" in the modern term) was science fiction.  There was a lot I didn't bother with, so it's not like I read everything indiscriminately. I blew off the high school library because I'd read everything by then and was amassing my own personal library (such as it ever was).  And I look back on that now and realize:  remove all the books you want from the shelves.  The kids who want to read them, will (hello Amazon!).  The kids who don't, won't anyway.

My high school library removed a copy of Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle from the shelves because the narrator and a prostitute he was interviewing for his book on Bokonon weren't all that intersted in her trade, until at the end of the night they decided they were.  It was as innocent as that, but too much (the rumor was) for the librarian.  My friends and I laughed at the story because we all had copies at home, or in our backpacks.

You get my point.

This is not a hill to die on, basically.  It's an insult to librarians and the concept of a library, and that will hurt us in the long run.  A library is a place where you should go to encounter ideas you don't get at home or on the internet (a very parochial practice is most internet browsing).  I'm just not sure that many kids take advantage of that.  It should be available to the ones who will, and it should be free and open (yes, with reasonable limitations.  I read L'istoire d'O in translation at the UT main library, idling away long dull hours in graduate school.  That really doesn't belong on any public school shelf, I must admit.).  And it will be.

I've seen this movie. I know how it comes out.  I'm even getting used to the idea we have to have this argument once every 20 years or so. When will we ever learn? Damned if I know.

I’ll oppose the book banners. But I won’t let them keep me up at night, or define my pleasures. The kids who are sheltered from “it,” (whatever “it” is) will probably encounter it in college; or certainly in the world. If the can’t cope with it, they can go back to their parents and ask why. My kid read everything she wanted to; and never spent that much time in the library.

The kids will learn it, one way or the other. You want to home school your kid to protect them, be my guest. Just don’t try to protect my kid for me.

Gotta admit, taking the Bible off the shelves in Keller ISD was a nice guerrilla tactic. I wonder what the board will do about that? 🤔