Censorship in American Schools

In providing students with a curriculum that reflects the widest possible range of viewpoints, school administrations increasingly find themselves under attack by opponents of intellectual freedom. Although in some cases the opposition is justified, in others it merely reflects a growing trend toward intolerance. With religious fundamentalism taking a prominent role in local, state, and federal politics, school censorship has become an issue that shows no signs of abating.

Censorship is a critical issue because it is closely related to the function of education in society. From the very beginnings of the public school movement in America, school administrators assumed the dual responsibility of instructing students in the prevailing social and economic values of society while concomitantly exposing them to a diversity of viewpoints. From their inception, schools were given the mandate to "civilize" their charges, to take "children at random from a great city, undisciplined, uninstructed, often with inveterate forwardness and obstinacy, and with the inherited stupidity of centuries of ignorant ancestors; forming them from animals into intellectual beings . . . " (Jansen, 1988, p. 156). Even parents of the early secondary schools objected to this indoctrination of mainstream values, but it was not until the 1970s that communities began to take an activist role in school censorship issues.

Today, statistics indicate that school censorship is on

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ce Brennan, "This would be a very different case if the record demonstrated that petitioners had employed established, regular, and facially unbiased procedures for the review of controversial materials" (Reichman, 1993, p. 92). The applicability of Pico to subsequent cases regarding school censorship was limited due to a variety of factors. The case involved school library books only, not textbooks that are required reading. Also, the Court ruled that considerations such as "pervasive vulgarity" and "educational suitability" could be employed in the selection criteria process, but failed to define or explain what these terms meant. In addition, the Pico case did not produce a majority opinion. Despite ruling in favor of the school board, most of the justices expressed concern about jeopardy to First Amendment rights and politically motivated book removals. Another landmark school censorship case was Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier. Although not related to curriculum, Hazelwood has important implications for the content of educational materials. In Hazelwood, the Court upheld the right of a principal to remove material from a student newspaper prior to publication. The Court ruled that school authorities are empowe

Category: Government - C