Itā€™s the American Library Associationā€™s annual Banned Books Week, a tradition that started in 1982. This year, the theme is ā€œLet Freedom Read!ā€ in honor of record-breaking efforts to censor books now sweeping the nationā€™s libraries and schools. Yesterday, I published a story about Wyomingā€™s Cambell County Public Library, which, after a controversy over sex-ed books, last year became the first library system in the country to officially break ties with the venerable American Library Association, leaving its staff without opportunities to apply for grants, attend conferences, and fulfill their professionā€™s continuing education requirements.

Not to be outdone, Moms for Liberty, the crusading parentsā€™ rights group whose annual conferences Iā€™ve covered for the last two years, has declared this is ā€œTeach Kids to Read Week.ā€œ Hereā€™s how the groupā€™s founders explained it in a statement to the conservative website Post Millennial:

ā€œWhenā€¦those pushing for so-called ā€˜Banned Book Weekā€™ continue to try to keep porn in schools we must fight back. Americaā€™s kids no longer know how to read and rather than highlighting that issue, these groups want to allow kids to access pornographic materials and other inappropriate materials. This is unacceptable, and we are proud to continue to fight for Americaā€™s children and encourage kids to learn how to read.ā€

Moms for Libertyā€™s attempt to connect literacy instruction to ā€œpornographic materialsā€ is part of a relatively new campaign to capitalize on the failure of a progressive movement in the teaching of reading. A spate of recent reporting has revealed that a popular approach called ā€œbalanced literacy,ā€ which encouraged children to use context clues and guess when they couldnā€™t decode a word, didnā€™t actually help many kids learn to read. Moms for Liberty claims now that teachers are focused on in LGBTQ and anti-racist lessons instead of teaching kids how to decode words. I explained in a piece a few months back:

[Moms for Liberty] charges that schools have overstepped their bounds by teaching students progressive valuesā€”acceptance of all sexual and gender identities, for instance, or how to fight against racismā€”instead of focusing solely on academics. Now, these groups have taken up the failure of balanced-literacy instruction as further evidence of the utter failure of progressive education in perhaps the most important skill a child learns in school. In the process, theyā€™ve launched the latest version of an age-old political fight over reading. Basically, the argument from parentsā€™ rights groups can be boiled down to this: Donā€™t believe us that public schools have sacrificed education at the altar of progressive educational schemes? Just look at how miserably theyā€™ve failed in teaching our kids to read.

ā€œThere is a lot of time being spent on ā€˜social-emotional learningā€™ and not so much time being spent on effective reading instruction in the classroom,ā€ the Moms for Liberty account tweeted on May 21. ā€œWhy is literacy not being prioritized like sexual education is currently? Why does a 5yo need to learn about gender identity?ā€

What is the exact scenario in which an inclusive curriculum somehow replaces phonics-based reading instruction? Moms for Liberty has yet to explain exactly how this happens. Meanwhile, if youā€™d like to celebrate Banned Books Week by reading a few of the most censored, thereā€™s a list here.

  • Billiam@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    29
    Ā·
    edit-2
    1 year ago

    Theyā€™re always on the right side; theyā€™re just never on the correct side.