Fight Censorship

It wasn't that long ago that school administrators and even teachers decried the infiltration of political ideologies into the classroom. I think I was in my second term as an elected school board member in 2011 or 2012 when the superintendent told me that he wouldn't stand for indoctrination in the classroom, and would want to be informed immediately if any teacher was dispensing political views in place of learning. 

My, how things have changed in a decade. Nowadays, in states like New Jersey, indoctrination in one point of view is not only tolerated, it's mandated. It's not just that students never hear any opposing views on subjects such as climate science, the founding of the United States, or any of a wide range of social issues - they don't even know that other points of view exist!

We hear a lot today from the progressive left about "book banning". Efforts to ensure reading materials are age-appropriate are derided as censorship. What people don't know is that real censorship in "the marketplace of ideas" has been going on for decades.

In my fifteen-plus years as a school board member, I can't think of even one book on a summer reading list or sent to the school board to be approved for use in the classroom that was written by a conservative author. Not one. But there were plenty offered up for student use written by progressives and/or outright communists (Howard Zinn comes to mind). Sometimes I voted No on these texts - but with no alternatives ever presented by administrators, it turns into a futile battle.

This is the real de facto "book banning" - and parents have no idea.

Yet there are hundreds of great reads by renowned, accomplished conservative authors. I will list a few here. See if you can figure out what they all have in common (besides never being allowed in a school library).

• Discrimination and Disparities - Thomas Sowell
• White Guilt: How Blacks and Whites Together Destroyed the Promise of the Civil Rights Era - Shelby Steele
• My Grandfather's Son - Clarence Thomas
• Losing the Race: Self-Sabotage in Black America  - John McWhorter
• Please Stop Helping Us: How Liberals Make It Harder for Blacks to Succeed - Jason L. Riley
• Liberty vs. the Tyranny of Socialism - Walter E. Williams
• What's Race Got to Do With It? - Larry Elder
• Blackout - Candace Owens
• Black Rednecks and White Liberals - Thomas Sowell
• The Content of Our Character - Shelby Steele