The Education Department Is Calling Book Bans a ‘Hoax’!!!

Oh, my word!! Seriously? There's "a Department of Education announcement that called bans a “hoax”? 

Yesterday, I read an article published on the Associated Press website titled, Free speech organizations denounce Education Department’s calling book bans a ‘hoax’. In the Associated Press article, it states:

“The department is beginning the process of restoring the fundamental rights of parents to direct their children’s education,” the department’s acting assistant secretary for civil rights, Craig Trainor, said in a statement. The DOE’s announcement is headlined: “U.S. Department of Education Ends Biden’s Book Ban Hoax.”

Such language is “alarming and dismissive of the students, educators, librarians, and authors who have firsthand experiences of censorship happening within school libraries and classrooms,” said Kasey Meehan, who directs PEN America’s Freedom to Read program.

The library association called the department’s announcement part of a “cruel and headlong effort to terminate protections from discrimination for LGBTQIA+ students and students of color.”

What is this world coming to? Free speech and freedom to read what we want is at stake. I am a taxpayer. I want my public library to be stocked with books that include diverse voices and perspectives.

Click on the above link to read the full story.

Banned Books Week 2018 ~ September 23rd through 29th!

Celebrate Banned Books Week later this month. Defeat censorship by defending the right to read. Protect First Amendment rights!

Below is more about Banned Books Week from the About page of the Banned Books Week website:

Banned Books Week is an annual event celebrating the freedom to read. Banned Books Week was launched in 1982 in response to a sudden surge in the number of challenges to books in schools, bookstores and libraries. Typically held during the last week of September, it highlights the value of free and open access to information. Banned Books Week brings together the entire book community — librarians, booksellers, publishers, journalists, teachers, and readers of all types — in shared support of the freedom to seek and to express ideas, even those some consider unorthodox or unpopular.

I usually end up reading one or more banned books per year. I find that books that are banned usually end up making the best books for reading as they contain thought provoking ideas to discuss with others.