- Oct 17, 2011
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Students arrived in some Florida public school classrooms this month to find their teachers’ bookshelves wrapped in paper — or entirely barren of books — after district officials launched a review of the texts’ appropriateness under a new state law.
School officials in at least two counties, Manatee and Duval, have directed teachers this month to remove or wrap up their classroom libraries, according to records obtained by The Washington Post. The removals come in response to fresh guidance issued by the Florida Department of Education in mid-January, after the State Board of Education ruled that a law restricting the books a district may possess applies not only to schoolwide libraries but to teachers’ classroom collections, too.
The department’s new rule, published and approved Jan. 18, “clarifies that library materials, including classroom libraries, must be approved and selected by a media specialist.” This goes against precedent: Classroom libraries have historically been overseen by no one but teachers, who simply selected and stocked books they believed might be intriguing to students. Often, teachers bought these texts with their own money or by fundraising online.
Books must be approved by a qualified school media specialist, who must undergo a state retraining on book collection. The Education Department did not publish that training until January, leaving school librarians across Florida unable to order books for more than a year.
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Well, once the media specialists have been reeducated, hopefully it won't take too long for them to root out any books that subvert the ideals of the State.
School officials in at least two counties, Manatee and Duval, have directed teachers this month to remove or wrap up their classroom libraries, according to records obtained by The Washington Post. The removals come in response to fresh guidance issued by the Florida Department of Education in mid-January, after the State Board of Education ruled that a law restricting the books a district may possess applies not only to schoolwide libraries but to teachers’ classroom collections, too.
The department’s new rule, published and approved Jan. 18, “clarifies that library materials, including classroom libraries, must be approved and selected by a media specialist.” This goes against precedent: Classroom libraries have historically been overseen by no one but teachers, who simply selected and stocked books they believed might be intriguing to students. Often, teachers bought these texts with their own money or by fundraising online.
Books must be approved by a qualified school media specialist, who must undergo a state retraining on book collection. The Education Department did not publish that training until January, leaving school librarians across Florida unable to order books for more than a year.
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Well, once the media specialists have been reeducated, hopefully it won't take too long for them to root out any books that subvert the ideals of the State.
if Uncle Tom's Cabin is back on the ban list again.
