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Culture wars that moved to schools during the pandemic have shifted from masks and vaccines to library books.

Parents at school board meetings are reading excerpts of school library books they think are too explicit.

A bomb threat made against Hilton Central Schools near Rochester last month cited a school library book with an LGBTQ+ theme.

And the national effort to shed a greater spotlight on what advocates believe is improper content available to children has taken hold in the Buffalo Niagara region.

Parents don't know how objectionable child literary works have becomeand "we certainly didnt know they were in the school library, said Jackie Best, head of the Erie County chapter of Moms for Liberty, a national organization founded by two former school board members in Florida.

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Challenges to library books have occurred for decades, but have shifted from The Catcher in the Rye to This Book is Gay.

"This Book is Gay" has been banned, challenged, relocated and restricted for providing sex education and LGBTQ+ content.

A record number of school library books were challenged last year, mostof them written by someone who identifies as LGBTQ+ or that include LGBTQ+ characters. Also high on the list are works with sexual content or characters of color.

How do books considered good literature by some but objectionable to others end up in the school library?

It's tricky to try to determine what one family is going to be comfortable with, said Laura Penn, a librarian at Akron Central School District and president emeritus of School Librarians Association of Western New York. My place is to provide access to information. The family ultimately is where the decisions are made about what theyre comfortable with.

Penn and other librarians say they choose books in a number of ways. They read reviews in library journals, check out professional learning networks and vendors. They also ask students what they would like to read. And they know their communitys interests, be it sports or hunting or music.

Its so important that everyone finds themselves on our shelves, said Chris Harris, a senior fellow with the American Library Association for youth issues and school library system director for Genesee Valley BOCES.

Laura Penn, school librarian in the Akron Central School District, says it's important for parents to have conversations with their children to encourage them to read and check out the types of books they are comfortable with as a family.

Each school district has policies on how instructional and library materials are selected, and how to challenge them.

A challenge occurs when someone questions why specific material is available in a school library. School districts have policies about what to do when that happens, including having a committee read the book and recommend what should be done. The material is removed or restricted in the library when there is a decision to ban the material.

Best said the matter got her attention last year, when another parent told her about a book on a summer reading list for a class that Bests high school-age son was taking. Most of the books on the list had lots of sexual content, she said.

The county Moms for Liberty chapter now has a list of 80 books it says would have the equivalent of an R-rating, and is checking school libraries to see if they have the books. The chapter lists high schools that carry them on its Facebook page and website, with the heading #Porninschools Exposed.

Members compiled the list by looking at websites that rate books based on the objectionable content,Best said.

Activities of chapter members include reading passages from books at school board meetings and posting book reports on the chapter Facebook page, steps recommended by booklook.info, a group that said it originally formed as a Moms for Liberty Book Committee.

Releasing excerpts and reports on Facebook several days apart draws attention to the groups Facebook and gets people engaged with outrage, according to booklook.info.

Books have been challenged in school libraries in the region, saysLaura Penn, a librarian at Akron Central School District and president emeritus of School Librarians Association of Western New York. She has not heard that any have been banned.

Best said chapter members generally dont want to ban the books, although there are a handful of books they have asked be removed. They want warning stickers on books with explicit content. They also want parents to have the option to approve what materials their children can check out of the school library.

Its not that these are all garbage books," she said. "Are they age appropriate and do the parents know? No one cares to ask us, but were not trying to ban books.

Best said the chapter has had no success with school districts.

I think it proves the absolute disconnect that school districts have with parents, she said. Were being very reasonable. Lets have a conversation.

Book challenges are not as successful in New York State as other parts of the country, but the executive director of the New York Library Association sees very real climate change around book challenges, along with more pushback against certified professionals who are trained to select books.

Libraries are primarily about access to information, providing access to information equitably. Thats our goal, said AnnaLee Dragon. The overarching message here is that you get to decide what is right for your family and your children, but you dont get to make that decision for everybody elses family and children.

My place is to provide access to information. The family ultimately is where the decisions are made about what theyre comfortable with,says Laura Penn, a librarian at Akron Central School District and president emeritus of School Librarians Association of Western New York.

Collection development starts with an evaluation of the librarys resources and bringing science and history resources up to date, Harris said. Librarians also rely on professional review journals and other reading professionals around the country. They look at award lists, recommended books from experts and groups such as the Junior Library Guild to vet materials.

It all comes back to that professional judgment, that masters level training. Theyre not just randomly buying books, Harris said.

In addition to having a masters degree in library science, public school librarians also are certified teachers.

In addition to overseeing the library budget, librarians work with classroom teachers to support what is done in the classroom.

They're entrenched in curriculum too, because they have to work across all curricular areas, said Brian Mayer, coordinator of the School Library System and media services at Erie 2 BOCES. They also look to identify needs of the student population, they look at identifying the community itself, looking at data to see the shifts in growth and community to make sure that the collection is always welcoming and reflective of the community.

According to state regulations, school libraries must meet the needs of the pupils, and shall provide an adequate complement to the instructional program in the various areas of the curriculum.

New York State has clear guidelines on what information should be included on sexuality and health, Harris said, including individuals have a right to information that can make their lives healthier and happier and sexual orientation is a component of a persons identity.

When people are saying Why would a library buy this?, (it's) because the New York State Department of Education tells us to," she said.

One of the books on the Moms for Liberty list is Gender Queer: A Memoir, a graphic novel by Maia Kobabe.It was the most-banned book in school libraries in the U.S. last school year, according to PEN America, a nonprofit founded in 1922 dedicated to protecting free expression.

Record book challenges last year

The American Library Association recorded the most book challenges last year since it started compiling information about library censorship more than 20 years ago. More than half, 58%, were in school libraries.

An overwhelming majority of challenges cited multiple books. Before 2021, most challenges were to remove a single book.

Thats similar to the findings of PEN America, which reported 2,532 instances of books being banned in schools last year, affecting 1,648 unique book titles.

Because of the increased attention and controversy over school library books, several librarians said there is a real potential for librarians to refrain from selecting some books they believe would cause an issue.

Concerns about school safety grew last month, after Hilton Central Schools received several bomb threats because This Book is Gay, by Juno Dawson, was in the high school library.

Librarians are scared," Harris said. "Theyre scared of losing their jobs. Theyre scared of violence and attacks against them.

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Culture wars shift to the school library, including in Western New York - Buffalo News

Watch: Royal Family 'has fallen victim to the culture wars'

Experts have accused the Royal Family of falling victim to the "culture wars" amid the fallout from the Sussexes' departure from the UK.

In a panel discussion on the 'Future of the Monarchy' hosted by Yahoo News UK's royal executive editor Omid Scobie journalist and broadcaster Afua Hagan said the monarchy had become more divisive than ever, citing the Windsor's treatment of Meghan Markle and subsequent family estrangement as reflecting a more polarised society.

"The Royal Family have fallen victim to the culture wars - it's presumed if you like Meghan then you're a lefty, if you like Kate then you're right, you vote this way, you vote that way," Hagan said, addressing the panel.

Royal experts suggested the family had fallen victim to "culture wars" as people took sides in a perceived battle between the Princess of Wales (left) and the Duchess of Sussex (right).(AP)

"It's so polarised and you're absolutely right in saying that is not the role of the monarch at all - it is to unify people and they have absolutely done the opposite.

"They have done the opposite in the treatment of Meghan," she added.

She also argued that incoming members of the Royal Family have a history of being treated poorly, referencing media attacks against the Princess of Wales but said that the institution had taken action on her behalf.

"Let's also not forget how the Royal Family shut that down, it took a while but they did shut it down," Hagan said.

"They did attack Carole [Middleton] as a working-class woman who chewed gum, so they didn't shut it down at all. It went on for years," Robert Jobson, biographer and royal editor of The Evening Standard, interjected during the panel discussion.

Carole Middleton was criticised in the press when her daughter first started dating Prince William. (Getty)

"That's exactly what I said," Hagan replied.

"But when they got married they shut it down. But when Meghan and Harry got married the Royal Family didn't shut it down and that was a massive mistake."

Asked whether the royal family's treatment of Meghan and Harry had been perceived particularly poorly by younger people, the panellists agreed that the younger fan base seemed more sympathetic to Meghan and Harry than to the senior members of the family.

Read more: Will Harry and Andrew have a role in the coronation?

'I think they think they were very badly treated, the young people, I speak to my son who is 21 and he says its the way they were treated was appalling he thinks there was racism from the Royal Family and he believes there was not enough done to accommodate them," Jobson explained.

The panellists suggested the Royal Family should be taking advice from younger people who were more likely to have their finger on the pulse of public trends, and also agreed that the monarchy desperately needs to modernise.

Originally published 28 April 2023 at 0:10 pm

Read more:
Royal Family 'has fallen victim to the culture wars', say experts - AOL UK

The ongoing culture wars in the United States have led to a polarized and often toxic discourse around education. Focusing on individuals as heroes or villains and reacting to sensationalized stories has overshadowed the real goal of education: fostering thoughtful, smart students who have agency. Its time to look past the culture wars and focus on what truly matters providing the best possible educational experience for every child in the nation.

Our societys obsession with labeling individuals as heroes or villains has detracted from the genuine pursuit of quality education. Instead of getting caught up in these narratives, we must redirect our attention towards creating an equitable and effective educational system that benefits all students.

As a society, we have become increasingly reactive to sensationalized stories and headlines, often at the expense of understanding the facts. To counteract this, we must prioritize the development of critical thinking and media literacy skills in our students. This will empower them to discern fact from fiction and engage in meaningful, informed discussions.

Our ultimate goal should be to foster the growth of thoughtful, nuanced scholars who have the agency to make informed decisions about their lives and the world around them. This means creating a learning environment that encourages curiosity, exploration, and the development of problem-solving skills, while also addressing the challenges posed by our current climate of heavy judgment and performative outrage.

It is important that we do not lose sight of the broader purpose of education. This involves nurturing students ability to think critically, engage in respectful dialogue, and form their own opinions in a society that often favors harsh judgments and extreme reactions.

By addressing educational disparities and investing in teacher training, we can help ensure that all students have access to a high-quality education. This includes not only subject matter expertise but also the ability to manage diverse classrooms, foster critical thinking, and support the social-emotional growth of their students. High quality, rigorous education should exist right alongside ensuring students are whole emotionally. Stop treating this as one or the other when both are critical.

In conclusion, the answer is not to ban books or shy away from difficult conversations, but rather to raise a generation that can not only comprehend challenging texts but also make quality decisions for themselves. By focusing on building thoughtful, nuanced scholars who can navigate our increasingly judgmental and polarized society, we can work towards a brighter future for all students.

Join us on The South Star Classroom as we discuss this topic. Become a fan every Friday at 3PM PT on Youtube:Agentic Shows.

Dr. Charles Cole, IIIis an educator focused on the advancement of youth, but more specifically Black males. His experience helped lead to the publication of his first book,Beyond Grit and Resilience. As founder ofEnergy Convertors, Charles comes from the community and has shared many of the students experiences.

Charles life goal is to better the communities he grew up in, which include Chicago, Paducah (KY), and Oakland.

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Beyond the Culture Wars: Empowering Thoughtful, Smart Students ... - Great School Voices

KUTZTOWN, Pa. If you ban it, they will come.

For the better part of an hour Saturday, dozens of teenagers and their parents snaked around the towering stacks of tomes inside Kutztowns Firefly Bookstore and sometimes spilled onto the sidewalks of this quaint Berks County college town most of them clutching the book that conservatives on the local school board didnt want them to read.

Calliope Price, 14 and in the eighth grade, came out to meet Alan Gratz author of the banned young-adult novel about climate change, Two Degrees after hearing about the controversy and realizing that Gratz had also written her favorite book, which is called, ironically, Ban This Book. Holding her now-signed copy, she weighed in on Kutztown Area Middle School canceling a planned One School, One Book program amid conservative complaints a climate book would somehow scare or indoctrinate adolescents.

I think its really stupid, she said.

Price has a good point. Right-wingers who thought theyd scored a victory by canceling the middle school program only ensured that more young folks in Berks County would actually read Two Degrees a tale of teens dramatically fighting catastrophes brought on by climate change. They were helped by the progressive grassroots organization Red Wine & Blue, which raised money to buy 200 copies to give away to Kutztown youth. Gratz, whod long planned to come to Kutztown University for its annual conference on childrens literature, arranged to hold both afternoon and evening book signings to meet as many young fans as possible.

Saturday was the day that the book banners lost in Kutztown, a somewhat liberal-leaning borough surrounded by a political red sea of Trump voters where the left and the right are currently duking it out for control of the Kutztown Area school board. And it couldnt have come at a better time, when it seems that the culture warriors of the extreme right are waging war against not just books but freedom of thought, from coast to coast.

In Missouri, state House members took the radical step of cutting all state dollars for its 160 public libraries in a fit of pique over a lawsuit from the American Civil Liberties Union, which is challenging a state law forcing libraries in the Show-Me State to yank some 300 books over allegations they are sexually explicit. In Texas, Llano County officials backed down from their threat to shut down its library system after a judge ordered that 17 books be returned to the shelves, but battles around titles dealing with race, sexuality, and other topics are still raging in many jurisdictions. Especially in politically riven communities like Kutztown.

Now a top author like Tennessee-based Gratz who has steadily climbed toward the top of the young-adult bestseller lists with his 19 books on hot-button subjects such as refugees, the Holocaust, and terrorism, an approach that he calls social thrillers is finding himself on the front lines of a war that no one expected to see in America.

The reason Im writing these books is because kids are asking me to write about these topics, Gratz told me. We always want to say were trying to protect children by keeping these kind of things from them, but honestly the world is coming at kids faster than before. The kids have been going through active shooter drills since kindergarten and have also been exposed to debates over tough issues like racism at a young age. The world is coming at them, he said, and I hope that books like mine can give them a way of seeing whats happening in the world without having to experience it just yet.

READ MORE:In Kutztown schools, the rights culture warriors block a book on climate change | Will Bunch

That was certainly the thinking behind his latest, Two Degrees, in which everyday teens cope with events such as floods and wildfires in a near future when the worlds temperature has risen 2 degrees due to greenhouse gas pollution. The implied message of a call to action around climate change, and Gratzs long-planned appearance at the local university, had inspired Kutztown Area Middle School to pick Two Degrees for its annual One Book, One School schoolwide reading program.

The books had already arrived when several conservative board members and parents leaned on the school to cancel the program. According to the Reading Eagle, one adult complained at a board meeting that a book about climate change might make kids feel guilty and turn them against their parents.

The backlash was hardly unique, either nationally or in Pennsylvania where several suburban districts have seen bitter clashes over whats in school libraries or even in Kutztown, where school officials did retain the controversial book Gender Queer, but with a parental consent form, after a lengthy public debate. But the controversies in this college town about 65 miles northwest of Philadelphia have brought pushback in favor of free expression.

The 2022 fight over Gender Queer inspired local teen Joslyn Diffenbaugh, now a ninth grader, to launch the Kutztown Teen Banned Book Club, which garnered her a national free speech award. Diffenbaugh and a couple of her girlfriends were among the first in line Saturday, and club members returned in the evening for a discussion panel with Gratz.

I think its amazing that we have such a well-known author in our tiny town, and I think its amazing that we were able to get these books out to all the people who are here because that opportunity was unjustly taken away from kids in the middle school, Diffenbaugh told me. She said the students werent just supposed to get a free book but to have a conversation, and having conversations about books are so influential and helpful in education.

But right-wingers who thought they had banned a climate change book in Kutztown only made it more popular. Middle schoolers not only were allowed access to Two Degrees from the boxes that school officials had already opened before the One Book, One School cancellation, but many enjoyed the 200 free copies doled out by Red Wine & Blue.

Whats more, academic free speech is now the number one issue in a heated May 16 election that will determine the future direction of the Kutztown Area school board. Four of the five candidates from a group called KOFEE (Kutztown Organized for Educational Excellence) running on an Open Books, Open Minds platform were at the bookstore Saturday to show their support for Gratz and his teen readers.

Its just outrageous, one of those KOFEE candidates, Charles Brown, told me of the districts backdown on Two Degrees, one of the reasons he decided to run. Its not like a book, How To Make a Bomb or anything. ... To think that its propaganda to me, the issue is that kids have to learn the difference between fact and fiction and how to judge something they read. Not ban books!

Not surprisingly, Browns slate is facing spirited opposition from a Republican ticket, the Concerned Citizens of KASD, whose platform calls for banning what it called critical race theory as well as diversity programs in the Kutztown schools, and which has been showing up at board meetings with signs like, We Do Not Co-Parent With the Government.

The battle is now joined. What happened this weekend in Kutztown shines a bright light on one of the most encouraging political trends of 2023, in which a radical minority of extremist book banners has awakened a sleeping giant: the vast no-longer-silent majority who still believes that absurd restrictions on exposing our young people to ideas are un-American.

In that Llano County, Texas, flap, officials ultimately backed down from their threat to close the library because of public pressure and national publicity. Elsewhere in Pennsylvania, over 150 kids at Perkiomen Valley High School, carrying signs like Teach Children the Truth, walked out of school to protest proposed book restrictions that are on hold.

The bad news might be this it cant happen here reality that America is even debating these restrictions on free speech in the 2020s, but the great news is that the book banners are often failing. And more voters need to know that your childs freedom to read a book, and to learn, is on the ballot in 2023 and especially in 2024.

Absolutely its a victory because its the people in the community who stood up and said were not going to let a few people speak for them, Gratz told me after signing dozens of books Saturday. I think that whats happening around the country is that a few loud people are making a stink and getting school boards and superintendents to back down because they dont want the trouble. And I think a lot of people are standing up and making good trouble.

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The day the book banners lost in Pennsylvanias culture wars - The Philadelphia Inquirer

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Last month, Tennessee became the first state to pass-anti drag law and thirteen other U.S. states also have bills looking to ban or restrict drag performances. Over the past decade, drag has become more mainstream with the popularity of shows like RuPauls Drag Race, but this past year, drag shows have become the target of a U.S. political culture war.

The Globes U.S. correspondent, Adrian Morrow is on the show to tell us what it is about this moment that has U.S. states targeting drag. Plus well hear from Brian Hernandez, a performer in San Antonio Texas about their experience living in a state thats trying to ban what they do for a living.

Questions? Comments? Ideas? Email us at thedecibel@globeandmail.com

Read more:
Why drag performers are the new focus of U.S. culture wars - The Globe and Mail