[Tyrubias]

It’s honestly terrifying that efforts to ban books and restrict what teachers can teach have made such a big comeback in the US. When I was in school, we always discussed banned books from the perspective of “we used to ban things that made people uncomfortable in the bad old days, but that could never happen in the 21st century”. Obviously that glossed over a lot of nuance, but it still shocks me as an adult seeing repression we discussed only from a historical perspective make its way back into the legislature.

Part of the purpose of education is exposing students to strange, uncomfortable, and even frightening ideas and giving them the tools to critically think about and even empathize with such ideas. They don’t have to even be “useful” ideas, since it’s important that students are given the tools to grow and become anything they want. It seems like a lot of groups around the country just want students to grow up to become drones working to prop up the economy. Anything that might make people question the nature of society or their role in it must be suppressed according to them.

[BrenBarn]

My recollection is discussing banned books from the perspective of "people have done and still do this elsewhere in the US, but we don't do it here".

[StopDisinfo910]

I deeply oppose MAGA but the idea of winning through the take over of the cultural institution - school, universities, the media - has been theorized by Gramsci followers like Marcuse and Horkheimer.

In a lot of way, what we are witnessing in a counter movement swinging opposite to the heavy push for critical theory in the public sphere. Critical theory is not neutral. It is teleological in nature.

Schools have been a battle ground for decades I fear.

[PearlRiver]

In the real world each and every one of us has to function at a workplace with people from every race and religion.

[ramoz]

I struggle with the federal government's power over all this. Let the states and local jurisdictions decide. Put in guardrails so that those local jurisdictions don't become corrupted, but at the same time we should empower people to place their children in education systems that don't ultimately falter to who's empowered in the fed.

You may be okay with your children reading some books. That's great, and you should be able to find the right school districts for them, and I should be able to do the same to ensure my children don't read through explicit material without any form of parental oversight.

[unmole]

> I struggle with the federal government's power over all this.

From the TFA, the proposed bill "would modify the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 by prohibiting use of funds under the act". This is hardly a case of the federal government running roughshod over sates and local jurisdictions.

This is a wild exaggeration to call this a national book ban.

[ramoz]

I mean, it's an act of power to restrict funding (which is why I didn't call it a ban)

[unmole]

> act of power to restrict funding

Federal funding. States and districts are free to fund whatever they want.

[AnthonyMouse]

"Federal funding" is a misnomer. All of the funding comes from the taxpayers, and they're the same taxpayers. So when the federal government takes your money and then says "you can only have it back if you do X" they are not actually funding something, they are imposing a fine for not doing it.

[unmole]

This only works if you pretend fiscal transfers aren't a thing.

[alex43578]

Ok, and when they take money from my paycheck and give it to a strung-out, unemployed junkie who paid 0 federal taxes, what are they fining me for?

[no-dr-onboard]

A lot of your argument presupposes a distinct lack of parental authority in the education of a child.

The way that it appears to be playing out is that parents were repulsed by perverted and strange worldviews being taught to their children on their dime. They called their legislators to make the changes and, in a rare event, the legislators listened and are acting upon it.

The system, for once, seems to be working. Both sides should see the objective value in at least that.

[WarOnPrivacy]

> The way that it appears to be playing out is that parents were repulsed by perverted and strange worldviews being taught to their children on their dime.

This variation of the origin story gets a lot of play. However it doesn't address the outside book-ban groups who provide titles to parents - or who just appear at school board meetings themselves.

    Eleven "super requesters" — those who raised concerns about or challenged
    15 or more titles at a time — accounted for 73% of the targeted books. 
    They often referred to lists of books originating in other districts 
    or from online forums. Some had no children in the district. 
    In nearly 60 cases, the school district didn’t own the book 
    the requester sought to remove.

ref: https://wisconsinwatch.org/2024/07/wisconsin-book-ban-school...

[drewwwwww]

it’s a manufactured and coordinated from the top down moral panic that you have fallen for, or are content to cynically exploit.

[rl3]

>The way that it appears to be playing out is that parents were repulsed by perverted and strange worldviews being taught ...

Can you elaborate?

>The system, for once, seems to be working.

Interesting worldview.

[mcphage]

> The way that it appears to be playing out is that parents were repulsed by perverted and strange worldviews being taught to their children on their dime.

That’s definitely not how this is playing out.