Ban Censorship, not Books : How Teachers, Schools, and Communities Can Fight for Intellectual Freedom

Empower teachers facing restrictive educational policies with a research-based guide that draws on real-world experiences and actionable peer strategies. Discover legal insights, risk assessment tools, and curriculum redesign techniques to protect diverse voices and uphold intellectual freedom.

This book provides a practical, research-based roadmap for educators to navigate restrictive policies and maintain diverse, inclusive classrooms. Books are being ripped from shelves, curricula redacted, and instruction forbidden at an unprecedented scale. As political polarization turns children's literature into a proxy for national "culture wars," educators are left navigating sweeping, last-minute changes to their classrooms that threaten the inclusion of diverse voices. Ban Censorship, Not Books provides a vital "bottom-up" challenge to these restrictive policies by spotlighting the firsthand accounts of community members resisting censorship. Grounded in the real-world experiences of Iowa educators who successfully navigated the virulent Senate File 496, author Josh Coleman introduces the Local Resistance Framework (LRF). This flexible model empowers educators by helping them to know the law, understand their specific context, assess risk, and more. This is a roadmap for any educator or community member determined to champion intellectual freedom. Through "from-teacher-for-teacher" strategies and discipline-specific approaches for curriculum redesign, this book ensures that teachers can sustain an expansive, diversity-rich environment for their students, even in the most restrictive educational contexts. Book Features: The Local Resistance Framework (LRF): A four-part guide helping educators to know the law, understand context, assess risk, and locate agency."From-Teacher-for-Teacher" Strategies: Actionable, peer-derived methods for challenging classroom censorship.Readymade Policy Guides: Practical tools for reading, interpreting, and responding to complex educational censorship legislation.Curricular Redesign Tools: Discipline-specific approaches to maintaining diverse instruction when censorship strikes.Professional and Political Toolkits: Resources for expanding your anti-censorship network and navigating unique local policy implementations.