Fantastic research, James. You are a must-read on The Free Press. This is yet another case of leftist projection. They control all the libraries, schools, and bookstores. That allows them to indoctrinate kids into Red Guards with Progressive literature, while never exposing them to other perspectives. The moment any parents or conservatives push back on what their kids are being taught like sexual material, the left screams "book banning". Barnes & Noble displays a "banned book" section without understanding the irony. Another disturbing trend has emerged where elected school board members are sworn in on "banned books" that include graphic pornography like "Gender Queer": https://dailycaller.com/2023/12/14/fairfax-county-school-board-sworn-in-explicit-books/
The research failed to distinguish between the three types of library which are elementary, middle, and high school. The development of their collections are significantly different because the readers are very different.
Many of the books listed for the conservative point of view were very recently published and may be the $5 specials at Barnes and Noble or discontinued within the next year. The books are not classic conservative books. A high school library that is inclusive with conservative ideas would reflect proudly and with insight on American founders with authors like David McCullough, Ron Chernow, etc. Great writers who have produced much better reads than 1619. Well written books are more effective in motivating a critical evaluation of history. Books well written that engage the reader are crucial when purchasing for a library, because reading is a lot more effort than tik-tok.
It is also important to point out what is available from publishers. For example, try to find a biography on the first female supreme court justice, Sandra Day O'Connor and the choices are null or limited. Books on Ruth Bader Ginsburg are available in multiple levels for readers. Publishers push books on what captures the current attention and written by or about celebrities.
Every person running a library removes books from the shelves which makes the statistic of how many books removed from school library shelves a red herring. Whe;n removing books from the library, there is an evaluation of the condition of the book, what is read and how long it has been unread along with accuracy (biographies of Carter need to reflect that he died & Covid books will need massive updates).
Excellent point about the differen types of library. The removing books point is likewise good to bear in mind, but the bigger point is what books are left after the weeding and culling? Per James, conservative views are short-changed. Your other points, also make James Fishback's argument. There certainly ought to be books about Sandra Day O'Connor and her achievement ought to have been at least equally celebrated as Ginsberg's. For one thing, she was after all, the first woman on the Supreme Court. But then, someone(s) needs to write them!
Fishback selected a list of conservative books that looked like recommended conservative books from Amazon which pushes the latest published books by conservatives not the best conservative books. Libraries should have the best books to reflect viewpoints and this does not always equate to the newest.
Books that are more classically conservative like Faith of My Fathers by John McCain, The Conscience of a Conservative by Barry Goldwater, or any one of Sowell's books would have a longer shelf life and not culled even if circulation is poor because they soldily represent a view point. Historical books by David McCullough, Ron Chernow, etc are also important to a balanced library since they offer a different view point than 1619 Project and give depth to the history curriculum. In my opinion, these books are better indications of a balanced collection. Fishback's selection of books/data points is what made his research faulty. The conclusion that libraries are short of conservative books and do not have balanced collection may be correct but his research failed to prove this thesis.
In my opinion, there are books about Sandra Day O'Connor (she is definitely historically significant) but they are not being picked up by publishers. Finding books that support a diverse (meaning representing all viewpoints) is a challenge and made difficult by what is available from publishers and library suppliers.
I imagine the 1619 subject was included because that is a recent significant controversy. Hannah-Jones deserves a good argument since her book critically alters known American history. Yes, I think there are important and better historical books by great authors that should be in libraries. The fact that many are not in them and as you suggest, because they aren't readily available from publishers and library suppliers, validates Fishback's article and even demonstrates it is worse than just librarians failing to stock a fair sampling of books. Apparently publishers and library suppliers are suppressing conservative material as well.
Yeah, the article was a good read. And disturbing. Public school libraries have come a long way, in the wrong direction. To wit:
'Or Jillian Woychowski, the librarian at West Haven High in West Haven, Connecticut. At a 2019 committee meeting of the American Library Association, she proudly declared that “We’re using less of what I call the dead, white guy books. We’re including books by authors of color and women.”
Jillian’s gatekeeping is part of a larger movement among librarians known as “critical librarianship,” which the American Library Association defines as “challenging regressive conceptions of gender identity in cataloging” and “documenting microaggressions in librarianship.” '
The 'dead, white guy books' comment made me think back to the time when, at the oh so tender age of thirteen, perusing the aisles of our school library, one at the time I was rather embarrassed by, I came across Mein Kampf. And read it.
Thank God no one understood microaggressions then..
When in Junior High (now called middle school) I was dropped off roughly an hour and half before first period. I went straight to the library and in two years read anything of interest. At age thirteen I also read a little of Mein Kampf. Having read everything available to me in that small library on the topic of wars prior to picking up MK I was struck by how Hitler states fifteen years prior to 1940 his entire plan for engulfing Europe in war. Hitler stated that he would attack the Soviets and then the UK. In reality The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact reversed the sequence but minus that detail Hitler told the world what he'd do and then did it.
I never finished MK but did skip around a bit within it's pages. Drawing a parallel to Nazi German one should conclude that if a threat tells you their intentions you should take that threat at its word.
What should we do regarding the threats the leftists are presenting Jews and freedom loving people?
You’re correct in taking threats seriously and literally. Antisemitism has been around for thousands of years, ebbing and flowing. I think in terms of the progressive Left, currently engulfed in its cult of colonialism, colonizers, oppressed and oppressors, they have combined in their anger what was and might still be legitimate criticism of a country, ie Israel, with that ancient trope of antisemitism. The only way to defeat this is to politically marginalize the progressive Left - and in terms of radical Islam, confront it with insurmountable force.
If it’s Islam you’re referring to that could well be. Do we have to get into a shooting war at some point to prove we’re serious? Yep. The Houthi issue is a case in point. Instead of our highly accurate but pinprick strikes at their installations, we should have gone in whole hog for two or three nights running doing shock and awe going after everything, and at the same time seize the Iranian destroyer in the Red Sea that was directing these Houthi missile attacks on sea lane shipping.
Ok so maybe take a 1/4 of a blue pill. I might have prescribed too much with that 1/2 of a red.
The thing with whole hog approaches is its one thing to lob $multimillion munitions into stoneaged shitholes. It becomes another if we have to place our kids (grandkids) in boots on the ground. I don't believe the entirety of Islam is worth the life of one of ours.
Iranian Frigates need to become submarines. Prosecuting naval targets is a good option as is shooting down anything they have in the air. If those options are exercised what will likely occur again is they'll fly a commerically liner leased from the west of course filled with women and children to be sacrificed for their propaganda effort.
You can't kill Islam. Islam is cancer. It's will be here as long as there is a here.
While I take all the points made here, this is a hardly a scientific endeavor. While the libraries may stock certain books (and we dont know the geographic distribution--could be spread over both red and blue states), what we would want to know are the books being checked out and read. I doubt many are. If that is indeed the case, yes, we have a librarian problem. But we likelier have a TikTok problem--the main source for knowledge kids obtain.
Milton Friedman, Thomas Sowell and others could be in every school district library and no student would check those books out. In order to solve this problem you need both the books on the shelves and librarians and teachers who are not indoctrinated themselves. a tall order.
Yes, I can’t imagine any school-aged child wanting to read a non-fiction political tome, whether right or left leaning. Books from both sides should be there for the optics. Even so, these generally dull, moralizing books won’t be checked out, even with non- indoctrinated teachers and librarians.
Yup. Actual libraries are a relic of the past. But many of these books are assigned to students to read in class, or their ideas are simmered down into TED talks or the educators themselves and taught in the classroom.
If books are a relic and children are not reading what does that say about what is being modeled in the home. If there ever was a time to read books, it is now when the media is so sloppy, TikTok is run by the CCP, etc. Yes it is the education system but the first and most important part of any child's education is the parent.
Agree 100% but sadly, even when modeled at home, there is no guarantee that kids will continue to read books (or anything in print) once they have a smartphone. Mine were voracious readers in the early grades but as digital natives, they do what their peers do -- immerse themselves in screens.
I'm not going to disagree with the importance of the culture in the home as a--or even THE--major influencer of a child's education, but we would be amiss not to address the 100 pound gorilla in the room by mentioning what a huge failure "whole language" reading instruction has been. Note the rise of graphic novels is in step with teaching children to look at the pictures for clues to interpret the text. People who are not good readers don't like to read and now we have a generation of kids who don't read. A startling number can't read, but too many don't read for entertainment and information because they aren't completely fluent at the process. This has been the greatest failure of education in our nation's history.
Along with an at home reading culture, our children had private tutoring for reading . Other parents are doing private tutoring with math. This is NOT the solution! It is increasing the gap between the have the money & time parents from those who do not. Failing reading and math programs defeat a goal of an equal opportunity public school education. It is aggravating that school administrators hire equity experts and ignore the inequality that poor reading and math programs create.
amen to that~ it's like they all have stock in Coumon, Mathnazium, and hooked on phonics... and need to maintain a constituencey for those...while spending classroom money on_____????
Agree with your cynical perspective! (-: The education culture that supports consultants before teachers, pizza parties for HR before classroom resources, etc. is destroying the opportunities that a sound education system offers.
Joanne, I agree with you. I feel strongly that it is up to parents to instil a love of reading in children. At any age the books should above all be entertaining, interesting and especially amusing. This applies to adult reading matter as well. The “chapter books” my little boy brought home from school in Canada twenty years ago were trite, dreary, predictable and badly illustrated. They had “inclusive” and feminist themes but at least no LGBT content. If so I would have made an enormous fuss. As it is I just vetoed the books and we read those in my possession. He loved to see me laughing during the bedtime reading session.
This is true, kids aren't reading unless forced too for a school project. Most students aren't reading at grade level. The idealogial makeup of the school library does not matter if the students aren't reading it.
At best, removing sexually explicit books like Gender Queer in elementary schools is appropriate. The battle over middle and highschool libraries are just parents getting mad over library content their kids aren't reading (or can't read) in first place.
I don’t disagree with the fact that most school libraries prob aren’t being used that much. However, I do think the optics of libraries not housing a rough equivalent of books from across the spectrum sends a strong message. If schools care about letting their students decide for themselves, then they should care about the availability of all kinds of books, because they cannot control the students to check books out and make them read them, but they can at least have them available. No one today is surprised by this strong leaning to the left of school libraries, but it reveals a truth— that schools pretend to play “neutral” when they really are not. This is something we should care about. If libraries, that are hardly used, are only telling one side of the story, how much more are teachers doing the same?
This makes me sad and angry! Every reference question needs to be handled as there are no dumb questions. It is not a library workers' right to judge what is being checked out or the requested book. There should be no negative comments about what a person reads if the worker can't say anything nice than they can state the due date with a smile.
My trouble is that I simply can’t understand why normal people are left-wing or progressive. Why on earth do they see the world this way? Presumably a librarian is a person who loves books and reading. Why would such a person dismiss and even hate the classics written by “dead, white men”? Is it possible that English speaking librarians exist who are so poorly educated that they haven’t even read any of these fabulous books?
I don’t get it either, but I think between media and education more and more people are taught to see the world this way.
And today, I wouldn’t be surprised if these librarians hadn’t read the classics— if college students can get Western Civ ousted as a class, they certainly can do the same for “dead white men” English classes.
Our town library (don't know about the school library since I don't have kids in school) stocks all of the bestsellers which are usually political books for nonfiction and mainstream romance or mysteries for fiction. They don't seem to have an ideology they're promoting. As someone who likes more obscure books, though, I often end up buying them though I still try to go to the library first.
The problem is that many of these subversive ideologies or pornographic topics are introduced in graphic "novel" form, which makes them accessible to very young children or kids who don't like to read.
Another (perhaps) useful data point would be "what is the standard profile of a school librarian". I assume that a (for example) capitalist friendly promoter of merit and self determination would probably be nowhere on the profile data.
The links for some of the library systems are a bit confusing but the Oklahoma one has many books about Donald Trump, positive and negative: Bob Woodward's "Trump Tapes" interviews, "Trump" a graphic biography, "Trump is F*****g Crazy" which is negative, "Trump's War: His Battle for America" by Michael Savage which I can assume is pro-Trump, "Trump the Blue Collar President" by Anthony Scaramucci (don't know if it's positive, negative or neutral), "Trump vs. China: facing America's biggest threat" by Newt Gingrich (pro Trump), "Trump/russia: a definitive history" (POV unknown), "Trump's enemies: how the deep state is undermining the presidency" which I assume is pro-Trump and a bunch of others.
This would be a more direct comparison since Trump, Obama and Biden are the three presidents most young people are likely to be familiar with.
I don't disagree with your point, at base. But the very one-sided stocking of progressive books and the omission of conservative books in school libraries should still disturb everyone, even if no books are checked out at all. It is a visible manifestation of the imbalance we know ALSO to be permeating instruction (read: daily indoctrination of "progressive" ideals and suppression/shaming of conservative viewpoints) in the classroom.
Despite an alarming number of teachers posting (ironically, TikTok) videos congratulating themselves for this one-sided teaching, we are regularly told we don't know what goes on in classrooms, and that we are paranoid (and racist) to suggest there isn't healthy debate or respect for diverse ideas there. What is and isn't carried in school libraries is easier to prove.
This is a great point. I use my town library for books and also because I'm too cheap to pay for streaming and can borrow DVDs of most shows I want to watch (cheaper than streaming and no ads). It's sad how few people there are in the library these days.
I also read while exercising and have only noticed 1-2 other people at the gym who do the same. Everyone else is just scrolling crap on their phones. I try to alternate what I read between conservative, liberal and then fiction for enjoyment.
I appreciate the point, but want to say for the record that I read books on my phone while I exercise on treadmills and the like. I find the ability to change text size and the bright backlighting much easier on my aging eyes.
That’s interesting to me - I live in the Twin Cities suburbs, and go to one public library or another at least once a week. There are always a lot of people there, and popular new media always has a long waiting list. (I’m 138th on the list to borrow “Oppenheimer” on DVD.)
If only politicians had the backbone to ban TikTok, whch has been proven by no less than '60 minutes' to be Chinese propaganda designed to weaken our society and strengthen theirs with a different version
Exactly Brent. China is and has been at war with us for years. TicTok is only one of many ways they are sowing chaos in our society. We underestimate their guile, determination and patience in instituting their long term plan to usurp the U.S. as the world's hegemonic power. They know they can't fight our military in a straight up war, so they work assiduously to weaken us through internal division, corruption and chaos. The evidence is all around us.
Brad, about the geographic distribution, up your reading comprehension. The author states: "I surveyed the library catalogs of 35 of the largest public school districts in eight red states and six blue states, representing over 4,600 individual schools." But maybe you would only be content with a listing of the 35 school districts, or may be the specific schools?
Although I agree that an interesting data point would be how often any of these books are checked out, the point being made here is not what the kids are reading, but the effort by librarians to skew the available books to one perspective and actively avoiding books with another perspective.
I take your point, Brad. James' study is, however, still very telling and is valid even if not scientific. If the books aren't there to read, they aren't being read. Again, your point is certainly very well taken and the dilemma concerning how to raise children so they are both educated and entertained using the wonderful technology that happens to also have brought us the negative influence like TikTok.
Can't check out what's not on the shelf, right? In fact, a study focusing on which books are checked out and read would be misleading if you did not analyze which books are available to be checked out first.
The fact that Thomas Sowell’s books aren’t available in these school libraries is almost criminal. Students don’t need to agree with him but, at the very least, they would see how cogent arguments are made based on actual evidence.
I was an economics major in college in the late 70s and early 80s. At that time I’d read some Milton Friedman as he was a big name in the field. I’d never heard of Thomas Sowell. I stumbled across him very recently and I find his arguments extremely compelling. I have ordered five of his books and I’m listening to his
“Basic Economics - A Common Sense Guide to the Economy” on an apple podcast called “Knowledge = Power”. This book, along with hundreds of other titles are free.
"While Dreams from My Father, the memoir by former Democratic president Barack Obama, is found in 75 percent of sampled districts, and Becoming by his wife Michelle is found in 65 percent, memoirs by Republican politicians Nikki Haley, Vivek Ramaswamy, Mike Pompeo, Tim Scott, and Ron DeSantis are essentially nowhere to be found."
I think this is an apples-to-oranges comparison: that is, things that are very much alike (round, fruit) but also different in significant ways.
Barack Obama was president for eight years, and Mrs. Obama was - media being what it is - a major figure. Their newsworthiness (edit: or historical significance) was increased by their being the first black couple in the White House. On the other hand, none of the Republican figures mentioned has been president. Some, such as Ramaswamy and Pompeo, haven't been in any elective office.
This is not an argument against Mr. Fishback's thesis. I just think this particular example doesn't add much weight.
That would be much closer, although the direct comparison would be books "by" President or Mrs. Bush.
Many of the author's examples are cross-genre comparisons. "Freedom Is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement" by Angela Davis is a work of Marxist propaganda. "Bibi: My Story" by Benjamin Netanyahu is a very, very long political autobiography. (I'm a fan of Bibi, but I didn't make it all the way through.)
Ibram X. Kendi's books are also polemic, while Thomas Sowell's are instructional (Basic Economics, Applied Economics) or works of intense analysis. I had to check out "Knowledge and Decisions" four times (3 weeks each) before I got through it, and I'm an intense reader.
I would suggest that the school library selections show a bias toward fluff, in addition to other biases.
Good point about recency. Especially at the K-8 level, administrators might reasonably say, "Our students have never heard of (either) President Bush."
If an 8th grader has "never heard of either President Bush" (likely an accurate assumption, given the sickening state of public education in this country) we have another order-of-magnitude serious problem. (spoiler alert: we do.)
Dreams was written well before Obama was elected. It’s supposed to be autobiographical but is riddled with made-up stuff. This book was a young Obama’s attempt to invent a mythical narrative about himself. IOW--trash. Any why anyone would want to read a book by bitter Michelle is beyond me. What did she even accomplish as first “lady” other than whine about how hard the job is?
Availability does matter. As an ELA teacher I would have loved my students to have access to books representing multiple points of view. If the books aren't there, the teachers would be hard pressed to assign them. (Generally speaking, kids don't check out non-fiction without prompting--or coercion.)
And how she (poor Michell) was held to a different standard because of being black? That’s right! He got Nobel even before he stepped into Oval office and accomplished anything and she was on the cover of every possible magazine.
Great point, and thanks--this made me laugh out loud after a rough day. Will share with my friend who is a Philosophy Professor with a great sense of humor.
I was going to post the same sentiment. Would be better and more illuminating to compare White House inhabitants with other White House inhabitants. The current comparison is not a metric one could use persuasively.
The other thing that limits readers' ability to extrapolate is that the data universe is Blue cities in Red states. What are the stats for Blue cities in Blue states? Or Red rural areas in Red states.
This article has a lot of good info, but I'm hesitant to forward it to my Deep Blue friends like I did his two articles on the putative death of high school debates. Even my Indigo friends readily acknowledged that was disgraceful.
If I forward this piece, I'm pretty sure they'll flag these two items, and I don't know how I would counter...?
I completely agree. While I think he makes a lot of good points, there has to be room to discuss the literary merits of the books + authors as not all are created equally. The comparisons don't feel quite right. I think he could have found more compelling right-wing examples, and in not doing so, it suggests that right lacks intellectual substance.
Most of the books I would suggest as solidly conveying the values I would want to promote are not oriented toward children. To be fair, neither are the left-leaning examples given.
Better than Bibi's terribly long memoir would be his brother Iddo's "Entebbe," about their brother Yonatan and his leadership in the rescue of hostages from Uganda in 1976. That's a cracking heroic adventure. Natan Sharansky's books are more about Israel and world events than about partisan politics.
I think Thomas Sowell is America's greatest living intellectual, but his books can be pretty heavy going. There are books by Walter Williams, Larry Elder, and others that offer excellent points in the same genre but are easier to digest.
People like Vivek, Nikki, and Ron are in the news constantly today. The Obamas are not. Having at least 1 book by any of them would make sense...unless you are purposely trying to keep people from getting their side of things.
Yes Obama was pres, but the point is we are talking about important well known political figures. The fact that most schools, regardless of district have one and not the other does matter. It isn't a direct comparison, but what would be? The Bushes were in the Whitehouse before any kids in school were alive and they are rarely mentioned in the news, so most kids barely know who they are.
I agree that there could be better comparisons. But we are still talking about common fruits. Why so many apples and no oranges?
I don't think the author compared "books by today's unsuccessful Republican nomination seekers" with "books by unsuccessful Democratic nomination seekers" or "books by the overall population of unsuccessful presidential nomination seekers."
If they had a book by Amy Klobuchar but not one by Tim Scott, that would be a same-to-same comparison.
I understand you are trying to find a 1 to 1 comparison. But I don't think that is the point. And I also think it is largely subjective anyway. The point, to me, is the overall disparity between the 2 viewpoints. He isn't doing a purely scientific statistical analysis. He is simply showing that I can walk into almost any school library and have a good chance of reading a Democratic former president's PRE-presidential book, but not one school has a copy of any current major conservative politician. Even in the states that are supposedly banning books.
I feel like you are picking nits that don't really refute the overall point.
It sounds a little like political tokenism: if you've got a book by a Democrat, you have to have a book by a Republican too, or vice-versa. If one book sold seven million copies and was translated into dozens of languages, whereas another book sank like a stone and was remaindered, then demanding both be shelved is not really asking for equal treatment, it's asking for special treatment. We don't like it when the President of Harvard gets special treatment, so why should we like it when failed politician #1M+5 gets special treatment? This would be a better argument if it had better examples. What's the global bestseller libraries are ignoring because it's right-wing? If all we can think of are damp squibs, then the quality argument is more plausible than the censorship argument.
I would add, however, that in a number of arenas, there is massive progressive pressure aimed at preventing the commercial success (or "inclusion") of certain books -- that is, campaigns in Amazon reviews, GoodReads, etc., claiming that this or that author's book is x-phobic, that the author is a racist or x-phobe, etc. These campaigns are not always successful, but sometimes they are. (See: MY BODY IS ME, by Rachel Rooney, a simple picture book that most large bookstore chains refused to carry because activists claim that its message is thinly veiled transphobic propoganda. Abigail Shrier's IRREVERSIBLE DAMAGE has battled endlessly with exclusion by American book distributors ... Target pulled it from their shelves, denouncing "harmful rhetoric." Amazon wouldn't let the publisher advertise the book on its site. Even today, just a month ago, the Japanese publisher Kadokawa has canceled its Japanese translation (and deleted a Twitter thread promoting the book) ahead of a planned protest outside company offices.)
And that doesn't even mention the campaigns to prevent unapproved books from ever being published in the first place (a rampant problem in YA literature, which is notorious for piling on with claims of racism, appropriation, and phobia to the point of getting books postponed or withdrawn either by the publisher or the author in the face of accusations of racism, phobia, cultural insensitivity, and misappropriation).
So ... is it reasonable to hang a "bestseller" requirement on book inclusion in libraries if concerted campaigns to ensure that certain books do not become bestsellers are so rampant -- and effective?
I absolutely agree that "there is massive progressive pressure aimed at preventing the commercial success (or "inclusion") of certain books..." but I don't think that really answers the parity objection. To take your example, IRREVERSIBLE DAMAGE met with such massive pressure and prevailed. It became a bestseller on Amazon despite whatever pressure was thrown at it. Target removed it from sales, but had to put it back after a day. It got so much press about its suppression that its sales might have gone up from free advertising. The biggest problem with the campaign against it is that it is an excellent and timely book, one of the Economist's books of the year for 2020. It has sold well, had a huge impact, and has been translated into multiple languages. So it meets the quality standard - most definitely not a damp squib - and thus could an example to see if your library is exercising viewpoint-based censorship.
I also wonder if the author didn't have access to a public library as a student. He says the school library was the only source of books for himself and his friends. Even the People's Republic of Charlotte-Mecklenburg library system has all the up-to-date conservative political books, including, in the children's biography section, a book about Nikki Haley. (Probably not Mike Pompeo, though. I've actually forgotten what he did, anyway. CIA director for a while?)
I wonder whether the school library systems evaluated by Mr. Fishback contain the illustrated biographies of elected officials such as Nikki Haley, as opposed to their ghostwritten memoirs.
Access to a public library is not really the issue. Most of the, say, 4th through 12th grade students are not going to voluntarily go to a public library anyway (unless they have that type of what is becoming a very rare parent). So by default, the school library is what they have at hand to consider and are required to consider. That choice is amplified by teachers who recognize that their choice of book assignments is, from a practical perspective, limited to what is available at the school -- and since the selection happens to conform with the ideology of most teachers in any event, they are not too troubled by the limitations imposed by an unbalanced book selection.
Many students and their parents do use online library books (school and public library) and others use online amazon books. Many online library books are often a library consortium which means that the collection reflects the purchasing power of several libraries and the variety of books is amazing.
In the upstate NY town where I live (it's not 'home' for me) the town library and local bookstore have a remarkable lack of diversity of thought in the catalog and on the shelves. Now that my son is in HS, it is incredibly hard to find fiction for him in these places. And I don't have access to many of the books that would interest me unless I find and buy them online. As an example, Honestly just hosted Joe Nocera talking about his book The Big Fail. In my public library catalog, which covers multiple libraries in the Capitol Region of New York, there is ONE copy in the catalog.
Back in the Bush administration, I was approached by someone from the Bush team as a possible presidential appointment to a national library council -- because, as I was told, they were having a lot of trouble finding any Republican librarians at all. It came to nothing, but there was clearly a problem even then. As a working librarian now, however, I'd move the analysis further upstream, especially to the review sources that most librarians use to select books, which are now all unabashedly progressive. Hornbook was probably the last to give in, but Choice (for academic libraries), School Library Journal, and especially Booklist -- the journals that dictate 90% of book selection for libraries -- make no effort to hide their partisanship. For children's books the only mainstream exception I can think of is Meghan Cox Gurdon's review column in the WSJ. Book jobbers (suppliers to libraries) are another place to look: which books do they stock and recommend? And then, of course, publishers themselves. It is because there is an entire library ecosystem -- a severely biased one --, in which individual school districts, libraries, and librarians are probably the least consequential component, that I do not take complaints of censorship at that local or even state level very seriously.
I'm a high school librarian -and Paul, you've hit the nail directly on the head. It's almost pointless to read book reviews as they are clearly imply anything not progressive is not worth buying. I have (I hope) a good selection of books representing both sides of the political/social aisle. BUT. I seriously worried that I'd get called on the carpet for having a copy of Woke Racism in the library. I was also questioned by a staff member for not having The 1619 Project, and I definitely didn't think it was worth my job to present my reasons for not having it, so I bought it. The YA book market has seriously skewed towards LGBTQ. I do have quite a few fiction books with LGBTQ characters, but -here's a news flash-not all teens are interested. In fact, most aren't. And all this obscures a much, much bigger issue, which is that most of the books in my library are never checked out, never read. It saddens me that my profession has devolved in these ways.
Yes! In 2020 I retired from an elementary school library. Many 4th and 5th grade students weren't interested in checking out books at all unless the books were graphic novels. In any one class there would be only one or two students who borrowed books and actually read them all the way through. We had so many great books in our library, many of which I read, and I thought there were so many students who didn't know what they were missing.
It's heartbreaking, isn't it? This from The Nation's Report Card:
"The percentage of students in Maine who performed at or above the NAEP Proficient level was 29 percent in 2022. This percentage was smaller than that in 2019 (36 percent) and in 1998 (35 percent)"
I'm finding that many students in our high school are reading at about a 4th grade level. How do we engage them with seminal works of literature and nonfiction demanding deep thought and engagement when they can't understand what they're reading?
Wow, same reading level as the medium/max inmates at the prison I used to work in. Have to say, some found reading a fabulous 'escape' from the reality of prison life, that was rewarding for both of us.
The more anyone reads, the higher their reading level. Studies show that reading for interest instead of for reading level is the best way to boost ability!
For a glimpse of why kids struggle to read, listen to the podcast, Sold A Story. It discusses how, when and why phonics was deemed unworthy and what replaced it.
After listening to the series, I was furious because 2 of my four kids had a hard time understanding what they read. They could read the words on the page, they just couldn’t explain the content. Luckily, three of them are doing well and the other is at grade level.
Public schools are badly broken and the teachers unions are largely to blame. I have argued with our districts curriculum director, now titled “director of teaching and learning” due to her quest for a phd, about book selections and curriculum content and I’d have a better outcome talking to a hamburger.
While there is discussion about kids using tik tok as their life coach, many parents are ignoring their kids while they are on numerous social media platforms themselves.
Man, the 70’s and 80’s were the best times as a kid...
Matt, there seems to be renewed interest in phonics, which I think is encouraging. I appreciate your recommendation of Sold a Story, I have a feeling it's going to support everything I've been witnessing for the past decade.
A few years ago the reading curriculum championed by Lucy Calkins was all the rage in our town. Teachers would give us lists of books required for teaching and expect the library to have several copies of each book. Did they think we were a bookstore? Many of the requested books were older and out of print.
Calkins and her co-horts knew their methods were faulty as proven by real research but they kept pushing it and made a bunch of money while hurting kids. My kids were taught using her terrible methods and I asked their teachers how memorizing and guessing at words was better than actually LEARING to read? They could never give me a straight answer.
On a side note, I am friends with a few elementary school teachers and they are burned out after about 10-15 years. They often cite parents as a big reason they don't like their jobs. I wonder if the kids learning to read instead of guessing at what the books say would change parents minds about schools and teachers in general, resulting in better teacher/parent interactions?
A tip from my kids elementary school, which has created a craze around the library: the kids have to read two books each week and pass an AR test. There are prizes and accolades for getting the most points. I thought this would result in reading being a chore for my kids until the tantrum I witnessed when my kid couldn’t go to the library to get more books bc he left one at home. That kid makes me take him to the library every weekend!
I worry what he will come across at the public libraries as a teen bc the librarians put the transgender stories in promotional displays. I even have to steer him away from books promoted in the kid section, bc they are anti-racist baby books.
We used to do Accelerated Reader at the middle school I worked at, and it was a huge hit! Then, for some reason, the Language Arts teachers decided to phase it out.
I was a middle school librarian when Accelerated Reader first came out. Teachers and kids loved it because they didn't have to do book reports anymore! I resented spending my sparse library funds on the tests, though. I got so that I called it Accelerated Cheater! Lol!
| ... most of the books in my library are never checked out ... |
Do you find this is a recent trend or did it start further back? I know TV replaced reading for a lot of people long before the internet was even a mainstream thing. If it is recent, do you attribute it to social media, shorter attention spans, something else? I'm genuinely curious about this as I love reading and it seems only one of my nieces and nephews feels similarly.
I think a big part of the problem goes back to the "whole word" approach to teaching reading. It was a well-meaning, but ultimately catastrophic, attempt to help children become life-long readers. I fear that unless, and until, the schools return to the time-tested system of phonetic instruction in early childhood this problem is only going to get worse.
There is increasing attention to returning to phonics, particularly in the early years of learning. Some models are weaving the phonics in for early learning; leaving 'cueing' methods in during later stages. Even EdWeek has a few articles on it, there are glimmers of hope and sanity.
Thank you for the question, Scott. The circulation stats for my library show a steady decline since 2008. Add to this, many classes don't assign as much reading as they have in the past ("because the students won't read it anyway"). I absolutely believe that devices have lead to shorter attention spans. Have you heard of the "Attention Economy"? https://www.nngroup.com/articles/attention-economy/
It's not all about the kids: children tend to mimic the behavior of their parents. Parents who read, and have books in the home, have an enormous effect on kids. That said, I believe the problem with students not reading, and/or having low reading levels, has been incubating for quite some time as we have a large segment of our population who don't have the stamina to read anything longer than a post.
Interesting, thanks. I just don't think people get the same satisfaction from reading a short post, or watching a TikTok video, as they do from reading a book or, for that matter, watching a feature length movie. I've been working on learning Spanish for several years, for example, and the moment I stopped translating everything to English in my head felt AMAZING. Same thing in college when I was able to make it through The Iliad. Have never felt that kind of satisfaction after watching, say, a YouTube video.
With work comes reward! It's funny how the concept of hard work somehow got confused with anxiety over the course of the COVID era. I almost wonder if some of the symptoms that kids are experiencing in droves could be alleviated by focusing on real educational challenges.
I'm a long-retired school librarian--most years as a middle school librarian. There were always those who were avid readers, but most students just didn't have the time or desire to spend time reading. Part of that problem can be solved at home if reading is valued. My goal was to walk students through books that I thought might capture their interest. If I could fund just one book that a reluctant reader could finish and enjoy, I felt as though I had given them a lifetime gift.
And you did! The part of my job that I like the most is trying to find a book for a reluctant reader. Over the years, I've gotten pretty good at coming up with something interesting for almost every taste. There's a unique social connection that forms over reading the same book and discussing it, and there's alot of value to it.
As a long-retired school librarian I have great respect for what you do. I can't imagine trying to choose what books to buy nowadays. And I imagine the book budgets are still pretty limited, so that you hate to buy books that are not going to circulate. Hopefully, you aren't pressured to carry those pornographic graphic novels like Gender Queer. I found it more than shocking to think people advocate for such books to be in school libraries.
Hang in there! There are so many excellent books that kids still love to read! Both fiction and non-fiction!
Thank you for your support, it is needed and appreciated! Thankfully, I'm given a lot of autonomy to purchase books for my library -I'm grateful to have my professionalism respected. And, you know, there are a LOT of excellent books out there!
If you want to look "upstream" you also need to look at your state's universities. Typically the schools of arts and sciences and the schools of education are dueling to see which one can be the most woke. The students of these two schools are fed a diet of progressive pablum on a daily basis. The national library organizations, publishers and reviews are seeding what is already plowed ground curtesy of your state's higher eduction dollars.
This isn’t just a library problem or an Ivy League college problem. Looking at this list of books, as someone who has a degree from Hunter college and Brooklyn college, both City University of New York, I can say that I was familiar and had to read most/all authors on the progressive list, and was never assigned any reading from the conservative list. The brainwashing happens at city colleges too.
To your point--a friend is getting her MSW at Stony Brook and was assigned ibram x kendi for a paper she had to do. Quickly did she parrot the line that "black trans women are the most oppressed!" How in the world do you actually help people when you're brainwashed to not see them as individuals but as victims or oppressors. These CRT librarians give me the chills.
At my theology school, many people were taught that and wrote about it to get their degree. Whether they actually believed it or not..we don’t know. Certainly some, in the right environment, would not criticize it, but neither did they really believe it.
I was just coming to say something similar. As a former progressive I spend a lot of time thinking about how the fuck I could have been so certain of what I was pushing for so long. And part of the reason is that my (higher) education (and lord, there was a lot of it, including from a CUNY school) had almost NO exposure to conservative thought or perspectives on any of the subjects I was trained in. And to the extent that any of it was brought up at all (certainly not as assigned, serious, in-depth reading and analysis), it was to offer a foil to the "proof" offered by the progressive theories and approaches.
And that's not to say that I even agree with any conservative positions now, just that they were all framed as *objectively* incorrect (and white supremacist, of course) by The Science™, therefore not worthy of serious consideration or study.
I'm a conservative from Idaho. It gets on my nerves to be called a crazy and a racist and a white nationalist, among other pejoratives! I'm even educated and well read. I was also a school librarian for a couple of decades, but retired before complete insanity took over. There is so much good literature out there to read. And if teachers emphasize critical thinking, we should be able to escape ideological wars. But we have screwed up somehow!
This stuff goes way back. I worked in the library IT department of a major university back in the 80’s. As my boss, who’d been around the block in that world, commented ‘This is the only library I’ve ever worked in that has a foreign policy’. Seemed like a funny joke at the time..
The answer is the librarian’s have a stated mission to push Marxists ideas. This is a concerted effort. They are in every education institution. Not to be too dramatic but I find it dystopian and creepy like invasion of pod people.
Sigh, there are many librarians who resent and are frustrated by the current head of ALA becoming the issue above the issues facing the libraries and working to resolve them. Marxism is not a library issue....how to handle parents that view the library as a babysitter for their young children is a problem. What is the library's liability, can and should a program be created to accomodate this need, etc.? Should collections include non-book items for example I can check out walking sticks at my library? Are YA books which use to be high school books, are now also middle school books, beginning to slide into elementary school?
What is the libraries role in the ongoing drop of reading levels in the US and how to correct it?
I believe you that there are many frustrated librarians. Just as I believe there may be many frustrated teachers having to deal with administrative heads. And policemen, airline employees, business owners, baseball players,retail employees and on and on.
The fish stinks from the head down and rots the whole.
Are you okay with a Marxist leading the libraries and do you doubt her words when she says her intentions to push her ideology in the whole? What about the battle to have drag queens reading to young children and the insistence to do so? Yet Christians are often refused? What about balance in the books being offered or the books you mentioned moved to a younger category?
It seems the ESL has impacted the way our children learn or should I say not learn the basics especially reading. There are concerted efforts to push reading literacy to the side in favor of teaching children to become activists for the social justice determined by collectivists.
How did this woman get the head position in the first place? I mean the democrats rail against Putin yet for some reason act like authoritarians.
You either agree with the American ideals of liberty and free speech and free association or you want to change the fabric of America into something else. That change is exactly what is happening here and now in rapid time. We can no longer ignore the obvious.
Agree, there seems to be a huge disconnect from those leading and those actually doing the job. There are so many times that I look at who is in charge and truly wonder how they were placed in their positions, especially, when truly worthy leaders were left behind. Is it the optics over merit? When there is a strong need for leaders who have a track record of resolving issues in all the fields that you mentioned and more, why go with optics?
One of the items that surprised me the most is how many elementary school children were being exposed in their homes to shows and information that was inappropriate for their maturity levels. For example, chidren who were 8 yo were playing "Squid Games" on the playground. Why were they watching this MA show? Why are parents electing to take their children to drag shows? Had talks with parents who wanted YA books for their 2nd and 3rd grade readers because they were intelligent and able to understand dating, sexual desires, etc. because the child watched and enjoyed the more mature x,y, and z movies and tv shows. (High readers at a young age need books that challenge their intellect while respecting their maturity) I find it baffling and shocking that parents and guardians ignore and fail to protect their childrens' emotional maturity despite having the ability, circumstances, and opportunities to protect their children's childhood.
Reading begins and develops at school, but the most important influence for raising a reader is in the hands of the parents. Provide the books that support your values and read them with your children. For young children, a kindergartener, if your religion prohibits talking animals then ask the librarian to show your child the nonfiction animal books that coexist with your values. Also talk with your older reader about why a book doesn't reflect your values and explain other choices that the character could have made and their outcome. Know what your child is reading and talk with them about the plot and author's viewpoint. No one wins when the library is a gauntlet for a young child!
The library is the most American embodiment of free speech. A school library has different goals from the public library since it is to be guardian ad litem and support the curriculum. A high school library collection is significantly different than the collection for elementary school. A public library should be a more diverse collection available for every library user. Defending rights as an American citizen does mean getting involved with libraries and schools rather than allowing others to dictate the directions.
Oh my gosh yes! Why are parents doing this with their children! Ugh and shameful.
My kids are all grown, but I have two grandchildren of the beginning reader ages. They both do well and for Christmas I did exactly what you suggested they received books.
A couple of points -- first the definition of a 'banned book' in the US is not what most people consider it to be -- it is merely a 'challenged' book. In other words, someone put in a formal complaint about it.
Second, as this essay points out 'shadow banning' (ie the not stocking of books from a certain viewpoint or indeed because an author holds certain political views) is a problem both in the US and in the UK. This is a 1953 article on the difference between 'selection and censorship' and is well worth a read. https://www.ala.org/advocacy/intfreedom/NotCensorshipButSelection
The answer to both is more books -- people should actively consider requesting public libraries to stock books that they want to read or consider on the 'shadow banned' list. It is a positive, not negative thing to request a library stock certain books to maintain its impartiality. It is something members of the Women's Rights Network in the UK have been attempting to do recently -- request Gender Critical books from their local library, a project which took on new urgency after it emerged the libraries in North Yorkshire had delisted books after a single person complained.
I so agree. The rate of basic literacy in the US has declined, mainly due to teaching methods including the championing of the whole book method. I believe the rate of basic literacy in CA is worse than Rwanda's. However, one state which is improving is Mississippi and that is because they are teaching phonics. Without literacy in its citizens, the US cannot hope to maintain its current position in the world or indeed any semblance of democracy. Phonics works. America needs literate citizens.
Children are often turned off by books which force feed them morality as well -- Robert McKee makes this point in his book about screenwriting -- Story. It is so important to have a wide range of books and from diverse viewpoints because children are diverse. There is a discussion to be had about age appropriateness of certain subjects/books and where therefore they should be shelved within a library, but that is a different discussion.
Hooray! I was a Christian-university librarian for 20+ years (w MA & PhD but no library degree) and grew to despise the leftist ALA’s monopoly on library control thru its triple threats of accreditation (it alone accredits US library schools; and nearly all librarian job requirements include “must have MLIS or equivalent from an ALA-accredited program”), privileged publication (what an advantage for sales to have easy access to the institutions and professionals it alone can accredit!), and _de facto_ union influence on librarians and library leadership by the ‘must-go-to’ regional & national meetings and membership. I haven’t researched the matter but think the ALA may be unique in its unchallenged ‘Trade Privilege.’
I looked at ALA recommendations esp. for the YA (young adult) category — usually left-leaning and assertively pro-LGBTQIA+ and anti-traditional sexual morality — and concluded the ALA and its likes were sold out to the Left.
I urge every school district and public library system who do in fact believe in the marketplace of ideas and fair debate to sever ties with the ALA and support a sane alternative.
Also, would anyone research whether it has become an unjust monopoly?
It would help if more gay and lesbian people abandoned LQBTQIA+++ groups, loudly condemned them, and called out adults who are too interested in children and their "education". (I am not saying there aren't any.) Maybe we would not see stuff like this:
"Director of LGBTQ+ Organization That Helps Minors Arrested in Child Sex Sting"
The initial response made by this center in Turlock, CA:
"In a statement shared on Facebook, the Rainbow Resource Center said that Slayton’s actions occurred “outside working hours and off-premises.”
The truth is that a pedophile named Dr. John Money popularized the "gender identity" concept. He was not a secret pedophile but promoted it as good for the children. He was the guy who did the abusive experiment on twin boys in the 1960s:
Almost every Democrat trope is a lie. From Republican book banning to George Floyd being murdered by Chauvin, a racist cop.
Lying is in DNA of the DNC. Just like every leftist, repressive organization. "War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength." Bill Ivey's campaign memo was Orwellian but unsurprising. Oh, and Jussie Smolett was set upon by two MAGA thugs on a frigid Chicago early morning. Why does anyone believe these pissant Pinocchios?
Hopcat tends to take a rather extreme contrary point on some issues, mainly conservative vs liberal, in my mind.
this one, Chauvin, is a clear looser for him. Chauvin was not given due process (like someone else I know and love). His attorney was barred from showing film evidence. the official autopsy was suppressed in his trial and what exam was shown, was not commonly accepted practice in a murder trial. His own chief of PoPo lied under oath re the restraint used in the MPD, etc. The entire case was full of errors, suppression, and omissions with the end game decided before the game started. Minneapolis burned before the trial, maybe it would have burned some again after an innocent verdict. To subvert out justice system gets us where we are today. Lets get back on track if possible.
The fact that the jury was informed the City of Minneapolis had paid a $27 million wrongful death settlement to Floyd's family told them that George Floyd was murdered by the police. No way could Chauvin get a fair trial after that.
SCOTUS rejected Chauvin's appeal in November 2023. SCOTUS takes a very small percentage of cases presented to it. The denial of an appeal will never be the basis for an impeachment.
You really should see the documentary about Chauvin or at least read the recent Free Press article. You don't have to elevate Chauvin as a hero to acknowledge that he was unjustly sentenced.
As James shows, this isn't about book bans, it's about curation. In this case, we see quite a bit of evidence that books are curated with a political bias. To go a step further, the hysteria about book bans is actually a hysteria about outside meddling in this book curation, which is occurring because the people entrusted with it failed to apply age appropriateness standards to any text relating to LGBT issues. This is the direct result of the DEI environment and the eagerness to increase the number of LGBT books, even though books about sexual preference are going to be mostly about sex. It's also easy to imagine librarians fearing reprisals if they passed over a book with graphic sexual content if it was an LGBT book. And so, this psychosis results in putting graphic sexual depictions in school libraries, something virtually everyone agrees is age inappropriate.
Well said. I was a middle school librarian many years ago. If I had known that some people would argue that Gender Queer should have been on my library shelves, I would not have been able to hold my tongue!!
We had very limited funds for our school libraries, so I had to choose books wisely. Porn books were never high on my list!
Great insight. Can someone at TFP let Nellie know - sometimes it’s hard to tell from her TGIF’s comments on this subject if she’s in on the joke re: “book bans”
The comments are great. All opinions are presented which is the goal. One commenter made the most cogent point to me though. Do kids actually read at all? The future for tolerance can’t be good if Tik Tok is the source of information.
I’m the rare public librarian who sympathizes with the article, but something else bothered me. While the profession presses a social agenda, little attention is given to the fact that SO MUCH OF THE GOOD SHIT is now behind a paywall on Substack. This as remaining print magazines continue to be culled from public library shelves.
I wonder if there is a way that a Library could have a subscription. Like the Library computers could auto log in or Substack could allow connections from the Library IP addresses.
I suspect the issues are financial/policy rather than technical. My frustration is that this is a traditional library issue that should be garnering more attention in the profession. And maybe it is, but I’ve seen little evidence of that based on quick scans of the standard professional periodicals.
Regarding some of those books, consider reversing the races. Would a book called "Black Rage" be even published today, let alone put in a school library? We're allowing naked, unabashed racism to proliferate and build up a body of hatred among youth, instead of trying to mitigate and reduce conflict and move towards a world where we can get along with each other. We're heading towards a much less friendly world than the world we came from -- you can debate whether that's a good thing or a bad thing.
Same with just the overall political polarization. Civil strife and conflict is coming at us really fast.
Interlibrary loan, Libby, and Hoopla. Ways to get books that your public library physically doesn’t have. I was able to find many of the conservative thinkers listed in the article in Libby which I get access to free with my library card.
I don’t like librarians pushing ideological agendas, as I know some do, and public school libraries should have different collecting priorities than public libraries, but it’s a broad brush to say that all libraries are part of the liberal elite. I worked at a university library for a decade and was hounded by the university’s DEI concerns. Now I work at a small town public library where our biggest concern is using our extremely limited resources to create a space for the community to come together. We had 70 toddlers at story time yesterday to read books about snow. Hardly a left-wing propaganda machine.
The main concern is the direction things are going. No one expects small town libraries to be on the cutting edge of library trends. But each young person hired by your library in the future will bring university activist indoctrination with them. That's where the concern is.
Fantastic research, James. You are a must-read on The Free Press. This is yet another case of leftist projection. They control all the libraries, schools, and bookstores. That allows them to indoctrinate kids into Red Guards with Progressive literature, while never exposing them to other perspectives. The moment any parents or conservatives push back on what their kids are being taught like sexual material, the left screams "book banning". Barnes & Noble displays a "banned book" section without understanding the irony. Another disturbing trend has emerged where elected school board members are sworn in on "banned books" that include graphic pornography like "Gender Queer": https://dailycaller.com/2023/12/14/fairfax-county-school-board-sworn-in-explicit-books/
The endgame of leftist censorship is cultural revolution and destruction of society: https://yuribezmenov.substack.com/p/founding-fathers-statues-monuments-removed
The research failed to distinguish between the three types of library which are elementary, middle, and high school. The development of their collections are significantly different because the readers are very different.
Many of the books listed for the conservative point of view were very recently published and may be the $5 specials at Barnes and Noble or discontinued within the next year. The books are not classic conservative books. A high school library that is inclusive with conservative ideas would reflect proudly and with insight on American founders with authors like David McCullough, Ron Chernow, etc. Great writers who have produced much better reads than 1619. Well written books are more effective in motivating a critical evaluation of history. Books well written that engage the reader are crucial when purchasing for a library, because reading is a lot more effort than tik-tok.
It is also important to point out what is available from publishers. For example, try to find a biography on the first female supreme court justice, Sandra Day O'Connor and the choices are null or limited. Books on Ruth Bader Ginsburg are available in multiple levels for readers. Publishers push books on what captures the current attention and written by or about celebrities.
Every person running a library removes books from the shelves which makes the statistic of how many books removed from school library shelves a red herring. Whe;n removing books from the library, there is an evaluation of the condition of the book, what is read and how long it has been unread along with accuracy (biographies of Carter need to reflect that he died & Covid books will need massive updates).
Excellent point about the differen types of library. The removing books point is likewise good to bear in mind, but the bigger point is what books are left after the weeding and culling? Per James, conservative views are short-changed. Your other points, also make James Fishback's argument. There certainly ought to be books about Sandra Day O'Connor and her achievement ought to have been at least equally celebrated as Ginsberg's. For one thing, she was after all, the first woman on the Supreme Court. But then, someone(s) needs to write them!
Fishback selected a list of conservative books that looked like recommended conservative books from Amazon which pushes the latest published books by conservatives not the best conservative books. Libraries should have the best books to reflect viewpoints and this does not always equate to the newest.
Books that are more classically conservative like Faith of My Fathers by John McCain, The Conscience of a Conservative by Barry Goldwater, or any one of Sowell's books would have a longer shelf life and not culled even if circulation is poor because they soldily represent a view point. Historical books by David McCullough, Ron Chernow, etc are also important to a balanced library since they offer a different view point than 1619 Project and give depth to the history curriculum. In my opinion, these books are better indications of a balanced collection. Fishback's selection of books/data points is what made his research faulty. The conclusion that libraries are short of conservative books and do not have balanced collection may be correct but his research failed to prove this thesis.
In my opinion, there are books about Sandra Day O'Connor (she is definitely historically significant) but they are not being picked up by publishers. Finding books that support a diverse (meaning representing all viewpoints) is a challenge and made difficult by what is available from publishers and library suppliers.
I imagine the 1619 subject was included because that is a recent significant controversy. Hannah-Jones deserves a good argument since her book critically alters known American history. Yes, I think there are important and better historical books by great authors that should be in libraries. The fact that many are not in them and as you suggest, because they aren't readily available from publishers and library suppliers, validates Fishback's article and even demonstrates it is worse than just librarians failing to stock a fair sampling of books. Apparently publishers and library suppliers are suppressing conservative material as well.
I don't need to reply. You've done it for me. I'M superfluous. I feel....useless. Sigh.
Yeah, the article was a good read. And disturbing. Public school libraries have come a long way, in the wrong direction. To wit:
'Or Jillian Woychowski, the librarian at West Haven High in West Haven, Connecticut. At a 2019 committee meeting of the American Library Association, she proudly declared that “We’re using less of what I call the dead, white guy books. We’re including books by authors of color and women.”
Jillian’s gatekeeping is part of a larger movement among librarians known as “critical librarianship,” which the American Library Association defines as “challenging regressive conceptions of gender identity in cataloging” and “documenting microaggressions in librarianship.” '
The 'dead, white guy books' comment made me think back to the time when, at the oh so tender age of thirteen, perusing the aisles of our school library, one at the time I was rather embarrassed by, I came across Mein Kampf. And read it.
Thank God no one understood microaggressions then..
When in Junior High (now called middle school) I was dropped off roughly an hour and half before first period. I went straight to the library and in two years read anything of interest. At age thirteen I also read a little of Mein Kampf. Having read everything available to me in that small library on the topic of wars prior to picking up MK I was struck by how Hitler states fifteen years prior to 1940 his entire plan for engulfing Europe in war. Hitler stated that he would attack the Soviets and then the UK. In reality The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact reversed the sequence but minus that detail Hitler told the world what he'd do and then did it.
I never finished MK but did skip around a bit within it's pages. Drawing a parallel to Nazi German one should conclude that if a threat tells you their intentions you should take that threat at its word.
What should we do regarding the threats the leftists are presenting Jews and freedom loving people?
You’re correct in taking threats seriously and literally. Antisemitism has been around for thousands of years, ebbing and flowing. I think in terms of the progressive Left, currently engulfed in its cult of colonialism, colonizers, oppressed and oppressors, they have combined in their anger what was and might still be legitimate criticism of a country, ie Israel, with that ancient trope of antisemitism. The only way to defeat this is to politically marginalize the progressive Left - and in terms of radical Islam, confront it with insurmountable force.
Then the conflict continues. The only thing that will change is who gets involved next?
If it’s Islam you’re referring to that could well be. Do we have to get into a shooting war at some point to prove we’re serious? Yep. The Houthi issue is a case in point. Instead of our highly accurate but pinprick strikes at their installations, we should have gone in whole hog for two or three nights running doing shock and awe going after everything, and at the same time seize the Iranian destroyer in the Red Sea that was directing these Houthi missile attacks on sea lane shipping.
Ok so maybe take a 1/4 of a blue pill. I might have prescribed too much with that 1/2 of a red.
The thing with whole hog approaches is its one thing to lob $multimillion munitions into stoneaged shitholes. It becomes another if we have to place our kids (grandkids) in boots on the ground. I don't believe the entirety of Islam is worth the life of one of ours.
Iranian Frigates need to become submarines. Prosecuting naval targets is a good option as is shooting down anything they have in the air. If those options are exercised what will likely occur again is they'll fly a commerically liner leased from the west of course filled with women and children to be sacrificed for their propaganda effort.
You can't kill Islam. Islam is cancer. It's will be here as long as there is a here.
While I take all the points made here, this is a hardly a scientific endeavor. While the libraries may stock certain books (and we dont know the geographic distribution--could be spread over both red and blue states), what we would want to know are the books being checked out and read. I doubt many are. If that is indeed the case, yes, we have a librarian problem. But we likelier have a TikTok problem--the main source for knowledge kids obtain.
Milton Friedman, Thomas Sowell and others could be in every school district library and no student would check those books out. In order to solve this problem you need both the books on the shelves and librarians and teachers who are not indoctrinated themselves. a tall order.
Yes, I can’t imagine any school-aged child wanting to read a non-fiction political tome, whether right or left leaning. Books from both sides should be there for the optics. Even so, these generally dull, moralizing books won’t be checked out, even with non- indoctrinated teachers and librarians.
Challenging for most high school students, perhaps. But dull? Moralizing? Have you actually read these books?
Yup. Actual libraries are a relic of the past. But many of these books are assigned to students to read in class, or their ideas are simmered down into TED talks or the educators themselves and taught in the classroom.
If books are a relic and children are not reading what does that say about what is being modeled in the home. If there ever was a time to read books, it is now when the media is so sloppy, TikTok is run by the CCP, etc. Yes it is the education system but the first and most important part of any child's education is the parent.
Agree 100% but sadly, even when modeled at home, there is no guarantee that kids will continue to read books (or anything in print) once they have a smartphone. Mine were voracious readers in the early grades but as digital natives, they do what their peers do -- immerse themselves in screens.
I'm not going to disagree with the importance of the culture in the home as a--or even THE--major influencer of a child's education, but we would be amiss not to address the 100 pound gorilla in the room by mentioning what a huge failure "whole language" reading instruction has been. Note the rise of graphic novels is in step with teaching children to look at the pictures for clues to interpret the text. People who are not good readers don't like to read and now we have a generation of kids who don't read. A startling number can't read, but too many don't read for entertainment and information because they aren't completely fluent at the process. This has been the greatest failure of education in our nation's history.
Along with an at home reading culture, our children had private tutoring for reading . Other parents are doing private tutoring with math. This is NOT the solution! It is increasing the gap between the have the money & time parents from those who do not. Failing reading and math programs defeat a goal of an equal opportunity public school education. It is aggravating that school administrators hire equity experts and ignore the inequality that poor reading and math programs create.
amen to that~ it's like they all have stock in Coumon, Mathnazium, and hooked on phonics... and need to maintain a constituencey for those...while spending classroom money on_____????
Agree with your cynical perspective! (-: The education culture that supports consultants before teachers, pizza parties for HR before classroom resources, etc. is destroying the opportunities that a sound education system offers.
Joanne, I agree with you. I feel strongly that it is up to parents to instil a love of reading in children. At any age the books should above all be entertaining, interesting and especially amusing. This applies to adult reading matter as well. The “chapter books” my little boy brought home from school in Canada twenty years ago were trite, dreary, predictable and badly illustrated. They had “inclusive” and feminist themes but at least no LGBT content. If so I would have made an enormous fuss. As it is I just vetoed the books and we read those in my possession. He loved to see me laughing during the bedtime reading session.
This is true, kids aren't reading unless forced too for a school project. Most students aren't reading at grade level. The idealogial makeup of the school library does not matter if the students aren't reading it.
At best, removing sexually explicit books like Gender Queer in elementary schools is appropriate. The battle over middle and highschool libraries are just parents getting mad over library content their kids aren't reading (or can't read) in first place.
I don’t disagree with the fact that most school libraries prob aren’t being used that much. However, I do think the optics of libraries not housing a rough equivalent of books from across the spectrum sends a strong message. If schools care about letting their students decide for themselves, then they should care about the availability of all kinds of books, because they cannot control the students to check books out and make them read them, but they can at least have them available. No one today is surprised by this strong leaning to the left of school libraries, but it reveals a truth— that schools pretend to play “neutral” when they really are not. This is something we should care about. If libraries, that are hardly used, are only telling one side of the story, how much more are teachers doing the same?
Here in Hellinois they don't even pretend to be neutral. If you're not a progressive, you're a bad person and they will make sure you know this. :(
This makes me sad and angry! Every reference question needs to be handled as there are no dumb questions. It is not a library workers' right to judge what is being checked out or the requested book. There should be no negative comments about what a person reads if the worker can't say anything nice than they can state the due date with a smile.
That is precisely why we moved out of Hellinois.
My trouble is that I simply can’t understand why normal people are left-wing or progressive. Why on earth do they see the world this way? Presumably a librarian is a person who loves books and reading. Why would such a person dismiss and even hate the classics written by “dead, white men”? Is it possible that English speaking librarians exist who are so poorly educated that they haven’t even read any of these fabulous books?
I don’t get it either, but I think between media and education more and more people are taught to see the world this way.
And today, I wouldn’t be surprised if these librarians hadn’t read the classics— if college students can get Western Civ ousted as a class, they certainly can do the same for “dead white men” English classes.
Most likely. Most probably. Most abhorrently.
Our town library (don't know about the school library since I don't have kids in school) stocks all of the bestsellers which are usually political books for nonfiction and mainstream romance or mysteries for fiction. They don't seem to have an ideology they're promoting. As someone who likes more obscure books, though, I often end up buying them though I still try to go to the library first.
THIS. Everything the progressive destabilization machine does is about optics - and that ground has been ceded to them for FAR too long.
The problem is that many of these subversive ideologies or pornographic topics are introduced in graphic "novel" form, which makes them accessible to very young children or kids who don't like to read.
Another (perhaps) useful data point would be "what is the standard profile of a school librarian". I assume that a (for example) capitalist friendly promoter of merit and self determination would probably be nowhere on the profile data.
I believe this is correct Brad but I take the point of the article that all the mania about banned books is mostly untrue.
The links for some of the library systems are a bit confusing but the Oklahoma one has many books about Donald Trump, positive and negative: Bob Woodward's "Trump Tapes" interviews, "Trump" a graphic biography, "Trump is F*****g Crazy" which is negative, "Trump's War: His Battle for America" by Michael Savage which I can assume is pro-Trump, "Trump the Blue Collar President" by Anthony Scaramucci (don't know if it's positive, negative or neutral), "Trump vs. China: facing America's biggest threat" by Newt Gingrich (pro Trump), "Trump/russia: a definitive history" (POV unknown), "Trump's enemies: how the deep state is undermining the presidency" which I assume is pro-Trump and a bunch of others.
This would be a more direct comparison since Trump, Obama and Biden are the three presidents most young people are likely to be familiar with.
I don't disagree with your point, at base. But the very one-sided stocking of progressive books and the omission of conservative books in school libraries should still disturb everyone, even if no books are checked out at all. It is a visible manifestation of the imbalance we know ALSO to be permeating instruction (read: daily indoctrination of "progressive" ideals and suppression/shaming of conservative viewpoints) in the classroom.
Despite an alarming number of teachers posting (ironically, TikTok) videos congratulating themselves for this one-sided teaching, we are regularly told we don't know what goes on in classrooms, and that we are paranoid (and racist) to suggest there isn't healthy debate or respect for diverse ideas there. What is and isn't carried in school libraries is easier to prove.
This is a great point. I use my town library for books and also because I'm too cheap to pay for streaming and can borrow DVDs of most shows I want to watch (cheaper than streaming and no ads). It's sad how few people there are in the library these days.
I also read while exercising and have only noticed 1-2 other people at the gym who do the same. Everyone else is just scrolling crap on their phones. I try to alternate what I read between conservative, liberal and then fiction for enjoyment.
I listen to books when I run. I never could actually read text of any kind in teh gym.
I appreciate the point, but want to say for the record that I read books on my phone while I exercise on treadmills and the like. I find the ability to change text size and the bright backlighting much easier on my aging eyes.
That’s interesting to me - I live in the Twin Cities suburbs, and go to one public library or another at least once a week. There are always a lot of people there, and popular new media always has a long waiting list. (I’m 138th on the list to borrow “Oppenheimer” on DVD.)
If only politicians had the backbone to ban TikTok, whch has been proven by no less than '60 minutes' to be Chinese propaganda designed to weaken our society and strengthen theirs with a different version
Exactly Brent. China is and has been at war with us for years. TicTok is only one of many ways they are sowing chaos in our society. We underestimate their guile, determination and patience in instituting their long term plan to usurp the U.S. as the world's hegemonic power. They know they can't fight our military in a straight up war, so they work assiduously to weaken us through internal division, corruption and chaos. The evidence is all around us.
Brad, about the geographic distribution, up your reading comprehension. The author states: "I surveyed the library catalogs of 35 of the largest public school districts in eight red states and six blue states, representing over 4,600 individual schools." But maybe you would only be content with a listing of the 35 school districts, or may be the specific schools?
Although I agree that an interesting data point would be how often any of these books are checked out, the point being made here is not what the kids are reading, but the effort by librarians to skew the available books to one perspective and actively avoiding books with another perspective.
We likely have a problem with both.
I take your point, Brad. James' study is, however, still very telling and is valid even if not scientific. If the books aren't there to read, they aren't being read. Again, your point is certainly very well taken and the dilemma concerning how to raise children so they are both educated and entertained using the wonderful technology that happens to also have brought us the negative influence like TikTok.
Can't check out what's not on the shelf, right? In fact, a study focusing on which books are checked out and read would be misleading if you did not analyze which books are available to be checked out first.
Brad, do kids even read? My gut tells me that library books, progressive or not, are collecting dust..unless specified in class.
The fact that Thomas Sowell’s books aren’t available in these school libraries is almost criminal. Students don’t need to agree with him but, at the very least, they would see how cogent arguments are made based on actual evidence.
I was an economics major in college in the late 70s and early 80s. At that time I’d read some Milton Friedman as he was a big name in the field. I’d never heard of Thomas Sowell. I stumbled across him very recently and I find his arguments extremely compelling. I have ordered five of his books and I’m listening to his
“Basic Economics - A Common Sense Guide to the Economy” on an apple podcast called “Knowledge = Power”. This book, along with hundreds of other titles are free.
"While Dreams from My Father, the memoir by former Democratic president Barack Obama, is found in 75 percent of sampled districts, and Becoming by his wife Michelle is found in 65 percent, memoirs by Republican politicians Nikki Haley, Vivek Ramaswamy, Mike Pompeo, Tim Scott, and Ron DeSantis are essentially nowhere to be found."
I think this is an apples-to-oranges comparison: that is, things that are very much alike (round, fruit) but also different in significant ways.
Barack Obama was president for eight years, and Mrs. Obama was - media being what it is - a major figure. Their newsworthiness (edit: or historical significance) was increased by their being the first black couple in the White House. On the other hand, none of the Republican figures mentioned has been president. Some, such as Ramaswamy and Pompeo, haven't been in any elective office.
This is not an argument against Mr. Fishback's thesis. I just think this particular example doesn't add much weight.
I was thinking that books about either Bush, Laura or Barbara would be a more direct comparison.
That would be much closer, although the direct comparison would be books "by" President or Mrs. Bush.
Many of the author's examples are cross-genre comparisons. "Freedom Is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement" by Angela Davis is a work of Marxist propaganda. "Bibi: My Story" by Benjamin Netanyahu is a very, very long political autobiography. (I'm a fan of Bibi, but I didn't make it all the way through.)
Ibram X. Kendi's books are also polemic, while Thomas Sowell's are instructional (Basic Economics, Applied Economics) or works of intense analysis. I had to check out "Knowledge and Decisions" four times (3 weeks each) before I got through it, and I'm an intense reader.
I would suggest that the school library selections show a bias toward fluff, in addition to other biases.
I personally own a copy of at one of Mrs. Bush’s books so that’s what I was thinking rather than a true biography.
I would guess there’s a fluff and recency bias.
Good point about recency. Especially at the K-8 level, administrators might reasonably say, "Our students have never heard of (either) President Bush."
If an 8th grader has "never heard of either President Bush" (likely an accurate assumption, given the sickening state of public education in this country) we have another order-of-magnitude serious problem. (spoiler alert: we do.)
I agree.
Dreams was written well before Obama was elected. It’s supposed to be autobiographical but is riddled with made-up stuff. This book was a young Obama’s attempt to invent a mythical narrative about himself. IOW--trash. Any why anyone would want to read a book by bitter Michelle is beyond me. What did she even accomplish as first “lady” other than whine about how hard the job is?
Yes, but I still gotta say it's apples to oranges. Best comparison would be autobiographies of those who got to the White House.
If a library has those for the Obamas, Bushes, Trumps, Clinton's, and Reagans, but for governors, isn't that equal application of a standard?
I agree, but that wasn't the point. It would be interesting to know if any school students check these books out.
Availability does matter. As an ELA teacher I would have loved my students to have access to books representing multiple points of view. If the books aren't there, the teachers would be hard pressed to assign them. (Generally speaking, kids don't check out non-fiction without prompting--or coercion.)
And how she (poor Michell) was held to a different standard because of being black? That’s right! He got Nobel even before he stepped into Oval office and accomplished anything and she was on the cover of every possible magazine.
That's not how equity works though. In a merit world, your argument makes sense. But in an equity world, any disparity is proof of discrimination.
Very good point. I probably shouldn't have taken that logic class in college: it made me just impossible.
Great point, and thanks--this made me laugh out loud after a rough day. Will share with my friend who is a Philosophy Professor with a great sense of humor.
I was going to post the same sentiment. Would be better and more illuminating to compare White House inhabitants with other White House inhabitants. The current comparison is not a metric one could use persuasively.
The other thing that limits readers' ability to extrapolate is that the data universe is Blue cities in Red states. What are the stats for Blue cities in Blue states? Or Red rural areas in Red states.
This article has a lot of good info, but I'm hesitant to forward it to my Deep Blue friends like I did his two articles on the putative death of high school debates. Even my Indigo friends readily acknowledged that was disgraceful.
If I forward this piece, I'm pretty sure they'll flag these two items, and I don't know how I would counter...?
I completely agree. While I think he makes a lot of good points, there has to be room to discuss the literary merits of the books + authors as not all are created equally. The comparisons don't feel quite right. I think he could have found more compelling right-wing examples, and in not doing so, it suggests that right lacks intellectual substance.
Most of the books I would suggest as solidly conveying the values I would want to promote are not oriented toward children. To be fair, neither are the left-leaning examples given.
Better than Bibi's terribly long memoir would be his brother Iddo's "Entebbe," about their brother Yonatan and his leadership in the rescue of hostages from Uganda in 1976. That's a cracking heroic adventure. Natan Sharansky's books are more about Israel and world events than about partisan politics.
I think Thomas Sowell is America's greatest living intellectual, but his books can be pretty heavy going. There are books by Walter Williams, Larry Elder, and others that offer excellent points in the same genre but are easier to digest.
People like Vivek, Nikki, and Ron are in the news constantly today. The Obamas are not. Having at least 1 book by any of them would make sense...unless you are purposely trying to keep people from getting their side of things.
Yes Obama was pres, but the point is we are talking about important well known political figures. The fact that most schools, regardless of district have one and not the other does matter. It isn't a direct comparison, but what would be? The Bushes were in the Whitehouse before any kids in school were alive and they are rarely mentioned in the news, so most kids barely know who they are.
I agree that there could be better comparisons. But we are still talking about common fruits. Why so many apples and no oranges?
I don't think the author compared "books by today's unsuccessful Republican nomination seekers" with "books by unsuccessful Democratic nomination seekers" or "books by the overall population of unsuccessful presidential nomination seekers."
If they had a book by Amy Klobuchar but not one by Tim Scott, that would be a same-to-same comparison.
I understand you are trying to find a 1 to 1 comparison. But I don't think that is the point. And I also think it is largely subjective anyway. The point, to me, is the overall disparity between the 2 viewpoints. He isn't doing a purely scientific statistical analysis. He is simply showing that I can walk into almost any school library and have a good chance of reading a Democratic former president's PRE-presidential book, but not one school has a copy of any current major conservative politician. Even in the states that are supposedly banning books.
I feel like you are picking nits that don't really refute the overall point.
In my very first comment on this topic, I said that the point I had chosen to discuss did not constitute disagreement with the entire thesis.
I thought this also. Still a good article but this particular point wasn’t a good comparison.
Pompeo was a congressman, but your point is valid.
Thanks! I didn't remember.
It sounds a little like political tokenism: if you've got a book by a Democrat, you have to have a book by a Republican too, or vice-versa. If one book sold seven million copies and was translated into dozens of languages, whereas another book sank like a stone and was remaindered, then demanding both be shelved is not really asking for equal treatment, it's asking for special treatment. We don't like it when the President of Harvard gets special treatment, so why should we like it when failed politician #1M+5 gets special treatment? This would be a better argument if it had better examples. What's the global bestseller libraries are ignoring because it's right-wing? If all we can think of are damp squibs, then the quality argument is more plausible than the censorship argument.
I don't disagree with this point.
I would add, however, that in a number of arenas, there is massive progressive pressure aimed at preventing the commercial success (or "inclusion") of certain books -- that is, campaigns in Amazon reviews, GoodReads, etc., claiming that this or that author's book is x-phobic, that the author is a racist or x-phobe, etc. These campaigns are not always successful, but sometimes they are. (See: MY BODY IS ME, by Rachel Rooney, a simple picture book that most large bookstore chains refused to carry because activists claim that its message is thinly veiled transphobic propoganda. Abigail Shrier's IRREVERSIBLE DAMAGE has battled endlessly with exclusion by American book distributors ... Target pulled it from their shelves, denouncing "harmful rhetoric." Amazon wouldn't let the publisher advertise the book on its site. Even today, just a month ago, the Japanese publisher Kadokawa has canceled its Japanese translation (and deleted a Twitter thread promoting the book) ahead of a planned protest outside company offices.)
And that doesn't even mention the campaigns to prevent unapproved books from ever being published in the first place (a rampant problem in YA literature, which is notorious for piling on with claims of racism, appropriation, and phobia to the point of getting books postponed or withdrawn either by the publisher or the author in the face of accusations of racism, phobia, cultural insensitivity, and misappropriation).
So ... is it reasonable to hang a "bestseller" requirement on book inclusion in libraries if concerted campaigns to ensure that certain books do not become bestsellers are so rampant -- and effective?
I absolutely agree that "there is massive progressive pressure aimed at preventing the commercial success (or "inclusion") of certain books..." but I don't think that really answers the parity objection. To take your example, IRREVERSIBLE DAMAGE met with such massive pressure and prevailed. It became a bestseller on Amazon despite whatever pressure was thrown at it. Target removed it from sales, but had to put it back after a day. It got so much press about its suppression that its sales might have gone up from free advertising. The biggest problem with the campaign against it is that it is an excellent and timely book, one of the Economist's books of the year for 2020. It has sold well, had a huge impact, and has been translated into multiple languages. So it meets the quality standard - most definitely not a damp squib - and thus could an example to see if your library is exercising viewpoint-based censorship.
I agree.
Not to mention the Obama are celebrities in a celebrity-obsessed culture.
Agreed
I also wonder if the author didn't have access to a public library as a student. He says the school library was the only source of books for himself and his friends. Even the People's Republic of Charlotte-Mecklenburg library system has all the up-to-date conservative political books, including, in the children's biography section, a book about Nikki Haley. (Probably not Mike Pompeo, though. I've actually forgotten what he did, anyway. CIA director for a while?)
I wonder whether the school library systems evaluated by Mr. Fishback contain the illustrated biographies of elected officials such as Nikki Haley, as opposed to their ghostwritten memoirs.
Access to a public library is not really the issue. Most of the, say, 4th through 12th grade students are not going to voluntarily go to a public library anyway (unless they have that type of what is becoming a very rare parent). So by default, the school library is what they have at hand to consider and are required to consider. That choice is amplified by teachers who recognize that their choice of book assignments is, from a practical perspective, limited to what is available at the school -- and since the selection happens to conform with the ideology of most teachers in any event, they are not too troubled by the limitations imposed by an unbalanced book selection.
People who don't go to the public library are aliens. That's just bonkers.
That said, I agree about the left-wing orientation of the schooling industry, its employees, and much curriculum content, including library materials.
Many students and their parents do use online library books (school and public library) and others use online amazon books. Many online library books are often a library consortium which means that the collection reflects the purchasing power of several libraries and the variety of books is amazing.
In the upstate NY town where I live (it's not 'home' for me) the town library and local bookstore have a remarkable lack of diversity of thought in the catalog and on the shelves. Now that my son is in HS, it is incredibly hard to find fiction for him in these places. And I don't have access to many of the books that would interest me unless I find and buy them online. As an example, Honestly just hosted Joe Nocera talking about his book The Big Fail. In my public library catalog, which covers multiple libraries in the Capitol Region of New York, there is ONE copy in the catalog.
Sounds like a reason to move to Charlotte ;-).
Back in the Bush administration, I was approached by someone from the Bush team as a possible presidential appointment to a national library council -- because, as I was told, they were having a lot of trouble finding any Republican librarians at all. It came to nothing, but there was clearly a problem even then. As a working librarian now, however, I'd move the analysis further upstream, especially to the review sources that most librarians use to select books, which are now all unabashedly progressive. Hornbook was probably the last to give in, but Choice (for academic libraries), School Library Journal, and especially Booklist -- the journals that dictate 90% of book selection for libraries -- make no effort to hide their partisanship. For children's books the only mainstream exception I can think of is Meghan Cox Gurdon's review column in the WSJ. Book jobbers (suppliers to libraries) are another place to look: which books do they stock and recommend? And then, of course, publishers themselves. It is because there is an entire library ecosystem -- a severely biased one --, in which individual school districts, libraries, and librarians are probably the least consequential component, that I do not take complaints of censorship at that local or even state level very seriously.
I'm a high school librarian -and Paul, you've hit the nail directly on the head. It's almost pointless to read book reviews as they are clearly imply anything not progressive is not worth buying. I have (I hope) a good selection of books representing both sides of the political/social aisle. BUT. I seriously worried that I'd get called on the carpet for having a copy of Woke Racism in the library. I was also questioned by a staff member for not having The 1619 Project, and I definitely didn't think it was worth my job to present my reasons for not having it, so I bought it. The YA book market has seriously skewed towards LGBTQ. I do have quite a few fiction books with LGBTQ characters, but -here's a news flash-not all teens are interested. In fact, most aren't. And all this obscures a much, much bigger issue, which is that most of the books in my library are never checked out, never read. It saddens me that my profession has devolved in these ways.
Yes! In 2020 I retired from an elementary school library. Many 4th and 5th grade students weren't interested in checking out books at all unless the books were graphic novels. In any one class there would be only one or two students who borrowed books and actually read them all the way through. We had so many great books in our library, many of which I read, and I thought there were so many students who didn't know what they were missing.
It's heartbreaking, isn't it? This from The Nation's Report Card:
"The percentage of students in Maine who performed at or above the NAEP Proficient level was 29 percent in 2022. This percentage was smaller than that in 2019 (36 percent) and in 1998 (35 percent)"
I'm finding that many students in our high school are reading at about a 4th grade level. How do we engage them with seminal works of literature and nonfiction demanding deep thought and engagement when they can't understand what they're reading?
https://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/subject/publications/stt2022/pdf/2023010ME4.pdf
Wow, same reading level as the medium/max inmates at the prison I used to work in. Have to say, some found reading a fabulous 'escape' from the reality of prison life, that was rewarding for both of us.
The more anyone reads, the higher their reading level. Studies show that reading for interest instead of for reading level is the best way to boost ability!
For a glimpse of why kids struggle to read, listen to the podcast, Sold A Story. It discusses how, when and why phonics was deemed unworthy and what replaced it.
After listening to the series, I was furious because 2 of my four kids had a hard time understanding what they read. They could read the words on the page, they just couldn’t explain the content. Luckily, three of them are doing well and the other is at grade level.
Public schools are badly broken and the teachers unions are largely to blame. I have argued with our districts curriculum director, now titled “director of teaching and learning” due to her quest for a phd, about book selections and curriculum content and I’d have a better outcome talking to a hamburger.
While there is discussion about kids using tik tok as their life coach, many parents are ignoring their kids while they are on numerous social media platforms themselves.
Man, the 70’s and 80’s were the best times as a kid...
Matt, there seems to be renewed interest in phonics, which I think is encouraging. I appreciate your recommendation of Sold a Story, I have a feeling it's going to support everything I've been witnessing for the past decade.
A few years ago the reading curriculum championed by Lucy Calkins was all the rage in our town. Teachers would give us lists of books required for teaching and expect the library to have several copies of each book. Did they think we were a bookstore? Many of the requested books were older and out of print.
Calkins and her co-horts knew their methods were faulty as proven by real research but they kept pushing it and made a bunch of money while hurting kids. My kids were taught using her terrible methods and I asked their teachers how memorizing and guessing at words was better than actually LEARING to read? They could never give me a straight answer.
On a side note, I am friends with a few elementary school teachers and they are burned out after about 10-15 years. They often cite parents as a big reason they don't like their jobs. I wonder if the kids learning to read instead of guessing at what the books say would change parents minds about schools and teachers in general, resulting in better teacher/parent interactions?
Declining reading skills is the canary in the coal mine. Intellectually, we are shortchanging our future. This will not end well.
A tip from my kids elementary school, which has created a craze around the library: the kids have to read two books each week and pass an AR test. There are prizes and accolades for getting the most points. I thought this would result in reading being a chore for my kids until the tantrum I witnessed when my kid couldn’t go to the library to get more books bc he left one at home. That kid makes me take him to the library every weekend!
I worry what he will come across at the public libraries as a teen bc the librarians put the transgender stories in promotional displays. I even have to steer him away from books promoted in the kid section, bc they are anti-racist baby books.
My daughter loved the Pizza Hut program back in the day. Sometimes even the simplest public appreciation is a great motivator.
We used to do Accelerated Reader at the middle school I worked at, and it was a huge hit! Then, for some reason, the Language Arts teachers decided to phase it out.
I was a middle school librarian when Accelerated Reader first came out. Teachers and kids loved it because they didn't have to do book reports anymore! I resented spending my sparse library funds on the tests, though. I got so that I called it Accelerated Cheater! Lol!
| ... most of the books in my library are never checked out ... |
Do you find this is a recent trend or did it start further back? I know TV replaced reading for a lot of people long before the internet was even a mainstream thing. If it is recent, do you attribute it to social media, shorter attention spans, something else? I'm genuinely curious about this as I love reading and it seems only one of my nieces and nephews feels similarly.
I think a big part of the problem goes back to the "whole word" approach to teaching reading. It was a well-meaning, but ultimately catastrophic, attempt to help children become life-long readers. I fear that unless, and until, the schools return to the time-tested system of phonetic instruction in early childhood this problem is only going to get worse.
There is increasing attention to returning to phonics, particularly in the early years of learning. Some models are weaving the phonics in for early learning; leaving 'cueing' methods in during later stages. Even EdWeek has a few articles on it, there are glimmers of hope and sanity.
Agree!
Interesting, I had to look up what the "whole word" approach even is as I knew nothing about it. Thanks
Thank you for the question, Scott. The circulation stats for my library show a steady decline since 2008. Add to this, many classes don't assign as much reading as they have in the past ("because the students won't read it anyway"). I absolutely believe that devices have lead to shorter attention spans. Have you heard of the "Attention Economy"? https://www.nngroup.com/articles/attention-economy/
It's not all about the kids: children tend to mimic the behavior of their parents. Parents who read, and have books in the home, have an enormous effect on kids. That said, I believe the problem with students not reading, and/or having low reading levels, has been incubating for quite some time as we have a large segment of our population who don't have the stamina to read anything longer than a post.
Interesting, thanks. I just don't think people get the same satisfaction from reading a short post, or watching a TikTok video, as they do from reading a book or, for that matter, watching a feature length movie. I've been working on learning Spanish for several years, for example, and the moment I stopped translating everything to English in my head felt AMAZING. Same thing in college when I was able to make it through The Iliad. Have never felt that kind of satisfaction after watching, say, a YouTube video.
With work comes reward! It's funny how the concept of hard work somehow got confused with anxiety over the course of the COVID era. I almost wonder if some of the symptoms that kids are experiencing in droves could be alleviated by focusing on real educational challenges.
IIRC smart phones arrived in 2008.....
I had no idea, but that certainly provides a lot of context!
Well said.
I'm a long-retired school librarian--most years as a middle school librarian. There were always those who were avid readers, but most students just didn't have the time or desire to spend time reading. Part of that problem can be solved at home if reading is valued. My goal was to walk students through books that I thought might capture their interest. If I could fund just one book that a reluctant reader could finish and enjoy, I felt as though I had given them a lifetime gift.
And you did! The part of my job that I like the most is trying to find a book for a reluctant reader. Over the years, I've gotten pretty good at coming up with something interesting for almost every taste. There's a unique social connection that forms over reading the same book and discussing it, and there's alot of value to it.
As a long-retired school librarian I have great respect for what you do. I can't imagine trying to choose what books to buy nowadays. And I imagine the book budgets are still pretty limited, so that you hate to buy books that are not going to circulate. Hopefully, you aren't pressured to carry those pornographic graphic novels like Gender Queer. I found it more than shocking to think people advocate for such books to be in school libraries.
Hang in there! There are so many excellent books that kids still love to read! Both fiction and non-fiction!
Thank you for your support, it is needed and appreciated! Thankfully, I'm given a lot of autonomy to purchase books for my library -I'm grateful to have my professionalism respected. And, you know, there are a LOT of excellent books out there!
Someone interview Paul on this so we can get the full perspective. This, about the review sources,vwas more insightful than the entire essay. Thanks!!
Agreed. Not to mention Scholastic’s stranglehold on elementary libraries.
If you want to look "upstream" you also need to look at your state's universities. Typically the schools of arts and sciences and the schools of education are dueling to see which one can be the most woke. The students of these two schools are fed a diet of progressive pablum on a daily basis. The national library organizations, publishers and reviews are seeding what is already plowed ground curtesy of your state's higher eduction dollars.
This isn’t just a library problem or an Ivy League college problem. Looking at this list of books, as someone who has a degree from Hunter college and Brooklyn college, both City University of New York, I can say that I was familiar and had to read most/all authors on the progressive list, and was never assigned any reading from the conservative list. The brainwashing happens at city colleges too.
To your point--a friend is getting her MSW at Stony Brook and was assigned ibram x kendi for a paper she had to do. Quickly did she parrot the line that "black trans women are the most oppressed!" How in the world do you actually help people when you're brainwashed to not see them as individuals but as victims or oppressors. These CRT librarians give me the chills.
At my theology school, many people were taught that and wrote about it to get their degree. Whether they actually believed it or not..we don’t know. Certainly some, in the right environment, would not criticize it, but neither did they really believe it.
I was just coming to say something similar. As a former progressive I spend a lot of time thinking about how the fuck I could have been so certain of what I was pushing for so long. And part of the reason is that my (higher) education (and lord, there was a lot of it, including from a CUNY school) had almost NO exposure to conservative thought or perspectives on any of the subjects I was trained in. And to the extent that any of it was brought up at all (certainly not as assigned, serious, in-depth reading and analysis), it was to offer a foil to the "proof" offered by the progressive theories and approaches.
And that's not to say that I even agree with any conservative positions now, just that they were all framed as *objectively* incorrect (and white supremacist, of course) by The Science™, therefore not worthy of serious consideration or study.
Same experience here. When I finally discovered what conservatives actually believed, it was like, “Oh. Actually that makes a lot of sense.”
I'm a conservative from Idaho. It gets on my nerves to be called a crazy and a racist and a white nationalist, among other pejoratives! I'm even educated and well read. I was also a school librarian for a couple of decades, but retired before complete insanity took over. There is so much good literature out there to read. And if teachers emphasize critical thinking, we should be able to escape ideological wars. But we have screwed up somehow!
This stuff goes way back. I worked in the library IT department of a major university back in the 80’s. As my boss, who’d been around the block in that world, commented ‘This is the only library I’ve ever worked in that has a foreign policy’. Seemed like a funny joke at the time..
The answer is the librarian’s have a stated mission to push Marxists ideas. This is a concerted effort. They are in every education institution. Not to be too dramatic but I find it dystopian and creepy like invasion of pod people.
Sigh, there are many librarians who resent and are frustrated by the current head of ALA becoming the issue above the issues facing the libraries and working to resolve them. Marxism is not a library issue....how to handle parents that view the library as a babysitter for their young children is a problem. What is the library's liability, can and should a program be created to accomodate this need, etc.? Should collections include non-book items for example I can check out walking sticks at my library? Are YA books which use to be high school books, are now also middle school books, beginning to slide into elementary school?
What is the libraries role in the ongoing drop of reading levels in the US and how to correct it?
I believe you that there are many frustrated librarians. Just as I believe there may be many frustrated teachers having to deal with administrative heads. And policemen, airline employees, business owners, baseball players,retail employees and on and on.
The fish stinks from the head down and rots the whole.
Are you okay with a Marxist leading the libraries and do you doubt her words when she says her intentions to push her ideology in the whole? What about the battle to have drag queens reading to young children and the insistence to do so? Yet Christians are often refused? What about balance in the books being offered or the books you mentioned moved to a younger category?
It seems the ESL has impacted the way our children learn or should I say not learn the basics especially reading. There are concerted efforts to push reading literacy to the side in favor of teaching children to become activists for the social justice determined by collectivists.
How did this woman get the head position in the first place? I mean the democrats rail against Putin yet for some reason act like authoritarians.
You either agree with the American ideals of liberty and free speech and free association or you want to change the fabric of America into something else. That change is exactly what is happening here and now in rapid time. We can no longer ignore the obvious.
Agree, there seems to be a huge disconnect from those leading and those actually doing the job. There are so many times that I look at who is in charge and truly wonder how they were placed in their positions, especially, when truly worthy leaders were left behind. Is it the optics over merit? When there is a strong need for leaders who have a track record of resolving issues in all the fields that you mentioned and more, why go with optics?
One of the items that surprised me the most is how many elementary school children were being exposed in their homes to shows and information that was inappropriate for their maturity levels. For example, chidren who were 8 yo were playing "Squid Games" on the playground. Why were they watching this MA show? Why are parents electing to take their children to drag shows? Had talks with parents who wanted YA books for their 2nd and 3rd grade readers because they were intelligent and able to understand dating, sexual desires, etc. because the child watched and enjoyed the more mature x,y, and z movies and tv shows. (High readers at a young age need books that challenge their intellect while respecting their maturity) I find it baffling and shocking that parents and guardians ignore and fail to protect their childrens' emotional maturity despite having the ability, circumstances, and opportunities to protect their children's childhood.
Reading begins and develops at school, but the most important influence for raising a reader is in the hands of the parents. Provide the books that support your values and read them with your children. For young children, a kindergartener, if your religion prohibits talking animals then ask the librarian to show your child the nonfiction animal books that coexist with your values. Also talk with your older reader about why a book doesn't reflect your values and explain other choices that the character could have made and their outcome. Know what your child is reading and talk with them about the plot and author's viewpoint. No one wins when the library is a gauntlet for a young child!
The library is the most American embodiment of free speech. A school library has different goals from the public library since it is to be guardian ad litem and support the curriculum. A high school library collection is significantly different than the collection for elementary school. A public library should be a more diverse collection available for every library user. Defending rights as an American citizen does mean getting involved with libraries and schools rather than allowing others to dictate the directions.
Oh my gosh yes! Why are parents doing this with their children! Ugh and shameful.
My kids are all grown, but I have two grandchildren of the beginning reader ages. They both do well and for Christmas I did exactly what you suggested they received books.
Excellent article.
A couple of points -- first the definition of a 'banned book' in the US is not what most people consider it to be -- it is merely a 'challenged' book. In other words, someone put in a formal complaint about it.
Second, as this essay points out 'shadow banning' (ie the not stocking of books from a certain viewpoint or indeed because an author holds certain political views) is a problem both in the US and in the UK. This is a 1953 article on the difference between 'selection and censorship' and is well worth a read. https://www.ala.org/advocacy/intfreedom/NotCensorshipButSelection
The answer to both is more books -- people should actively consider requesting public libraries to stock books that they want to read or consider on the 'shadow banned' list. It is a positive, not negative thing to request a library stock certain books to maintain its impartiality. It is something members of the Women's Rights Network in the UK have been attempting to do recently -- request Gender Critical books from their local library, a project which took on new urgency after it emerged the libraries in North Yorkshire had delisted books after a single person complained.
The ALA fully supports the Freedom to Read statement which maintains the need for a library to be comprehensive and impartial (ie carrying both sides of an argument) https://www.ala.org/advocacy/intfreedom/freedomreadstatement
Thus, if you consider this is happening, start requesting the books and ensuring that censorship has no place in the public library system.
The answer is always more books, not fewer imho.
The answer is more books, you're right. But I would add, as a corollary to your point, that in the end what we really need is more readers.
I so agree. The rate of basic literacy in the US has declined, mainly due to teaching methods including the championing of the whole book method. I believe the rate of basic literacy in CA is worse than Rwanda's. However, one state which is improving is Mississippi and that is because they are teaching phonics. Without literacy in its citizens, the US cannot hope to maintain its current position in the world or indeed any semblance of democracy. Phonics works. America needs literate citizens.
Children are often turned off by books which force feed them morality as well -- Robert McKee makes this point in his book about screenwriting -- Story. It is so important to have a wide range of books and from diverse viewpoints because children are diverse. There is a discussion to be had about age appropriateness of certain subjects/books and where therefore they should be shelved within a library, but that is a different discussion.
Hooray! I was a Christian-university librarian for 20+ years (w MA & PhD but no library degree) and grew to despise the leftist ALA’s monopoly on library control thru its triple threats of accreditation (it alone accredits US library schools; and nearly all librarian job requirements include “must have MLIS or equivalent from an ALA-accredited program”), privileged publication (what an advantage for sales to have easy access to the institutions and professionals it alone can accredit!), and _de facto_ union influence on librarians and library leadership by the ‘must-go-to’ regional & national meetings and membership. I haven’t researched the matter but think the ALA may be unique in its unchallenged ‘Trade Privilege.’
I looked at ALA recommendations esp. for the YA (young adult) category — usually left-leaning and assertively pro-LGBTQIA+ and anti-traditional sexual morality — and concluded the ALA and its likes were sold out to the Left.
I urge every school district and public library system who do in fact believe in the marketplace of ideas and fair debate to sever ties with the ALA and support a sane alternative.
Also, would anyone research whether it has become an unjust monopoly?
The ALA is terrible!
It would help if more gay and lesbian people abandoned LQBTQIA+++ groups, loudly condemned them, and called out adults who are too interested in children and their "education". (I am not saying there aren't any.) Maybe we would not see stuff like this:
"Director of LGBTQ+ Organization That Helps Minors Arrested in Child Sex Sting"
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/madelineleesman/2024/01/17/lgbt-activist-arrested-child-predator-sting-n2633750
The initial response made by this center in Turlock, CA:
"In a statement shared on Facebook, the Rainbow Resource Center said that Slayton’s actions occurred “outside working hours and off-premises.”
The truth is that a pedophile named Dr. John Money popularized the "gender identity" concept. He was not a secret pedophile but promoted it as good for the children. He was the guy who did the abusive experiment on twin boys in the 1960s:
https://revolver.news/2022/07/tthe-disturbing-history-of-dr-john-money-pro-pedophile-sexologist-who-coined-term-gender-identity/
Almost every Democrat trope is a lie. From Republican book banning to George Floyd being murdered by Chauvin, a racist cop.
Lying is in DNA of the DNC. Just like every leftist, repressive organization. "War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength." Bill Ivey's campaign memo was Orwellian but unsurprising. Oh, and Jussie Smolett was set upon by two MAGA thugs on a frigid Chicago early morning. Why does anyone believe these pissant Pinocchios?
really, you want to die on the hill of defending and elevating Chauvin? This is why it's obvious MAGAs aren't serious about winning elections.
Really, you want to sacrifice an innocent man to the mob, just to appease their racist blood lust?
Despicable.
ditto Bruce,
Hopcat tends to take a rather extreme contrary point on some issues, mainly conservative vs liberal, in my mind.
this one, Chauvin, is a clear looser for him. Chauvin was not given due process (like someone else I know and love). His attorney was barred from showing film evidence. the official autopsy was suppressed in his trial and what exam was shown, was not commonly accepted practice in a murder trial. His own chief of PoPo lied under oath re the restraint used in the MPD, etc. The entire case was full of errors, suppression, and omissions with the end game decided before the game started. Minneapolis burned before the trial, maybe it would have burned some again after an innocent verdict. To subvert out justice system gets us where we are today. Lets get back on track if possible.
take care
The fact that the jury was informed the City of Minneapolis had paid a $27 million wrongful death settlement to Floyd's family told them that George Floyd was murdered by the police. No way could Chauvin get a fair trial after that.
Did SCOTUS dodge this one? I just don't recall. But if they did, they should all be impeached asap.
SCOTUS rejected Chauvin's appeal in November 2023. SCOTUS takes a very small percentage of cases presented to it. The denial of an appeal will never be the basis for an impeachment.
You really should see the documentary about Chauvin or at least read the recent Free Press article. You don't have to elevate Chauvin as a hero to acknowledge that he was unjustly sentenced.
The Fall of Minneapolis
https://www.thefallofminneapolis.com/
As James shows, this isn't about book bans, it's about curation. In this case, we see quite a bit of evidence that books are curated with a political bias. To go a step further, the hysteria about book bans is actually a hysteria about outside meddling in this book curation, which is occurring because the people entrusted with it failed to apply age appropriateness standards to any text relating to LGBT issues. This is the direct result of the DEI environment and the eagerness to increase the number of LGBT books, even though books about sexual preference are going to be mostly about sex. It's also easy to imagine librarians fearing reprisals if they passed over a book with graphic sexual content if it was an LGBT book. And so, this psychosis results in putting graphic sexual depictions in school libraries, something virtually everyone agrees is age inappropriate.
Well said. I was a middle school librarian many years ago. If I had known that some people would argue that Gender Queer should have been on my library shelves, I would not have been able to hold my tongue!!
We had very limited funds for our school libraries, so I had to choose books wisely. Porn books were never high on my list!
Great insight. Can someone at TFP let Nellie know - sometimes it’s hard to tell from her TGIF’s comments on this subject if she’s in on the joke re: “book bans”
The comments are great. All opinions are presented which is the goal. One commenter made the most cogent point to me though. Do kids actually read at all? The future for tolerance can’t be good if Tik Tok is the source of information.
I’m the rare public librarian who sympathizes with the article, but something else bothered me. While the profession presses a social agenda, little attention is given to the fact that SO MUCH OF THE GOOD SHIT is now behind a paywall on Substack. This as remaining print magazines continue to be culled from public library shelves.
I wonder if there is a way that a Library could have a subscription. Like the Library computers could auto log in or Substack could allow connections from the Library IP addresses.
Library subscription services are alive and well, it is just that now there are far more sources worth reading and almost all require $$.
I suspect the issues are financial/policy rather than technical. My frustration is that this is a traditional library issue that should be garnering more attention in the profession. And maybe it is, but I’ve seen little evidence of that based on quick scans of the standard professional periodicals.
Regarding some of those books, consider reversing the races. Would a book called "Black Rage" be even published today, let alone put in a school library? We're allowing naked, unabashed racism to proliferate and build up a body of hatred among youth, instead of trying to mitigate and reduce conflict and move towards a world where we can get along with each other. We're heading towards a much less friendly world than the world we came from -- you can debate whether that's a good thing or a bad thing.
Same with just the overall political polarization. Civil strife and conflict is coming at us really fast.
A different take on racism: "I was out there paintin' on the old wood shed,
when a can of black paint fell on my head.
I went down to rub and scrub,
had to sit in the back of the tub.
Paid a quarter,
half price." B. Dylan
You have my vote on that one, H. Forkenspoon..
Well done.
'Now, the man on the stand he wants my vote,
He's a-runnin' for office on the ballot note.
He's out there preachin' in front of the steeple,
Tellin' me he loves all kinds-a people...'
Some things will never change.
The what doesn't change, sometimes the how does.
Interlibrary loan, Libby, and Hoopla. Ways to get books that your public library physically doesn’t have. I was able to find many of the conservative thinkers listed in the article in Libby which I get access to free with my library card.
I don’t like librarians pushing ideological agendas, as I know some do, and public school libraries should have different collecting priorities than public libraries, but it’s a broad brush to say that all libraries are part of the liberal elite. I worked at a university library for a decade and was hounded by the university’s DEI concerns. Now I work at a small town public library where our biggest concern is using our extremely limited resources to create a space for the community to come together. We had 70 toddlers at story time yesterday to read books about snow. Hardly a left-wing propaganda machine.
The main concern is the direction things are going. No one expects small town libraries to be on the cutting edge of library trends. But each young person hired by your library in the future will bring university activist indoctrination with them. That's where the concern is.