Conflicts From The 1980s Reflected In Battles Over Book Bans
A conservative leader found fault with how “respect for our nation’s heritage” had been mostly stripped from the textbooks of public schools.
“From kindergarten right through the total school system, it almost seems as if classroom textbooks are designed to negate what philosophies previously had been taught,” the conservative leader lamented. “[M]any textbooks are actually perverting the minds of literally millions of students.”
A teachers organization shot back, saying the underlying motive for some attacks against books has “unquestionably been racial.”
This might sound like a back-and-forth from recent debates over removing books from school classrooms and libraries. Often, critical race theory – an academic framework for understanding racism – has been at the center of these debate...