Sunday, January 15, 2012
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
- Copies of books in TUSD Libraries?
- "Reports of TUSD book ban completely false and misleading"
- TUSD vs The Tempest: To teach or not to teach
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Friday, January 20, 2012
- Three of the banned books were approved in 2007, but not properly?!
- Video: What Huppenthal saw
- National Association of Multicultural Education responds to closing of Mexican American Studies Program
Saturday, January 21, 2012
- A Sampling of Children's Books used in the Mexican American Studies Program
- Dear Editors at the New York Times
Sunday, January 22, 2012
- ALA Midwinter Discussions of Tucson Ban of Mexican American Studies Covered by CNN
- Progressive Librarian's Guild: Statement of Censorship and the Tucson Unified School District
Monday, January 23, 2012
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Friday, January 27, 2012
Saturday, January 28, 2012
Sunday, January 29, 2012
Monday, January 30, 2012
- Arizona School Censorship Hit by Salvo of Protest from Free Speech Orgs and Educators
- Statement in Opposition to Book Censorship in the Tucson Unified School District
- TUSD Superintendent Pedicone Scolds University Professors
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Thursday, February 2, 2012
Friday, February 3, 2012
- Live Stream: Teach-In on Tucson with MAS Teachers
- TUSD Board Member, Michael Hicks: "if you do not trust your employee, you need to remove the employee."
Monday, February 6, 2012
Friday, February 10, 2012
Sunday, February 12, 2012
Saturday, February 18, 2012
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Wednesday, February 22nd, 2012
Thursday, February 23rd, 2012
Friday, February 24th, 2012
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
Thursday, March 8, 2012
- March 7th update from former MAS teacher, Curtis Acosta
- Modern Language Association: Statement on Tucson Mexican American Studies
- REFORMA Resolution in Support of the Students of the Outlawed Mexican American Studies Program in the Tucson Unified School District
Thursday, July 5, 2012
Thursday, June 6, 2013
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Additional information outside of AICL:
For insider updates from Tucson, read these blogs (on a daily basis):
Tuesday, January 24, 2012:
- American Library Association Resolution Opposing Restriction of Access to Materials and Open Inquiry in Ethnic and Cultural Studies Programs in Arizona, and a link to HB 2654 referenced in the ALA resolution, Arizona House Bill 2654
- Arizona Congressman Grijalva urges investigation of Arizona law
- CNN is reporting that Norma Gonzales, a teacher who taught in the MAS program, has been reassigned to teach American history and was asked to teach out of a textbook that says the Tohono O'odham tribe mysteriously disappeared. She has two Tohono O'odham students in her class. Among the books no longer being taught in the shut down MAS program is Ofelia Zepeda's Ocean Power. Zepeda is Tohono O'odham, teaches in the American Indian Studies program at the University of Arizona, and won a MacArthur Genius Grant.
- The "Joint Statement in Opposition to Book Censorship in the Tucson Unified School District" coordinated by the National Coalition Against Censorship
Efforts to support Mexican American Studies teachers and students:
- Donate to Save Ethnic Studies
- Librotraficante Caravan from Houston to Tucson
- Sign the petition at Save Ethnic Studies and receive updates from them
To order a copy of Precious Knowledge, a documentary of the Mexican American Studies program (view trailer here):
- Send an email to preciousknowledgedvd@gmail.com
- Send a check made out to DOS VATOS PRODUCTIONS to:
Dos Vatos Productions
4029 E. Camino de la Colina
Tucson, AZ 85711
The DVD is priced as follows---Individual: $28, Community Group, High School, Public Library, Non-profit: $40, University and public performance rights: $200
Let's be clear no book "banning" was involved. The issues are more serious than false claims of book "banning." In reality, no book has been banned in the USA for about half a century.
ReplyDeleteIf book "banning" is one of the arguments, it only telegraphs that the remainder of the arguments may be similarly specious. I know that is not what is intended. So I respectfully suggest dropping references to false claims of book "banning" or "censorship."
Even the ALA's own resolution in support of the curriculum does not use either word, instead opting for "restriction of access to educational materials," which may be accurate.
So I strongly suggest removing any false claims of "banning" or "censorship" from any of your arguments regarding the curriculum.
SafeLibraries,
ReplyDeleteIn answer to your assertion that “no book has been banned in the USA for about half a century”: In 1983, the US government banned Peter Matthiessen’s book, IN THE SPIRIT OF CRAZY HORSE, and virtually every one of the first edition copies was destroyed. After eight years of what has been called the “most bitterly fought legal case in publishing history,” the courts exonerated both author and publisher, and in 1991, the book was released in a paperback edition. I think the terms “banned” and “censorship” would be appropriate here, wouldn’t you?
Fast-forward to more recent events: In Arizona, the Tucson Unified School District (TUSD) shut down the Mexican American Studies program and seized a wide selection of amazing material by and about Raza peoples throughout the Diaspora—and including William Shakespeare’s “The Tempest,” Henry David Thoreau’s classic essay, “On Civil Disobedience,” and Paulo Freire’s “Pedagogy of the Oppressed.”
The difference between what the US government did in 1983 with IN THE SPIRIT OF CRAZY HORSE and what the school district did recently with the MAS books and curriculum material—and what’s more egregious—is the fact that the TUSD took this material away from ONLY the Raza students. The fact that the TUSD left a copy or two of several of the books in the school libraries does not diminish what they’ve done.
Nevertheless, despite the best attempts of the school board to the contrary, the Raza teachers are now engaged in the highest form of critical pedagogy, and the Raza students are now engaged in experiential learning about critical thinking and critical problem-solving, about racism, about colonialism, about struggle, and about resistance.
So, in essence, the TUSD has given the Raza students the opportunity to engage in precisely the kind of education that it’s trying to squelch, that more than replaces the books and curricula that have, for now, been taken away from them. This is REAL struggle—the kind they have been reading about. This is history being brought into the present and theory being put into practice.
According to definition, banned books are books that have been removed from the shelves of a library or classroom because of controversial content. But the significance of the TUSD’s actions carries more import than whatever particular terminology we choose to describe it. Restricted access to educational materials. Seized. Purged. Censored. Banned. For now, I’ll stick with “banned.”