What Johnny Shouldn’t Read: Textbook Censorship in America [Paperback]

Joan DelFattore (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 31, 1994

In this lucid, disturbing, and provocative book, Joan Delfattore offers a behind-the-scenes view of the ways in which special-interest groups influence the content of textbooks used in public and private schools throughout the country. Efforts to censor elementary and high school textbooks have proliferated in the past decade. Most challenges have come from ultraconservative activists who oppose evolution, racial and ethnic equality, nontraditional gender roles, pacifism, and a host of other issues that contradict their religious, political, or social views. Other protests originate with ultraliberal activists whose goal is to eliminate all negative or traditional descriptions of racial, ethnic, religious, or gender groups, without regard for accuracy or historical context. DelFattore focuses on recent federal lawsuits involving attempts to censor or ban biology, geology, history, home economics, literature, psychology, reading, and social studies textbooks. She vividly re-creates the story behind each lawsuit, describing how politically sophisticated national organizations turn local controversies into nationally publicized court cases. She also discusses how both ultraliberal and ultraconservative groups in Texas and California pressure their state Boards of Education to demand that sections of textbooks be eliminated or rewritten as a condition of selling the books in those states. Because California and Texas are such important markets, says DelFattore, publishers almost always make the required changes in the books, which are then sold nationwide. As a result, the content of American textbooks is heavily influenced by political and economic forces as well as by educationalconsiderations. DelFattore's investigation has profound implications not only for education but also for freedom of thought in the larger society. Her book will be mandatory reading for parents, teachers, school administrators, lawyers, librarians, and other concerned citizens.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Wielding an influence far out of proportion to their numbers, according to the author, well-funded ultraconservative activists have used federal lawsuits and intimidation in an attempt to censor textbooks and to color elementary and secondary school education with their views on everything from minorities to nontraditional sex roles, gun control, evolution, holistic health, anti-pollution laws and religious tolerance. DelFattore argues that these fundamentalists target not only multiculturalism, globalism and environmentalism but also the right of students to think for themselves. Focusing on recent federal cases, her important study examines the chilling effect lawsuits exert on textbook content by prompting publishers to quietly practice self-censorship. A professor of English at the University of Delaware, DelFattore also criticizes "politically correct extremists" who, in her view, censor part of the truth in their efforts to eliminate sexism and racism from texts. Her lucid critique should serve as a rallying point for parents, teachers and administrators who oppose textbook censorship. Readers' Subscription Book Club selection.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From School Library Journal

YA-- Students studying censorship will find a wealth of material in this thoroughly researched, extensively documented, and readable account of challenges to school reading lists in the 1980s. Cases are described in complete detail, from the first parental objection to the court hearing. Ramifications of the challenges as well as the outcome of the legal decisions are considered. YAs will have a greater understanding of the motivations of special-interest groups and the tremendous complexity of the problem after reading this book.
- Jackie Gropman, Richard Byrd Library, Springfield, VA
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 220 pages
• Publisher: Yale University Press (August 31, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0300060505
• ISBN-13: 978-0300060508
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,578,083 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Scary look at censorship, February 22, 2007

By 

Anyechka (Rensselaer, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: What Johnny Shouldn’t Read: Textbook Censorship in America (Paperback)

I'm delighted to discover that this excellent book is still in print. It really boggles the mind how there are actually people like Vicki Frost and Mel and Norma Gabler in America, people who want to dictate to everyone what kinds of textbooks should be used in public schools (rather like what the right-wing fundamentalist Dove Foundation does with movies). Because they don't go along with their view of the world, America, history, religion, politics, or whatever, it needs to be removed, and it's so horrible that impressionable schoolchildren are learning about things like the Great Depression, other religions, kindness to animals, telepathy in a science-fiction story, and feminism. The stories in this book are absolutely chilling.

The book begins with the story of the fundamentalist Frost family in Tennessee. Vicki, the mother, was horrified when her 8th grade daughter Jennifer (identified as Rebecca in the book) asked her for help with a homework assignment based on a story she was reading in English class, "A Visit to Mars." Young Jennifer was thrown for a loop because the story mentioned invisible Martians with telepathic powers. Mrs. Frost was even more horrified, and found out that in addition to telepathic powers (which her family considered to be demonic), Jennifer's textbook also contained stories featuring things such as anti-hunting themes, feminism, kindness to animals, and what she considered witchcraft and demonic powers. The Frosts, their minister, and some of their neighbors wanted the school board to remove the "objectionable" books and replace them with new books, but after the school board refused, the parents took matters into their own hands. They would come into the school to give their kids reading lessons, removing them from the classrooms, making a big public show over how they didn't want them inculcated with the evil filth in those naughty textbooks. The reading teachers complained to the principal, who said if they didn't stop, then he would have them reported and prosecuted. The children were then removed from the school, and the case went to court. It got so ridiculous that the judge finally announced that trying to define religion for the Frosts and their cohorts was like trying to nail jello to the wall, since every little thing was deemed un-Christian to them. One has to love the Frosts' objections to a story with an anti-hunting theme, since they felt that kindness to animals would bring about the end of the world by creating global unity, a universal language, a one-world government, the end of capitalism, world peace, and the rise of the Antichrist.

Another scary story in this book concerns the censorship activities of Mel and Norma Gabler in Texas, another dangerous group of fundamentalists. These people actually censored a timeline in a history book so that there was a big white blank just before Pearl Harbor, since learning about the Great Depression might not give schoolchildren a 100% positive view of American history. They also routinely remove all mentions of evolution from biology textbooks, forcing their creationalist viewpoint illegally into public schools. It's as though the concept of minding one's own business is foreign to these censors, or just homeschooling their kids if they don't want them exposed to science, history, other religions, or anything not 100% in line with their Christian fundamentalism. Although as anyone familiar with censorship knows, it comes from both sides. This book also covers attempts at censorship from left-wing groups. This type of censorship comes in the form of trying to be too inclusive and innocuous, such as leaving out discussions of racism or sexism in history, not allowing stories in which characters eat unhealthy food, or unsympathetic characters who so happen to be members of a group which historically hasn't always been portrayed very positively in literature or history textbooks, such as African-Americans or Catholics.

It's incredibly frightening to know that in this day and age, there are still people who feel that we should control and censor what other people, particularly children, can and can't read, trying to dictate to everyone what religion they should be, what they should believe about how the human race came into being, what to be offended over, and what political viewpoints to have. This book should be read by anyone who cares about upholding the First Amendment and protecting free speech, safeguarding our civil liberties so that future generations will still be able to enjoy them.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Essential for Understanding Real Revisionism, July 19, 2001

By 

Nichomachus - See all my reviews

This review is from: What Johnny Shouldn’t Read: Textbook Censorship in America (Paperback)

Anyone with curiosity about education policy in this country should immediately read this book. It is a study on how nearly invisible bodies of decision makers shape textbooks to their attitudes. She deals mainly with the state boards of education in Texas in California. One reason for this is that since they are the most populous states, publishers are more responsive to the attitudes and revisions of these two boards. Another reason is that since the political culture in the two states is so different, she can hardly be accused of anything other than excellent scholarship. The end result is that apart from the nature of political attitudes in these two regions, there is more than enough willingness to impose revisionist standards on what is eventually taught in the schools.

An excellent, and at times chilling, study of a nearly opaque process in our democracy; where views and attitudes of the current political climate are imposed on history, to the deteriment of history and of children.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Absolutely astounding., October 28, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: What Johnny Shouldn`t Read: Textbook Censorship in America (Hardcover)

Delfattore takes a case by case study of textbook censorship and what she comes up with is absolutely frightening. Anyone with a will can change the content of school textbooks. This is a must read for teachers!