Goals

To build intrigue about banned books through a landmark Supreme Court case, to give a real-life example about why books get banned, and to begin thinking about the role censorship plays in society.

 

Details

Duration: 60 minutes

Assessments: Student reflections/journals, Student discussions

 

Description

1. We introduced the case study to students as an example of what happens when the rights of various groups of people within society are in conflict with each other. The specific rights introduced were:

-Students have the right to learn.
-Teachers have the right to teach.
-Parents have the right to know what their children are learning and the freedom to protest if they consider it unsuitable or detrimental.
-Americans have the right to control their local schools by appointing or electing school board members who assume legal responsibility for budgetary and curriculum matters.

2. We read the case study, Board of Education, Island Trees Union Free School District v. Pico (1982) as a class together.

3. Upon completing the reading, we had students answer the following question individually on a separate piece of paper: Did the Board of Education's decision to ban certain books from its junior high and high school libraries, based on their content, violate the First Amendment's freedom-of-speech protections?

4. After the students finished answering the question individually, we had a class discussion about the students' responses.

Case Study - Pico Case
Reading/Questions...
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Author Reflections

This was a good starting point to get students thinking about the issues that surround book banning. It is a good entry point to get students thinking about book banning as censorship and it brings to the class discussion various viewpoints of students.