Friday, March 25, 2022

Should We Designate May 3, 2022 as "Banned Book Day" at Fordham?

As many of you know, school boards all over the country, sometimes prompted by the actions of state legislatures, have banned books dealing with racism or LBGTQ issues from use in the public schools. Some of them have even removed such books from public libraries As a protest against these actions, an organization I work with, Uniting to Save Our Schools, has designated May 1- May 7 2022 as a "National Week for Teaching Truth." Some of the ideas the group has discussed have been teach-ins, marches, school walk outs, video conferences, tik-tok videos and arts projects, but in thinking of how to gain mass participation, especially by students, I thought it might be useful to sponsor a "Banned Book Day" where everyone carries a book widely banned by school boards to school with them ( eg "Beloved" "The 1619 Project" "How to be an Anti-Racist") and poses for group and individual photos with the banned books and creates videos of their actions for posting on social media If people think this is a good idea, I would like to designate Tuesday May 3, the next to last day of classes, as "Banned Book Day At Fordham." Please send me an email or Facebook message, if you would like to participate

1 comment:

Jesse Turner said...

Silence and apathy are not the responses of a free people. With you 100% brother.