Brown Bear, Brown Bear, Have You Been Banned?

Author Bill Martin, Jr., one of the world's favourite children's authors, joins the ranks of Robert Munsch, Shel Silverstein, Maurice Sendak, and Roald Dahl, as a challenged author.

According to "Name Confusion Gets Kid's Author Banned from Texas Curriculum," an article in the Dallas News, the Texas Board of Education removed Bill Martin from the grade three curriculum because they believed he had written books for adults that contain "very strong critiques of capitalism and the American system."

The book on Marxism, entitled Ethical Marxism, was actually written by Bill Martin, a philosophy professor from Chicago.

Pat Hardy, the member of the school board who made the motion to exclude Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do you See? received a warning about the author's supposed political tendencies from another member of the school board who had not read the book.

Michael Sampson, Martin's co-author on 30 children's books stated that Hardy's motion is "a new low in terms of the group that's supposed to represent education having such faulty research and making such a false leap without substantiating what they're doing."

My first thought upon reading this article was, "So what if he wrote 'very strong critiques of capitalism and the American system?'" Does that somehow negate the value of this children's book, used by many primary school teachers to teach colour? The reason for banning this book smacks of McCarthyism. The importance of reading the book being challenged is proven by this incident.

Check out the video of Bill Martin, Jr. reading Brown Bear, Brown Bear, then the spoof read by daddytypes.





There is still time to set your goal for the "Banned Book Challenge."

Fahrenheit 451 Burning with Irony

According to a news article in the Courier, Diana Berm, a sophomore at Caney Creek High School, of the Conroe Independent School District, Houston was offended by the language and content of Fahreneheit 451, the classic book about book burning and banning by Ray Bradbury. While Bradbury's book has been truncated by his publisher and strong language blacked out by well-meaning teachers, it has not been outright banned as far as I can tell (however, I am open to correction).

Alton Berm, the student's father objects to this novel being used as classroom reading material and wants to have it removed from the curriculum for all students saying,

"It shouldn't be in there because it's offending people. ... If they can't find a book that uses clean words, they shouldn't have a book at all....It's just all kinds of filth."

Although he had not read Fahrenheit 451, he found excerpts that go against his religious beliefs, including being drunk, smoking cigarettes, violence, "dirty talk," references to the Bible and using God's name in vain.

The book has been used in the county's curriculum for at least 19 years. A committee will now review the content of the book and reconsider its use in the classroom.

What is sad to me is the non story that has been published by the Courier and the amount of time a committee will take in reexamining its county's curriculum choices. As long as a student has a way of opting for a different novel, I believe their parents do not have a right to force the removal of materials that have been chosen by educators.

Watch the story.