Recommends the following considerations for teachers who must cope with censorship in public schools: (1) clarify professional role, (2) keep community aware of curricular goals and content, (3) develop clear selection policies for materials and rationales for using controversial materials, (4) handle complaints with carefully constructed…

With the advent of electronic publishing, the scholarly communication landscape at universities has become increasingly diverse. Multiple stakeholders including university presses, libraries, and central IT departments are challenged by the increasing volume and the rapidity of production of these new forms of publication in an environment of…

This article details the growth of student-based cyberbullying in the United States. The article argues that the current legal limbo of student speech issues originating in cyberspace has unfortunately led to inconsistent lower court decisions that continue to confuse as well as frustrate today's educators and parents who are required to confront…

Determining whether student speech occurred on or off campus can be difficult and requires evaluation of a multitude of factors, including whether the speech occurred during school hours or on school property, whether it occurred at a school-sponsored event, whether school resources were used in its creation or distribution, and the impact of the…

M. Karen Powers and Catherine Chaput's ""Anti-American Studies" in the Deep South: Dissenting Rhetorics, the Practice of Democracy, and Academic Freedom in Wartime Universities" begins a much needed discussion about the current and ongoing assaults against academic freedom in American universities, which have not received…

Publicity concerning school censorship too often centers on the clumsy, heavy-handed, and overt efforts of school administrators or other impact parties to control student speech or publications. In this article, the author contends that such obvious and oftentimes inept attempts at controlling student communication represent only the tip of the…

A 1964 television series, "Profiles in Courage," based on the late President John F. Kennedy's Pulitzer prize-winning book, featured the life of Mary Stone McDowell, a quiet, yet strong, teacher. Within peace circles, McDowell was a well-known figure. Yet what captured the interest of the show's producers was the stand she took during World War I.…

In a liberal-democratic society there is always a desire to separate the teaching of values from the teaching of reading, writing, and mathematics, the so-called value-neutral subjects. But teachers have learned--and every parent who has done homework with his child knows--that, like it or not, they teach values in the course of teaching these…

Nelson Mandela's autobiography "The Long Walk to Freedom" describes how an iconic political activist and freedom fighter reflected on, and sometimes modified, four core assumptions at the heart of his struggle to overturn the White supremacist, minority hegemony and create a free South Africa. Critical reflection's focus is on…

The author examines the reluctance of most American colleges and universities to address grade inflation. In addressing the problem of grade inflation, the author describes two proposals he made to his faculty's Educational Planning Committee. The first, presented in spring 2002, proposed that two new items be added to each course listed on…

This article talks about selection policy and provides suggestions on how library media specialists can update their selection policies to provide an atmosphere that facilitate inquiry. The selection policy is meant to ensure that the collection meets the needs of the school community as comprehensively and effectively as possible. Instead of…

With the rapid increase in information freely and easily accessible on the web to those who have access to a computer and the internet, there seems to be a corresponding decrease in critical evaluation of the sources of this information. All sources are taken to be sources of information and seem to be uncritically considered to contain reliable,…

Beginning in 1934, representatives of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) and the Association of American Colleges (AAC) met and drafted the definitive statement on academic freedom and tenure. Like the U.S. Constitution, the 1940 "Statement on Principles of Academic Freedom and Tenure" was a commendable, if deficient, product…

The author begins by asserting that tenure does have a future, even though cultural and economic trends in American higher education have brought it to near annihilation in the past decade. She is sorry to say that it has survived these trends for one troubling reason--tenure is the ultimate employment perk for very successful members of the…

Censorship of school library collections has risen significantly in the last few decades, and such attacks are increasing. American courts have ruled that students in schools have First Amendment rights and some degree of freedom of speech. Courts also have ruled that students have the right to information and to learn and discuss issues of…