The "inevitable and ubiquitous nature of censorship" forces teachers of literature to accept seven responsibilities: (1) to know literature of all types and all periods extremely well and to know what constitutes literary merit and adolescent appeal in any work; (2) to understand the implications of arguments for and against censorship; (3) to build an English department capable of fighting censorship through both discussion of works likely to be attacked and implementation of a formal policy for handling any attempted censorship; (4) to prepare a rationale and defense for any work to be taught in any class by any teacher; (5) to communicate to the public and to students what is going on in English class and why it is going on; (6) to woo actively community supporters of academic freedom and to gain support before censorship strikes; and (7) to recognize that the censor may sometimes have a legitimate complaint and to recognize that not all English teachers are defensible, either for what they teach or for how they teach it. (Author/MF)