On April 1st, the National Education Union, passed a motion to prevent ‘censorship’ in UK schools. Speaking about the motion, the General Secretary, Daniel Kebede, said:
“Fostering a love of reading, a thirst for knowledge, and an interest in the world around us is at the very heart of a good education system. Reading a wide variety of books, by authors from diverse backgrounds and with different points of view, is vital for developing critical thinking, curiosity and a passion for reading. Books create belonging and it is so important that the books read by children and young people in their formative years reflect the rich diversity of the society we live in.
“Any move to censor books in school libraries, based on misinformation and fearmongering, should ring alarm bells for all of us. The USA and Hungary are examples of countries which have implemented book bans in schools, primarily targeting books by women, Black and LGBT+ authors, and the NEU is clear that this is not a path we are prepared to follow in the UK.
“Children’s access to a wide range of literature is a fundamental good that the NEU is proud to defend. Developing critical thinking skills and students’ own responses will be even more important in the age of AI.”
The NEU is right that censorship is a bad thing. In George Orwell’s dystopian world, the people in power remove texts that pertain to a history that they are trying to rewrite. Throughout history despots have removed literature from libraries if it does not support the world view that they are trying to inculcate. However, there is a great chasm between the despotic removal of books from public libraries, and parents and schools choosing books for children because children need to be guided and protected. Safeguarding is not the same as censorship; if a parent or teacher decides that a child is not ready to read a book because of its content, that is their right.
The NEU’s position is a highly politicised one and only represents one narrow worldview. Critically, it frames children as independent rights holders who have the inalienable right to explore the world and discover their place within it, without reference to their parents. The NEU’s motion also places teachers and schools the arbiters and protectors of children’s rights. It shows that the NEU considers schools and the people who work in them to be the primary formers of the worldviews of our children.
Furthermore, the BBC article about the motion reported that the NEU said:
The union said it would work with other organisations to “develop a toolkit for librarians” and “fight censorship as part of our fight against the far right”.
The use of the slur ‘far-right’ is as predictable as it is alarming – it shuts down discussion and delegitimises any concerns or even opinions that don’t fit the preferred narrative of the NEU. In the same article, the BBC reports that the NEU motion came after a school in Salford had removed several books from the shelves as the result of an audit which deemed some books unsuitable reading for children — George Orwell’s 1984 and Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight series were raised as causes for concern. It is perfectly reasonable that a parent or responsible teacher might judge that their child is too young to read either text.
Notably, after a tip-off from one of our supporters, we reported on inappropriate and harmful graphic novels from the ‘Heartstopper’ series by Alice Oseman, which can be found in school libraries. The books are so contentious, mainly because of their explicit LGBT content, that they have been removed from school libraries in several American states, such as Florida and Michigan — not because someone has decided that they should not be read, but because schools consider that parents have the authority to say whether their children should read the novels. This decision has received considerable criticism from left-wing groups, decrying the measures to be ‘censorship.’
It is possible to make the argument that children should be exposed to a wide range of literary styles and themes throughout their school years. A whole range of books should be available in libraries, and children should have some freedom to follow their interests and explore topics that challenge and expand their worldviews. However, at the heart of this issue is the chasm between politically motivated censorship and good parenting. A parent might judge that their young teenager is not yet ready to read the torture scenes in 1984 or the sex scenes in the latter Twilight novels – this is a far cry from a dictator banning books. Furthermore, liberal parents, like any other parents, can buy whatever books they like for their children to read at home, whereas books in the school library have to respect the right of all parents, as Government guidance advises, to view and inspect resources used in their children’s education. We must call out the NEU’s use of provocative and politicised language such as ‘censorship’ and ‘far-right’ to criticise a straightforward parenting decision.
ParentPower Team
