“Books and ideas are the most effective weapons
against intolerance and ignorance.”
Lyndon Baines Johnson
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This blog/electronic pathfinder is intended as a resource for high school teachers and students on First Amendment and Intellectual Freedom issues. Its content is heavy in legal references due to the litigious nature of our current public school environment. It is meant as a protective, preparatory defense against potential and attempted censorship challenges or limits to our intellectual and academic freedoms in schools.
Banned Books Week Rocks!
BBW Display, 2005
Greatest Hits
Archived Posts
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2006
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December
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- Congress shall make no law respecting an establish...
- A Few Definitions to Know
- Key Supreme Court Decisions Focusing on First Amen...
- Online Links to OrganizationsSupporting Intellectu...
- You have to laugh a little. . .
- Legal Resources on the Webfor First Amendment andI...
- Library & School OrganizationResources on Intellec...
- Print Resources onthe First Amendment & Censorshi...
- Multimedia Resourcesfor Educators & Librarians For...
- Practical Resources for Librarians & Teachersof In...
- A Final Thought
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December
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Author Information
Expand Your Mind --
Read Freely!
Students Reading Zines & the Dissident Press
at the Wisconsin Historical Society
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“If there is a bedrock principle underlying the First Amendment, it is that Government may not prohibit the expression of an idea simply because society finds the idea itself offensive or disagreeable.”
William Brennan:
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In Dedication to David
We lost you far too soon.
What I've Learned
This online resource fulfills a requirement for the LIS 645, Intellectual Freedom, course at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Library and Information Studies. As noted above on the page, it is intended as a user-friendly, quick resource for teachers and students approaching First Amendment issues in the school setting. In creating the resource, I have learned the following:
** A blog format is intended more for interactive dialogue than for information delivery and archiving. There are significant limits to this product's format options that make for interesting organizing of information.
** Formatting the blog is a challenge -- yet a fun one!
** It is possible to provide too much information to one's audience, thus overwhelming them with data.
Most importantly in my development of this project, I have learned that even having the best resources and knowledge is not enough. Sadly, a classroom teacher can theoretically support full First Amendment rights for her students, but she must still abide by the community standards of classroom "propriety" or risk becoming embroiled in an energy and faith-depleting argument over the limits to intellectual freedoms in the public schools. She could have a statement of reprimand in her file, lose funding for any special programs she coordinates, or even lose her job (with allocation cuts needing no clear explanations).
Thank you to all who have informed this page: my high school students, colleagues, fellow graduate students and professors at the UW-Madison School of Library and Information Studies, and authors of all resources included in this online resource. If there are glaring errors in content or citations, please let me know. I will make changes as needed.
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