This year, the “Banned Books Week” political campaign pushed by the three-tier library associations – the American Library Association (ALA), the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) and the TN Association of School Librarians (TASL), is scheduled to begin on October 1, 2023.
TASL’s website continues to include Banned Books Week in its political advocacy menu which showcases school library “banned book” displays.
The AASL has expanded the week’s advocacy to include “Banned Websites Awareness Day” complete with resources to support the political agenda of school librarians and AASL state chapters like TASL.
The “Teach Truth” political campaign promoted by TASL
Protesting against state Critical Race Theory (CRT) legislation, including Tennessee’s, several organizations launched the “Teach Truth” campaign:
Lawmakers in at least 15 states are attempting to pass legislation that would require teachers to lie to students about the role of racism, sexism, heterosexism, and oppression throughout U.S. history. In response, educators across the United States are signing a pledge to teach the truth.
The “Teach Truth Pledge” campaign was launched in 2021, led by the Zinn Education Project. The “pledge” which educators across the country were asked to sign states:
The “Teach the Truth” political campaign was organized by The Zinn Education Project (which is coordinated by Rethinking Schools and Teaching for Change), Black Lives Matter at School, and the African American Policy Forum.
The Zinn Education Project is named after Howard Zinn, author of A People’s History of the United States, a book which is often included on school reading lists and which has been criticized for it’s anti-American bias. Bill of Rights Institute President David Bobb, described Zinn as a “Marxist-inspired historian”… whose “arguments tend to divide, not unite, embitter rather than heal.”Sam Wineberg, a Stanford University professor whose research looks at how history is taught, learned and why students decide to believe what they believe, has also critiqued Zinn’s history book.
Regardless, both critics and admirers of Zinn’s work agree that his People’s History book is written from a dedicated bias.
In keeping with Howard Zinn’s alternative narrative of U.S. history, the Zinn Education Project provides materials that teachers can use to teach from a social justice perspective, resources for progressive classroom lessons and progressive book reviews, a clearinghouse for political activity as it relates to teachers and classroom instruction, and conferences in furtherance of the Project’s goals.All materials are based on Zinn’s viewpoint of U.S. history as offered in hisbook.
Rethinking Schools, Teaching for Change, Black Lives Matter at School and the African American Policy Forum were also part of the “Teach Truth” political campaign.
Rethinking Schools describes itself as “the preeminent publisher of social justice education materials in the United States”. Rethinking Schools met with Tennessee teachers to discuss how these teachers interpreted Tennessee’s CRT legislation and published in a piece titled The Chilling Effects of So-Called Critical Race Theory Bans.
Teaching for Change says it is about “building social justice starting in the classroom”.
Black Lives Matter at School organizes for “racial justice in education” which, according to its website, promotes “radical education policy resources”. This summer high school students were offered a virtual “Summer Freedom School”, described as “an alternative fugitive space for learning. A space where high school students can gain access to Black scholars and leaders and have a chance to unlearn the lies and re-learn the truths of Black history.”
A Black Lives Matter at School founding member who teaches high school students in Seattle says, “you can’t understand our country without understanding racism and its intersections with sexism and heterosexism”.
While it is not clear who produces materials disseminated or promoted by Black Lives Matter at School organizers, a staff writer at The Atlantic raises the question about the materials – or as he puts it, “the line between education and indoctrination”. Not all Black parents are on board with the curriculum offered by Black Lives Matter at School.
The African American Policy Forum’s goal is to “dismantle structural inequality” using an intersectional framework to tie together “race, gender, class, and the array of barriers that disempower those who are marginalized in society”.
TASL and the “Teach Truth” book list
TASL did its part to push the “Teach Truth” political campaign by partnering with the following groups and promoting a “Teach Truth Book List”:
TASL’s Teach Truth book list includes selections for elementary, middle and high school students as well as adult readers. An Ibram X Kendi selection is included for each level and group of readers. Kendi is considered one of the most vocal proponents of the elements that comprise critical race theory. Author of How to Be an Antiracist, doesn’t appear to believe that white people cannot not be racist. In 2020, he wrote in a tweet that, “[i]t is a belief too many White people have: if they have or adopt a child of color, then they can’t be racist.”
This series was originally organized for three parts, with Part 3 planned to address “intellectual freedom” as defined, actualized and defended by the library associations. Continued research has revealed much more to address, so the series is likely to include more parts. Intellectual freedom will come a little later.
Concerns have been raised about the swift adoption of the American Association of School Library National Standards (AASL standards) by the Tennessee Association of School Librarians (TASL) and TASL’s roll-out training in these standards to Tennessee school librarians.
A legitimate question is raised regarding whether these standards will be adopted outright by either the Department of Education or the Tennessee General Assembly, or whether, the adoption of the AASL Standards is a fait accompli via the new state-wide school library coordinator position reinstated by the legislature in 2022.
Will TN’s New State-Wide Library Coordinator Law Usher in the AASL National School Library Standards?
During the last legislative session, the Tennessee state legislature passed SB1784/HB1667 sponsored by Senator Jon Lundberg and Rep. Sam Whitson. The bill was signed into law by Governor Lee in late May and is codified at Public Chapter 1048. The bill passed unanimously in the Senate and with two abstaining votes in the House.
The law re-establishes a State Coordinator of School Libraries in the state Department of Education (DOE).
The state library coordinator position was an on-going legislative goal of the three-tiered library organizations. In 2019, the president of the American Library Association (ALA) and the president of the American Association of School Librarians (AASL), co-signed a letter to Tennessee DOE Commissioner Penny Schwinn, advocating to “reinstate” the position. TASL likewise encouraged their members to use “TN Library Legislative Day” to advocate for the state library coordinator position.
The new law requires that the position be filled by a “certified school librarian” who shall do the following:
(1) Assist school librarians in implementing the department’s strategic plan and student literacy and digital citizenship initiatives;
(2) Consult, guide, and train school librarians to strengthen school library programs for students in grades kindergarten through twelve (K-12);
(3) Provide input on revisions to the school librarian evaluation model;
(4) Work with the state library and archives to provide school libraries with equal access to high-quality educational reading materials and resources;
(5) Support the department’s work by promoting best practices among school librarians and technology coordinators; and
(6) Develop and promote strategies for school librarians to partner with classroom instructors to support school and district-level instructional programs.
Reading the new state law in the context of steps taken by TASL and individual school districts, it seems that the new state law, particularly as it pertains to requirements (2), (3) and (5), was written with an understanding that the AASL standards would be adopted either formally or informally through the required duties of the state library coordinator position.
Research has not turned up any Tennessee school library standards beyond minimum requirements for student-to-librarian and student-to-book collection ratios. Texas appears to have updated their state school library standards by adopting the 2018 AASL Standards.
The ALA and AASL require that any school librarian preparation program that wants ALA or AASL accreditation “must” use the ALA/AASL school librarian preparation standards which “reflect the ideals and language in the AASL [National School Library] Standards.” In fact, the first school librarians preparation standard requires that the AASL Standards be part of their training.
For example, the Masters of Library Science degree program at UTK is accredited by the ALA; Trevecca’s program is recognized by the AASL. The degree program at MTSU is pursuing ALA accreditation. The online degree program from ETSU says its curriculum is “aligned with the standards” of the ALA and the AASL.
The AASL National School Library Standards and TASL
In 2018, the AASL released updated National School Library Standards. Shortly thereafter, TASL was awarded a grant from the AASL to help roll-out training to Tennessee school librarians on the new standards. TASL formed an AASL Standards Task Force to provide the training. TASL has been training school librarians in the AASL standards even though these standards have not been adopted by either the Tennessee Department of Education or the State Board of Education.
The AASL Standards are discussed in Part 1 of this series.
https://www.alastore.ala.org/SELpb
Knox County has proudly made a big push early on in adopting the AASL standards. Sarah Searles, a Knox County district specialist in library media services for the county schools, published an article in 2019, titled, Implementing the National School Library Standards at the District Level. Searles has served on the board of the AASL and appears to be a leader in the library association network. She is the author of the Explore guide in the Shared Foundation series.
According to Searles, Knox County has “develop[ed] a new school librarian description based on the AASL standards” which presumably would be relevant to requirement (3) of the new state-wide school library coordinator position.
Searles writes that implementing the AASL standards across a school district means that “school librarians will have a clearly defined way of understanding that the standards are how we do business” instead of considering the standards as mere suggestions.
Advocates for adopting the AASL standards suggest that “standards-based practice” will better professionalize and elevate the role and educational impact of school librarians. This in turn will fortify the advocacy for preserving or increasing funding to ensure that all Tennessee schools have a certified school librarian.
Will Tennessee students benefit if the AASL National School Library Standards are formally adopted?
If TASL makes an effort to have the AASL standards formally adopted either through Department of Education or legislative action, it’s easy to see that the relevant decision-makers are likely to go along.
Unfortunately, DOE Commissioner Penny Schwinn’s judgment has been a matter of concern on various fronts including the no-bid contracts here and here, and being named as a defendant in a July 2022 lawsuit alleging that the Williamson County “Wit & Wisdom” violates state laws “prohibiting the teaching of Critical Race Theory and Common Core”.
Add to the mix was the kerfuffle Schwinn ran into with the Tennessee Senate Education Committee in 2020, over her alleged effort to exert improper influence over the state’s textbook commission. Former DOE employees have alleged that Schwinn created a “toxic” to ““a fairly abysmal” work environment, and at least one member of the House Education Committee threatened to call for a vote of no confidence if she didn’t work to repair the “trust” between herself and committee members.
Bottom line is that confidence in Schwinn’s decision-making is waning and with the very public concerns being voiced about school library book collections, public confidence is likely to hit ground zero should she come out in favor of adopting the AASL standards.
Of great importance as this moves forward is that fact that concerned constituents have access to their representatives and a greater opportunity to try and influence any decision to be made on this matter.
Since the General Assembly passed the bill opening the door to the potential adoption of the AASL standards, the least they can do is to ensure that a thorough and public vetting of the AASL standards happens.
To this end, legislators would be well advised to learn more about the standards, the activity guides, and the foundational structure of the standards. Equally important is for the relevant decision-makers to fully understand how the diversity, equity and inclusion elements embedded in the standards and which help drive the agenda of the three-tiered library associations, will impact students.
Part 2 of this series is focused on the Tennessee Association of School Librarians’ banned books campaign.
The Tennessee Association of School Librarians (TASL) “Banned Books Week” campaign is coming to schools beginning September 18th. Self-described activist school librarians will dare students to “rebel” by reading an so-called “banned book”. Updated AASL (American Association of School Librarians) national school library standards adopted by TASL, endorse banned book lesson plans and displays in schools.
Murfreesboro, TN
The three-tiered library organizations’ “Banned Books Campaign”
Under the guise of “celebrating the freedom to read”, the ALA (American Library Association), the AASL, and TASL push the “banned books week” campaign as part of a political agenda generally described as a “left-of-center approach to public policy”.
Led by the ALA which co-launched the banned books campaign, library associations have been pushing the banned books campaign for 50 years and have helped spread its popularity to bookstores and schools. Restrictions applicable to digital collections are under attack as well.
The “banned books” campaign is based on what the ALA ’s Office of Intellectual Freedom (OIF), deems “censorship” in any form which they say means removing a book from the library collection or in the case of “soft censorship”, restricting access to a book. TASL has likewise taken a forthright stand on censorship of books in school libraries.
It is not censorship, however, when a librarian declines to add certain materials to the library’s book collection. Nor was it censorship in 2019, when Katherine “Katie” Ishizuka and Ramon Stephen, founders of The Concious Kid, instigated a takedown of Dr. Seuss books based on allegations of racism. Their attack on the books convinced the National Education Association to remove Seuss from the Read Across America annual celebration in schools and instead, shift the focus to “diverse” books including “books about race, gender identity, and various other left-wing causes”.
The following year, Ishizuka was appointed editor-in-chiefof the School Library Journal (SLJ).
In a recent SLJ article titled School Librarians Must Lead the Ongoing Conversation About Problematic Titles and Library Collections, Nashville school librarianErika Long (who also serves as an AASL State Level Leader for TASL), says that when a librarian decides to remove a book it’s “basic [book] collection development”.
As another librarian put it, “[w]henever a book diminishes human beings through harmful stereotypes or racist language or imagery, that book has no business being on a school library bookshelf”.
In other words, librarians decide the which books make it into the library’s book collection and when librarians make value judgments to remove a book, it can’t be censorship because they were taught in school that “there’s pedagogy behind” these decisions.
The AASL is enthusiastically pushing “banned books week” out to state chapters like TASL whose website features past banned books displays from elementary, middle and high schools across Tennessee.
The TASL’s September 2022 Conference agenda
TASL’s 2022 annual conference will take place this year a week before ‘banned books week”. Many of the sessions align with the updated AASL Standards adopted by TASL including:
“ProjectLit + Ways to Advocate Through Book Clubs” presented by Nashville Cane Ridge high school librarian Tyler Sainato who will describe how she helped students become political activists around perceived anti-LGBTQIA+ legislation. Sainato was featured in a recent School Library Journalarticle centered around promoting the perceived needs of LGBTQIA+ students, including transgender students in elementary school. (political activism is a target goal of TASL’s advocacy directed at students).
Tennessee elementary school librarian Caroline Mickey (Alpine Crest Elementary School in Red Bank, TN), will talk about “Being an Ally” and “Activism for Introverts”. Mickey’s posted bio states that, “[s]he has been on a personal mission to expand her horizons and learn about her privileges so that she can acknowledge and work to help others recognize theirs. Caroline was recently quoted in a Washington Post article for standing up to book bans in front of her school board. She had recently become the chair for the EDI [equity, diversity & inclusion] Committee…
”Mickey describes her “Being an Ally” session here -“As educators, we are constantly learning howto better support our students. Our BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ students need to know they arewelcome in our spaces, we will respect them, and that their stories will be shared and reflected onthe shelves. My presentation dives into librarianship and activism and how we can be there for ourstudents.”
Three Tennessee school librarians (one from Rutherford County and two from Davidson County), will talk about state law related to school libraries and promote ideas to celebrate “Banned Books Week” in schools.
Dr. Cindy Welch, Clinical Associate Professor, UTK, School of Info Sciences, will speak about how “[i]ncreased scrutiny and edgier-than-ever diverse and inclusive materials has made it harder – and even hazardous – to do the best job for our children. This session will review related intellectual freedom policies and speak to strategies for stocking elementary school libraries, and continuing the good fight.”
The library associations define “Intellectual freedom” as “the right of every individual to both seek and receive information from all points of view without restriction. It provides for free access to all expressions of ideas through which any and all sides of a question, cause or movement may be explored.”
Defending Intellectual Freedomisthe AASL’s guide to assist school librarians using the AASL Standards to help students access LGBTQ+ materials. Along with the activity guide, the AASL provides a detailed chart to support the expansion of LGBTQ+ school library book collections and instruction for students regarding the materials.
The working definition of “intellectual freedom” assumes no information or curation bias on the part of the librarian and that information representing “all sides” on topics such as gun control, legalization of marijuana, abortion and transgenderism, would be easily accessed in the school library. Suggested sources in the “curate” activity guide for students to use to verify information, suggest otherwise.
Similarly, the guide’s suggestion that students use the “ACT UP Method” to validate information should be questioned. As described in the AASL guide, “[t]he primary function of the ACT UP method goes beyond evaluating the credibility of sources. It helps learners to push against privilege and break out of the dominant narrative search cycles”. The “ACT UP” author describes the intent behind the method:
To ACT UP means to act in a way that is different from normal. Normal is defined as heteronormative, white, cisgendered, male and christian (just to name a few). Normal means patriarchy and the systemic oppression of marginalized groups.
To ACT UP means to actively engage in dismantling oppressions.
To ACT UP means pushing against dominant narratives, oppressive hierarchies of knowledge production, and academic ivory tower definitions of expertise and scholarship.
The “Banned Books” campaign and the AASL Standards
This year’s “Banned Books Week” theme is “books unite us, censorship divides us”, a theme which fits well with the new AASL Standards.
TASL, Tennessee’s state chapter of the AASL has been training school librarians in the AASL Standards even though these standards have not been adopted by either the Tennessee Department of Education or the State Board of Education. Regardless, the ALA and AASL require that any school librarian preparation program that wants ALA or AASL accreditation “must” use the ALA/AASL school librarian preparation standards which “reflect the ideals and language in the AASL [National School Library] Standards.” In fact, the first school librarians preparation standard requires that the AASL Standards be part of their training.
As explained in Part 1, the AASL Standards are supported by AASL activity guides which are written by teams of ALA “emerging leaders” who are librarians with fewer than five years of experience.
In one activity for example, AASL’s suggestion for school librarians confronting a book challenge is to “facilitate and share lesson plans that incorporate banned books”.
TASL’s current president agrees that school librarians should follow state law as it applies to the Age Appropriate Materials Act which was passed this legislative session. Lindsey Kimery, coordinator of library services for Metro Nashville schools, past president of TASL and chair of the AASL Chapter Delegates, likewise conceded to this bill and is confident that “TASL members do not purchase obscene or pornographic materials for school collections”.
It may, however, depend on whether books currently in Tennessee school libraries like Gender Queer, Lawn Boy and TASL recommendedFlamer meet the state law’s definition of obscenity or pornography.
In her May 2022 article posted in the American Libraries Magazine, Kimery tells how members of TASL and TLA “worked nonstop to counter [HB1944] this harmful legislation” which would have made the state’s obscenity law apply to school libraries and possibly result in books which violate the “harmful to minors” law, being removed from the school library.
Kimery is opposed to book bans, “worried that young readers could loose access to ideas and information in their schools” including,“titles written by or about marginalized communities, such as racial minorities or students who identify as LGBTQ”.
Rep. Sam Whitson introduced Kimery in committee to speak in support of his bill to reinstate a state-wide school library coordinator within the Department of Education.
Court rules that removal of book from school library is not a book ban
Inflammatory book ban rhetoric and school displays may get attention from staff and students, but telling the school community that the books are “banned” is misleading at best. For that matter, school administrators and school boards should question the propriety of the school library being used for any library associations’ political campaign. School administrators and school boards should carefully probe claims that students’ rights are violated when books are removed from school libraries.
In C.K.-W. v. Wentzville R-IV School District, an August 2022, federal case filed by the ACLU challenging a Missouri school district’s policies regarding book challenges and the removal of books from a school library, the court held that “[a] school district does not ‘ban’ a book when, ‘through its authorized school board’, it ‘decides not to continue possessing [a] book on its own library shelves”.
Two school board policies were involved in this case; one policy permitted school librarians to remove materials “ based upon the contribution to the education program and the age appropriateness of the materials”, while the other policy permitted a committee to review complaints challenging library materials resulting in possible removal.
Plaintiff C.K., a minor student’s case was filed by her parent, T.K. They claimed that the books, three of which were removed indefinitely violated students’ First Amendment rights “by restricting their access to ideas and information for an improper purpose.”
Law Professor Eugene Volokh, recognized as “one of the nation’s top experts on First Amendment law”, provides an instructive analysis of the case, concluding that as to K-12 public school libraries, “the [court’s] decision seems legally correct to me.”
This case is important for several reasons especially as it relates to Tennessee’s Age Appropriate Materials Act and Public Chapter 1137 (which sets forth the age appropriate standard), and the continued reliance by the three-tiered library associations on the Supreme Court’s case Board ofEd. v. Pico, an earlier school library book removal case also filed by a student.Generally, the library associations cite the Pico case for the proposition in Justice Brennan’s plurality opinion that “school officials can’t ban books in libraries simply because of their content” and that students have a “right to receive ideas [as] a necessary predicate” to the exercise of their First Amendment rights.
What the library associations don’t disclose about the Pico case is that it was not a majority opinion and as Volokh points out the decision has no real value as legal precedent.
According the most generous reading of the Pico case as it applies to a student’s First Amendment right to “receive ideas”, Volokh concludes that the takeaway from Justice Brennan’s plurality is that:
“‘local school boards have ‘a substantial legitimate role to play in the determination of school library content’ and that districts have ‘significant discretion’ to determine the books available in school libraries.” School boards, however, cannot remove books “simply because they dislike the ideas in the books”. But, books can be removed according to Pico, based on “‘educational suitability’ or if the books are ‘pervasively vulgar’”, the latter reason agreed to by all the Supreme Court justices.
In the same vein, the Wentzville court held that vulgarity and educational suitability “are at the heart of the determination of the ‘age sensitivity’ determination”; in other words, when books may or may not be age appropriate.
The AASL Standards activity guide for the shared foundation “curate” also recognizes that assessing books in the school library should “be appropriate for the subject area and the age ability level, learning styles, and social, emotional and intellectual development of the students for whom the materials are selected”.
The point is that a book may be removed from the school library without violating students’ rights, nor can the removal of a book honestly be labeled a book ban, ergo, school displays of “banned books” are nothing more than political propaganda.
Using students to advance political advocacy
As TASLsays, “students are at the heart of [TASL’s] work, and our purpose is to help them grow academically”. Students are also used to advance the political objectives of the three-tired library organizations.
For example, the School Library Journal is trying to help FIRE (the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression), find student plaintiffs to sue school districts and challenge decisions made regarding books removed from school libraries. FIRE admits to the weakness of the Supreme Court’s decision in Pico and is trying to help get lawsuits filed that might weaken school board authority related to school library book removal.
Students are included in TASL’s advocacy wheel which includes ideas such as helping students form student-led groups. Examples provided include, ProjectLIT, Sustainable Schools, Urban Green Lab, GSA [Gay-Straight Alliance].
A Knox County middle school librarian describes the purpose of a Project LIT book club is to both encourage reading but use the opportunity to “facilitate discussions on diversity, bias, and other relevant social issues.” In this particular book club students whose parents declined consent for the chosen book may not have been aware that the non-consented-to book’s content and themes were still part of the book club’s session.
Similarly aligned to the AASL Standards, a school librarian-supported, student-led banned book club was launched this year at a Georgia high school.
Tennessee law that may impact book challenges
PEN America uses “educational gag order” to characterize state laws which seek to counter the three-tier library association agenda related to advancing the elements of critical race theory, gender diversity and sexualization of students playing out in school libraries.
In 2021, the Tennessee General Assembly passed a law prohibiting the teaching of concepts that derive from critical race theory (T.C.A. 49-6-1019(a)), including for example, that “[a]n individual, by virtue of the individual’s race or sex, is inherently privileged, racist, sexist, or oppressive, whether consciously or subconsciously”.
And yet, after the law was passed, TASL joined the “Teach Truth” campaign and published a recommended book list which included two books by Ibram X Kendi, one of the most vocal proponents of the elements that comprise critical race theory. It should be of equal concern that TASL has thrown their support to the Zinn Education Project, linked of course to Howard Zinn whose work has come under serious and credible scrutiny.
Public Chapter 1137, passed during the 2022 legislative session requires the Tennessee Textbook Commission to issue guidance for local school districts for reviewing library materials to ensure that the materials are appropriate for the “age and maturity levels of the students accessing the material and that the materials are suitable for, and consistent with, the educational mission of the school”. The Textbook Commission is also authorized to receive an appeal of a local school board’s decision regarding a book challenge.
Public Chapter 1002, also passed during the 2022 legislative session ensures that Tennessee’s “harmful to minors” obscenity law applies to digital and other online resources provided to students. It is important to note that the law removed the education exception that blocked the obscenity law from applying to materials in schools.
Public Chapter 744 dubbed the “Age-Appropriate Materials Act”, requires each public school to maintain and post on the school’s website a list of the materials in the school’s library collection. It also requires each local board of education to adopt a policy to establish procedures for the review of school library collections.
Conclusion
Using its library standards, the AASL which describes school librarians as “change agents”, has issued a charge to school librarians to wage a social justice campaign, create student activists, collaborate with educators in their school buildings and use the AASL standards to influence them.
TASL has adopted these standards and is using the standards to train school librarians. AASL and TASL suggest that school librarians should have the power to be the sole and independent determiners of what books reside in a school’s library and which ideas and books our children should be interested in and read.
School displays claiming that selected books have been “banned” mislead students, teachers and visitors to the school. The displays undermine the value parents and legal guardians bring to a student’s learning, the same parents and legal guardians who educators say they want involved in a child’s education.
Some might argue that pushing the idea of “banned books” invites acrimony between students and their parents and guardians, or undeserved distrust of elected officials. Displays that encourage students to inappropriately “act like a rebel” use the school library for a political agenda that is not really about “freedom to read” but rather, a protest against compliance with constitutionally sound state laws.
This is a three-part series that will explain how the three-tiered library organizations are taking school libraries from education to activism.
Part 1 of this series will introduce the three-tiered library organizations working to influence and “transform” school libraries including those in Tennessee using the new National School Library Standards also known as the AASL Standards. The structure of the standards is explained below. Part 2 will focus on the Tennessee Association of School Librarians’ banned books campaign. Part 3 will discuss how the three-tiered library organizations define and use “intellectual freedom” as it applies to students, librarians and school libraries and what it means for Tennessee school libraries.
Part 1 -Tennessee’s new state-wide school library coordinator
Lobbying by the Tennessee Association of School Librarians (TASL), succeeded this year with the passage of legislation re-establishing a State Coordinator of School Libraries in the state Department of Education (DOE).
The state library coordinator position has been an on-going legislative goal of the three-tiered library organizations. In 2019, the president of the American Library Association (ALA) and the president of the American Association of School Librarians (AASL), co-signed a letter to Tennessee DOE Commissioner Penny Schwinn, advocating to “reinstate” the position. TASL likewise encouraged their members to use “TN Library Legislative Day” to advocate for the state library coordinator position. TASL is organized as a 501(c)(6) and is not prohibited from lobbying or engaging in other political advocacy.
The AASL is a division of the ALA. TASL is an approved state chapter of the AASL. The TASLhandbook requires that anyone serving as president of its organization must be a member of the TN Library Association, the ALA and the AASL.
SB1784/HB1667 sponsored by Senator Jon Lundberg and Rep. Sam Whitson, codified at Public Chapter 1048, passed unanimously in the Senate but with two abstaining votes in the House. The bill was signed into law by Governor Lee in late May.
In committee, Rep. Whitson explained that he had engaged with TASL over time and discussed with them about how they could best “lobby and promote their organization’s agenda”. Rep. Whitson invited Lindsey Kimery, coordinator of library services for Metro Nashville schools, to speak to the committee in support of his bill.
Kimery, is a past president of TASL and the past chair of the AASL Coordinating Team for AASL state chapters.
The new law requires that the new state library coordinator be a “certified school librarian”. Generally, this means that the individual would have completed a master’s degree program in either Library and Information Science or a master’s degree that awards a School Library Specialist endorsement. These programs are accredited either by the ALA or the AASL.
The new law also requires DOE’s new state library coordinator to “consult [with], guide and train school librarians to strengthen school library programs” and to promote “best practices among school librarians”. The new state coordinator is also required to help school librarians partner with classroom teachers to “support school and district-level instructional programs”.
On the House floor Whitson said his bill would “assist school librarians as they implement the Department of Education’s (DOE) policies including the requirements of the Age Appropriate Materials Act of 2022 in LEAs [local school districts] that have limited library staff or coordinators”.
According to James Ritter, Tennessee’s newly appointed State Librarian and Archivist, “[s]chool libraries fall under the TN Department of Education, so they would be the state agency implementing [education] standards across the state”.
Presumably this means that school librarians and the libraries they oversee, must comply with the same state laws applicable to the DOE. State laws include for example, TCA 49-6-1019 and the rules promulgated by the DOE pertaining to the prohibition on teaching concepts underlying critical race theory, the Age Appropriate Materials Act (Public Chapter 744), and Public Chapter 1002 which removes the education exception for obscene materials as defined in Tennessee law and requires steps to prevent using school computers to access materials “harmful to minors” as defined in Tennessee law.
The Three-tiered Library Organizations and Political Advocacy
Ritter also confirmed that prior to the COVID shut-down, TASL began training Tennessee school librarians in the new National School Library Standards (the AASL Standards) release by the AASL in 2018. TASL was awarded a grant from the AASL to help roll-out training to Tennessee school librarians on the new standards. TASL formed an AASL Standards Task Force to provide the training.
The AASL Standards are heavily influenced by the ALA’s advocacy positions including their platform on intellectual freedom. In line with the ALA and the AASL, TASL’s “advocacy” drop-down menu includes “intellectual freedom” and “banned books week”, both of which will be discussed further in this series of posts. TASL also includes a fuller description of what Tennessee librarian “advocacy” can include as applied to different groups such as students, families and elected officials.
For example, TASL suggests that as to students, librarians can “create, facilitate and encourage student led groups (ex. ProjectLIT, Sustainable Schools, Urban Green Lab, GSA [Gay-Straight Alliance]”. Librarians are also encouraged to help “young people” to become political activists by “teach[ing] them how to write to representatives about various bills”.
Political advocacy within the three-tiered library organizations flows top-down and bottom-up.
The new president-elect of the ALA, Emily Drabinski, made headlines when she tweeted the following:
I just cannot believe that a Marxist lesbian who believes that collective power is possible to build and can be wielded for a better world is the president-elect of @ALALibrary. I am so excited for what we will do together. Solidarity! And my mom is SO PROUD I love you mom.
Of greater concern than Drabinski’s public declaration of sexual preference are her goals for the ALA which are solidly grounded in her Marxist ideology:
I will direct resources and opportunities to a diverse cross section of the association and advance a public agenda that puts organizing for justice at the center of library work.
Learning for Justice seeks to uphold the mission of the Southern Poverty Law Center: to be a catalyst for racial justice in the South and beyond, working in partnership with communities to dismantle white supremacy, strengthen intersectional movements and advance the human rights of all people.
Sarah Searles, Knox County School’s Library/Media Services Supervisor, chairs the AASLKnowledge Quest board. Searles has been a leader in rolling out the AASL Standards in Knox County schools and has written about her experience here. She has also authored the book about the shared foundation “explore”.
Three other Tennessee school librarians serve on the Knowledge Quest board. Metro Nashville Public School librarian Jennifer Sharp who announced the AASL grant to TASL, serves as an AASL director-at-large.
Structure of the AASL National School Library Standards
The AASL Standards have several moving parts which are described below. The AASL says that the standards framework is designed to connect the student, school librarian and the school library in a way that “standards-related activities would be mutually reinforcing, simultaneously building capacity among learners, school librarians and the school library”.
six “common beliefs” which are foundational to the standards:
– The school library is a unique and essential part of a learning community.
– Qualified school librarians lead effective school libraries.
– Learners should be prepared for college, career, and life.
– Reading is the core of personal and academic competency.
– Intellectual freedom is every learner’s right.
– Information technologies must be appropriately integrated and equitably available.
shared foundations
The six shared foundations are, “inquire”, “include”, “collaborate”, “curate”, “explore”, “engage”. The shared foundations “anchor” the standards and serve to “reinforce the core values that learners, school librarians, and school libraries should reflect and promote”.
key commitments
These are the expanded definitions of the shared foundations. For example, the shared foundation “include” is defined as “[d]emonstrate an understanding of and commitment to inclusiveness and respect for diversity in the learning community”.
domains
Each shared foundation contains four domains – “think”, “create”, “share”, “grow”. The chart below shows where each domain within each shared foundation is applied to the student, the librarian and the library. Each domain within each shared foundation is also supported by an activity guide directed to the learner (students), the school librarian, and the school library. Each activity is prefaced with a “scenario” describing an example of what could occur under a given set of circumstances. Included in the scenario is how to answer or approach the desired answer.
Below is a “framework” chart which demonstrates how a shared foundation integrates with each domain and samples from the activity guides. For example, applying the domain “create” to the student in the shared foundation “include”, the scenario describes 10th grader “Jonah (preferred pronouns he/him/his)” who realizes that his LGBTQ+ friends are being bullied, one of whom tells Jonah that he wishes he “had a support group to help them deal with feelings of anxiety and loneliness”. The two friends find the GLSEN website and decide to start a GSA (gay-straight alliance club). For the learner the domain “create” based on the scenario above, the activity guide suggests the students “create” a GSA.
Applying the same domain “create” to the school librarian in the shared foundation “include”, the suggestion is “the balancing act” for which activities are provided. The school library scenario is “dealing with book challenges” and recommended activities include “facilitate and share lesson plans that incorporate banned books”.
The activity guide for the shared foundation “include” is titled Developing Inclusive Learners and Citizens. This guide follows the standards organizational format with activities divided by the four domains in separate sections for students, school librarians and school libraries. The activity guide introduction advises that by “[u]sing the resources in this activity guide, learners and school librarians alike can seek balanced perspectives, global learning, empathy, tolerance and equity”. The guide also uses activities intended to make the school library a fully inclusive space.
While there are many creative and useful ideas in the activity guide, there are others that may well fall outside Tennessee DOE education policies and still others likely to be considered highly controversial in the community in which the school is located.
For example, in the “think” domain, there are four suggested activities. “Understanding Equity” is activity #4 for learners which includes students. The stated objective is for “learners to better understand various groups’ struggle for equity”: The suggested activity on page 14 is a privilege walk described as:
A privilege walk highlights how race, gender, and sexuality can affect individual success. Ask learners to line up in an open space and instruct them to move forward based on statements read related to race gender, or sexuality. The power of the lesson comes from the debrief after the lesson when learners see how it feel to be in the front, middle, or back of the group and their placement in relation to others position, which allows them to see others more clearly.
Similar exercises of recognizing personal bias and privilege is advised in the “grow” domain for school libraries as applied to educators and community members.
Included in the same guide are activities in the “share” domain for school librarians. Activity #1 is “inclusive research” with the objective for the school librarian to learn the pronouns used by learners in the school community – “hold a conversation about recognizing pronouns with a large same of learners of varied gendered expression and allow them to share their opinions honestly.”
Activity #2 builds on Activity #1 by using the information to “create a new gender inclusion and diversity policy protecting and empowering learner and their autonomy”. GLSEN’s model gender diversity policy is provided.
The “create” domain applied to school libraries advises about book collections, book challenge policies and an activity to “facilitate and share lesson plans that incorporate banned books”. This activity encourages the school librarian to design a lesson plan that “puts the spotlight on banned books”.
standards crosswalks
The crosswalks show the intersection between the AASL National School Library Standards and other sets of national teaching and learning standards.
AASL Library Standards and social justice charge to school librarians
The AASL says that the shared foundation “include” is the school librarian’s directive to wage a social justice campaign with their students and the wider community:
Thinking back to January 2019, when our Emerging Leaders group met for the first time, we could never have anticipated just how timely our discussions about equity, diversity, and inclusion would be. We focused our project on the Shared Foundation of Include from AASL’s National School Library Standards for Learners, School Librarians, and School Libraries. As we prepare for the coming school year, whether it be in-person, virtual, or some form of hybrid learning, it is evident that our project is more timely than ever. We know that we must do even more to address intersectionality, bias, racism, and other social justice issues. Who better to lead the charge than school librarians?
TASL’s Equity, Diversity, Inclusion (EDI) committee chair Brandi Hartsell, a Knox County school librarian is a contributor to the AASLKnowledge Quest publication. In one post, Hartsell describes a program she created for her school’s teachers to influence and shape their cultural competence. In another of her posts Hartsell encourages other librarians to ensure that the school’s library addresses the needs of LGBTQ+ readers and encourages the use of the AASL manual on Defending Intellectual Freedom: LGBTQ+ Materials in School Libraries. This publication will be the subject of Part 3 of this series.
Hartsell also writes for TASL Talks, a blog directed to Tennessee school librarians. Hartsell’s EDI committee posts book recommendations on a variety of issues including racism (including picture books for elementary school), illegal immigration, and LGBTQ. Book recommendations are divided by elementary, middle and high school.
Conclusion
The AASLsays it “empowers leaders to transform teaching and learning.” The AASLdescribes, the school librarian as a collaborator, change agent, and leader. (emphasis supplied) a characterization reinforced by the AASL’ssample job description for the school librarian. The AASL standards also elevate the school librarian from educator to activist.
However, the AASL standards are not state law and must not be used in any way to skirt any state laws applicable to the Department of Education and Tennessee schools including the teaching of critical race theory concepts, the age appropriate materials and obscenity laws. This oversight responsibility is inherent in the position of the new state-wide school library coordinator.
TASL has been training school librarians in the AASL standards which may not comply with Tennessee state laws. School librarian practices may require extensive review in light of legislation passed since TASL began training in the new standards.
