UpDate - Vol. 12, No. 7, Page 7                                
October 15, 1992                                               
Textbook censorship often causes far-reaching effects          
                                                               
     Newsday says she has uncovered "one of the great stories of the 
Reagan era." Publishers Weekly says, "Her lucid critique should serve
as a rallying point for parents, teachers and administrators who     
oppose textbook censorship" and The New York Times calls her work a  
"fascinating account."                                               
     The accolades are for Joan DelFattore, professor of English,    
whose book What Johnny Shouldn't Read: Textbook Censorship in America,        
was recently published by Yale University Press.                     
     In it, she chronicles the textbook adoption process and the     
influence special interest groups can exert on textbook content.     
     The book grew out of DelFattore's research on textbook censorship        
which began innocently one summer when she was teaching a course for 
high school English teachers. While studying Romeo and Juliet she was
startled to find that those teachers who had opted to use their      
classroom anthologies couldn't follow the play. Some 300-400 lines had        
been omitted in the textbook version with no indication that anything
was missing.                                                         
     "It made me curious," DelFattore said. "I decided to go looking,   
having no idea what I would find."                                   
     What she found is an amazing influence of special interest groups        
at both ends of the political spectrum, exerting incredible influence
on the content of textbooks sold nationwide.                         
     Narrowing it down to book form was difficult.                   
     "The issue is so big I could go in 84 different directions," she
said. "For the book, I decided to focus on relatively recent federal 
lawsuits over textbooks and the adoption process."                   
     While all special interest groups say they are "looking for a   
balance" in textbook content, each group's definition of "balance" is
weighted in their own favor, DelFattore found.                       
     Ultraliberals, for instance, she said, may want to eliminate all
textbook references to women in traditional homemaker roles. On the  
other extreme, those of the far right may want women portrayed only in        
traditional roles.                                                   
     As DelFattore explains it, in 23 states, known as adoption
states, local school districts can't use state money to buy textbooks
unless they are on an approved list. Delaware is not an adoption     
state, so the problem may not seem to have a local impact. But,      
DelFattore notes, Texas and California are adoption states, and their
influence is felt nationwide.                                        
     Texas has 1,066 school districts, she said. Last year, there were        
174,300 students in the Houston school district and 124,000 in the   
Dallas district. There were only 99,6000 students in public schools in        
Delaware. So, while a textbook publisher's representative may drop off        
a review copy of a textbook in Delaware if he is driving through,    
Texas may have 1,200 copies of proposed textbooks that are placed in 
centers throughout the state for the public to review, she explained.
     Because state school boards are subject to political pressure,  
state lobbyists in large influential states like Texas and California
can exert pressure to have things changed.                           
     In Texas, for example, every effort is made to present the free    
enterprise system in a positive light, she said. Ultraconservatives  
there, fearful of the socialist aspects of the New Deal, were able to
have an eighth-grade history textbook rewritten to exclude positive  
comments about the New Deal and even had it eliminated from a history
time line. The textbook was eventually adopted and is used nationwide.        
DelFattore tracked down a copy in a local Delaware school.           
     "Choices have to be made," DelFattore concedes. "You can't teach
everything. From the colonial period, people's personal preferences  
have influenced what's been taught. In the book, I hoped to identify 
and clarify and raise the issues in a thoughtful sort of way.        
     "Here are these federal lawsuits, and, of course, people don't  
see the connection between what's going on in Tennessee and here. Once        
a year there is a standard newspaper article on the adoption process.
                                                                     
     "Individuals need to put more into this. Studies show that very    
few people vote in school board elections. Of course, textbook       
challenges are symptomatic of issues that need to be solved on a much
broader scale."                                                      
                                        -Beth Thomas