At 02:05 PM 5/14/2006, you wrote: >Below is a message to librarians, media specialists, and educators >that author/illustrator Patricia Polacco has posted. It has been - >and deserves to be - widely disseminated. Polacco's website contains >some additional comments about this disturbing issue. > > > >But, then, a very disturbing turn of events transpired. My staff >started receiving phone calls and >emails from this firm in Ohio requesting that I furnish them with a >detailed written outline of what I intended to include in my >speeches. I assumed, of course, that this was asked so that a >synopsis of my content could be included in a printed brochure >furnished to the conferees.
I am not sure that Linda wanted to start a debate, but let me put my two cents in. First I am against censorship. I have even written about the dangers of censorship. However, the description of this event hardly seems to be censorship or an issue of free speech. Let me give you another example, a Jewish day school hires an entertainer who has a reputation of being an excellent comedian, but also tells off color jokes when in Las Vegas. The school puts into the contract that the nature of the show and specifies that no jokes should be off-color or in any way offend the observant Jewish audience. The school asks for copies of the jokes and stories in advance to make sure the terms of the contract are being observed. The comedian is hired help and has no grounds to claim academic freedom of speech. Once Patricia Polacco learned of the agenda of the hiring agency, she had two choices, attend and alter the speech or not attend. It would have been much worse if she were cut off in the middle of the speech and publicly embarrassed. Perhaps she is totally right in her criticism of the no child left behind? If one has a philosophical disagreement with an employer, one should either convince them of the error of their ways or shut up. Censorship is when a governmental body or a public agency decides what the public may or may not read or hear. A private company paying the bill can dictate the messages they want to publicize. Parents guiding their children to the best materials is not censorship. Organizations choosing the content of those who give speeches to their membership is not censorship. At worse SRA/McGraw Hill Company deceived Ms. Polacco. At best it was just a lack of communications. Daniel Stuhlman Chicago, IL 60645 dstuhlman @ stuhlman biz http://home.earthlink.net/~ddstuhlman/liblob.htm Librarian's Lobby http://stuhlman.biz Home page Messages and opinions expressed on Hasafran are those of the individual author and are not necessarily endorsed by the AJL =========================================================== Submissions for Ha-Safran, send to: Hasafran @ lists.acs.ohio-state.edu SUBscribing, SIGNOFF commands send to: Listproc @ lists.acs.ohio-state.edu Questions, problems, complaints, compliments;-) send to: galron.1 @ osu.edu Ha-Safran Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/hasafran%40lists.acs.ohio-state.edu/maillist.html AJL HomePage http://www.JewishLibraries.org
