From: michelle_at_michelleparker-rock.com
Date: Wed, 01 Feb 2012 14:39:59 -0700

Dear Jane, and all, I am trying hard to get all the facts. Ther e are many mixed reports. However, I refer you to the following link
 dated January 28, 2012, in which the writer, Curtis Acosta, says the following: " What is troubling for all of us is the fa ct that we have always been balanced, encouraged students to engage in crit ical thought, and embraced diverse voices and viewpoints throughout our cur riculum and pedagogy. The direction from the district implies the opposite regardless of the many audits and observations that have proven otherwise.

To put this in a more concrete way, my classes were design ed in a way that showed multiple perspectives and voices. Here is a short l ist of authors who are not Mexican that I use: Sherman Alexie, Jane Yolen, Junot DГ­az, David Berliner, Angela Davis, Pat Buchanan, Ofelia Zepeda, Malcolm X, Maxine Hong Kingston, Jonathan Kozol, and Martin Luther King Jr . This is critical since we see a common theme that ad ministration across the district has told my colleagues and myself †” we are all to avoid Mexican work and perspectives at all costs. However , these authors are a part of the same censored, banned, or illegal curricu lum and this surely means we must abandon these authors and this curriculum , too. We are also forbidden to use the critical lenses to view the work wh ich challenges students to develop academically credible arguments in order to support their own views." Please cont inue to be vigilant and diligent about this matter. There are many wonderfu l people in Arizona who are working hard
 to raise the level of consciousnes s and respect of those who are afraid and intolerant. But make no mistake. This could happen anywhere. So please keep the eyes and ears of our nation and the world strong and focused and let our collective voices sing out lou dly. Thank you.

Other Links:

NCTE Raises Its Voice to Pr otest Tucson, Arizona, Book Censorship

http://www.ncte.org/press/news/tucson

oard-member-speaks-out-we-are-banning-books-and-pictures /



Respectfully, Michelle Parker-Rock

Michelle Parker-Rock Author of Books for Young Readers Authors Kids Love Series National Literac y Consultant and Literacy Advocate for the International Reading Associatio n and the Arizona Reading Association
 Recipient of the 9th A nnual New Jersey Governor's Award http://www.MichelleParker-Rock.com

Michelle_at_MichelleParker-Rock.com

Regional Advisor S CBWI AZ
 2011 SCBWI Member of the Year

http://www.sc bwi-az.org RegionalAdvisor_at_scbwi-az.org

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-------- Original Message


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 Subject: Re:
 Yolen, Zinn, hook, Baldwin banned/box

ed up in
 Tucson/Teach-In Link
 From: Janeyolen janeyolen_at_aol.com
 Date: W ed, February 01, 2012 4:48 am
 To: dreese.nambe_at_gmail.com , ccbc-net@lists.wisc.edu

I thought in fact my book was NOT in fact in the list. (12 Impossible Thing s Before Breakfast) As it is a middle grade group of fantasy stories with l ittle or no political content, I am confused as to why it should have been boxed up with the important books. Other researchers have told me it was NO T taken of the shelves. Are you certain?
 
 Jane


-----Original Message-----
 From: Debbie Reese &lt

; dreese.nambe_at_g mail.com
 To: CCBC-Net Network ccbc-net_at_lists.wisc.edu
 Sent: W ed, Feb 1, 2012 6:17 am
 Subject:
 Yolen, Zinn, hook, Baldwin banned/boxed up in Tucson/Teach-In Link Good morning,
 Be low is the list of over 50 books that were banned/boxed up in Tucson. Howar d Zinn is on it. So is James Baldwin, and Jane Yolen, and bell hooks. There are links to this list on many different websi tes (the Nation, Huffington Post), but as of this morning, the hits to the page is only 5,732.
 That strikes me as fa r too low for a country that has so many progressive, activist, multicultur alist leaders and readers. I'm trying to make sense of it. Is it plain apat hy? Maybe people are just worn out from so many other assaults on them pers onally due to the economy? Or maybe it is Arizona... too geographically dis tant to worry about? Maybe people are too busy when they come across the li nk to the list.
 According to teachers in the Mexican American Studies Department, any books mentioned in the Cambium Audit or in the Kowal findings was boxed up as evidence that the MAS progr am was in violation of the ethnic studies law in Arizona that says a progra m may not
 1) promote the overthrow of the US government
 2) promote resentment to a race or class of people (as I understand it, "class" refers to socioeconomic sta tus)
 3) being designed primarily for one ethnic group,
 4) advocating ethnic solidarity instead of treating pupils as individuals
 In the heari ng before Administrative Law Judge Lewis D. Kowal, the State of Arizona had Sandra Stotsky as its expert witness. The findings say: "Dr. Stotsky opined that the MAS materials she reviewed ide ntified Latinos as the oppressed and "Whites" as the oppressor, and were de signed to arouse emotion in the Latinos."
 Matt de la Pena's MEXICAN WHITEBOY is noted in the findings in the section about what is taught. There's no comment on the finding itself and I can't find (yet) the actual testimony where it was referenced. Publicly, the Tucson Unified School District issued a statement saying only 7 books and the contents of a file cabinet were removed, but te achers say otherwise. And, they are being monitored to make sure that they don't say anything or tie anything to "a Mexican American perspective." &nb sp;They say there are copies of the books in the libraries and students are free to reach them if they want to. And, they say the books aren't banned, they're just being boxed up because the courses they were used in are no l onger being taught, so the books aren't needed. Here's a link to the National Teach In site. Please go there, and pl an some action this month. I don't mean to sound melodramatic, but I never would have thought that a state would pass a law like that in this day and time, and that such a law would
 be enforced as it was in Tucson. Perhaps I am naive. Maybe the foreign press is correct. We are far less progressive t han we like to think we are.
 Please forwa rd this email to teachers and community organizers. Thanks, Debbie
 __________


________
 No History is Illegal

rget="_blank" __removedlink__1827462846__href="http://www.teacheractivi Book list: High School Course Texts and Reading Lists Table 20: American Gover nment/Social Justice Education Project 1, 2 - Texts and Reading Lists Rethinking Columbus: The Next 500 Years (1998), by B. Bi gelow and B. Peterson The Latino Condition: A Critical Reader (1998), by R. Delgado and J. Stefancic Critical Race Theory: An Introduction (2001), by R. Delgado and J. Stefancic Ped agogy of the Oppressed (2000), by P. Freire United States G overnment: Democracy in Action (2007), by R. C. Remy Dictio nary of Latino Civil Rights History (2006), by F. A. Rosales Declarations of Independence: Cross-Examining American Ideology (1990 ), by H. Zinn
 Table 21: American History/Mexican America n Perspectives, 1, 2 - Texts and Reading Lists
 Occupied America: A History of Chicanos (2004), by R. Acuna The Ana ya Reader (1995), by R. Anaya The American Vision (2008 ), by J. Appleby et el. Rethinking Columbus: The Next 500 Years (1998), by B. Bigelow and B. Peterson Drink Cultura: Chica nismo (1992), by J. A. Burciaga Message to Aztlan: Selected Writings (1997), by C. Jiminez De Colores Means All of Us: Latina Views Multi-Colored Century (1998), by E. S. Martinez 500 Anos Del Pueblo Chicano/500 Years of Chicano History in Pictures (1990), by E. S. Martinez Codex Tamuanchan: On Becoming Human (1998), by R. Rodriguez The X in La Raza II (1996), by R. Rodriguez Dictionary of Latino Civil Rights History (200 6), by F. A. Rosales A People's History of the United States: 1 492 to Present (2003), by H. Zinn
 Course: English/La tino Literature 7, 8
 Ten Little Indians (2004), by S. Alexie The Fire Next Time (1990), by J. Baldwin Loverboys (2008), by A. Castillo Women Hollering Creek (1992), by S. Cisneros Mexican WhiteBoy (2008), by M. d e la Pena Drown (1997), by J. Diaz Woodcuts of Women (2000), by D. Gilb At the Afro-Asian Conference in Al geria (1965), by E. Guevara Color Lines: "Does Anti-War Hav e to Be Anti-Racist Too?" (2003), by E. Martinez Culture Cl ash: Life, Death and Revolutionary Comedy (1998), by R. Montoya et al. Let Their Spirits Dance (2003) by S. Pope Duarte Two Badges: The Lives of Mona Ruiz (1997), by M. Ruiz The Tempest (1994), by W. Shakespeare A Different Mirror: A Hi story of Multicultural America (1993), by R. Takaki The Dev il's Highway (2004), by L. A. Urrea Puro Teatro: A Latino A nthology (1999), by A. Sandoval-Sanchez N. Saporta Sternbach Twelve Impossible Things before Breakfast: Stories (1997), by J . Yolen Voices of a People's History of the United States (2004), by H. Zinn
 Course: English/Latino Literature 5, 6
 Live from Death Row (1996), by J. Abu-Jamal The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist Fight in Heaven (1994), b y S. Alexie Zorro (2005), by I. Allende Borderl ands La Frontera: The New Mestiza (1999), by G. Anzaldua A Place to Stand (2002), by J. S. Baca C-Train and Thirteen M exicans (2002), by J. S. Baca Healing Earthquakes: Poems (2001), by J. S. Baca Immigrants in Our Own Land and Selected Early Poems (1990), by J. S. Baca Black Mesa Poems (19 89), by J. S. Baca Martin Mediations on the South Valley (1987), by J. S. Baca The Manufactured Crisis: Myths, Fraud , and the Attack on America's Public Schools (19950, by D. C. Berliner and B. J. Biddle Drink Cultura: Chicanismo (1992), by J. A Burciaga Red Hot Salsa: Bilingual Poems on Being Young and Lati no in the United States (2005), by L. Carlson O. Hijuielos Cool Salsa: Bilingual Poems on Growing up Latino in the United States (1995), by L. Carlson O. Hijuielos So Far From God (1993), by A. Castillo Address to the Commonwealth Club of C alifornia (1985), by C. E. C havez Women Hollering Creek (1992), by S. Cisneros House on Mango Street (1991), by S. Cisneros Drown (1997), by J. Diaz Suffer Smoke (2001), by E. Diaz Bjorkquist Zapata's Discipline: Essays (1998), by M. Espada Like Water for Chocolate (1995), b y L. Esquievel When Living was a Labor Camp (2000), by D. G arcia La Llorona: Our Lady of Deformities (2000), by R. Gar cia Cantos Al Sexto Sol: An Anthology of Aztlanahuac Writing (2003), by C. Garcia-Camarilo, et al. The Magic of Blood (1994), by D. Gilb Message to Aztlan: Selected Writings (20 01), by Rudolfo "Corky" Gonzales Saving Our Schools: The Case f or Public Education, Saying No to "No Child Left Behind" (2004) by Good man, et al. Feminism is for Everybody (2000), by b hooks The Circuit: Stories from the Life of a Migrant Child (1999), by F. Jimenez Savage Inequalities: Children in America's Schoo ls (1991), by J. Kozol Zigzagger (2003), by M. Munoz Infinite Divisions: An Anthology of Chicana Literature (1993) , by T. D. Rebolledo E. S. Rivero ...y no se
 lo trago la tierra/And the Earth Did Not Devour Him (1995), by T. Rivera Always Running - La Vida Loca: Gang Days in L.A. (2005), by L. Rodrig uez Justice: A Question of Race (1997), by R. Rodriguez The X in La Raza II (1996), by R. Rodriguez Crisis in American Institutions (2006), by S. H. Skolnick E. Currie Los Tucsonenses: The Mexican Community in Tucson, 1854-1941 (1 986), by T. Sheridan Curandera (1993), by Carmen Tafolla Mexican American Literature (1990), by C. M. Tatum New Chicana/Chicano Writing (1993), by C. M. Tatum Civil Disobedience (1993), by H. D. Thoreau By the Lake of Sleepi ng Children (1996), by L. A. Urrea Nobody's Son: Notes from an American Life (2002), by L. A. Urrea Zoot Suit and Othe r Plays (1992), by L. Valdez Ocean Power: Poems from the De sert (1995), by O. Zepeda tyle="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break
________________


__________________________________________ Debbie Reese, PhD

Tribally enrolled: Nambe Pueblo
 Email:

e.nambe%40gmail.com');}; return false;" href="mailto:dreese.nambe_at_gmail.c dreese.nambe@gmail.com
 Website: America n Indians in Children's Literature _at_ Now: Studying for MLIS at San Jose State University Then : Assistant Professor in American Indian Studies, University of Illinois&nb sp;
 ---
Received on Wed 01 Feb 2012 02:39:59 PM CST