My child's school library is putting up a display promoting "Banned Books Week." What do you think about this? "Banned Books Week" is promoted every year during the last week of September by the American Library Association (ALA). The irony is, most of the books they display are not banned, and the books that are banned are usually not displayed. The ALA performs an intellectual slight of hand by interchanging the words challenged and banned. Their reasoning is that if the challenges were successful the books would be banned, so "Banned Books Week" really highlights books that some people want banned (see www.ala.org/bbooks). They also do not distinguish between public libraries and school libraries. Most challenges involve school libraries and classrooms where parents do not accompany their children and have little or no ability to keep them from undesirable books. These challenges have to do with educational discernment - a point lost in the ALA literature. Hypocritically, the ALA's office of Intellectual Freedom threw its support behind the Toledo-Lucas County Public Library for banning a patron's donation of the book Killer Angel. It is a critical biography of Planned Parenthood's founder Margaret Sanger. Author George Grant reveals that Sanger saw so-called "family planning" as a way to control the growth of "inferior races." The book also reveals her friendship with Nazi eugenicist Dr. Ernst Rudin. In another ironic twist, in 1999, the American Civil Liberties Union was influential in getting a Virginia school district to ban the use of a science textbook which promotes the Theory of Intelligent Design instead of evolution (Of Pandas and People). Don't expect to see Killer Angel or Of Pandas and People in any library display during "Banned Books Week." In recognition of the week, you might consider donating a copy of each book to your local library; but you'd better check to make sure they actually get on the shelves. © 2002, Gateways to Better Education Questions? If you have a question for Gateways to Better Education, we offer two options: If you have an urgent issue that needs an immediate response, we recommend that you call our Advisory Line at (949) 586-KIDS (5437), Send us an email containing your question.