Synopses & Reviews
Click here to read the NCTE Council Chronicle review of
At the Schoolhouse Gate: Lessons in Intellectual Freedom!
"It can hardly be argued that either students or teachers shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate." With this pronouncement in 1969, Justice Abe Fortas laid down the law. But this has by no means meant that intellectual freedom reigns supreme. Far from it-American public schools can be the worst offenders, as Gloria Pipkin and ReLeah Cossett Lent make clear in this extraordinary account of courage, commitment, and caring for the teaching profession.
Over the last two decades Pipkin and Lent have worked together to build a tradition of intellectual freedom within public schools. Their book describes their struggles as cultural workers, the pedagogical and legal strategies they employed, the resistance they encountered, the lessons they learned, and the impact that they've seen on the lives of the students they serve. Their story brings vividly to life some of the most important questions in public education today:
- Do First Amendment protections apply to teachers and students in K-12?
- Who controls what we can read and write in schools?
- Is inquiry or indoctrination at the heart of schooling?
- Can critical literacy survive the machinations of shortsighted bureaucrats and board members?
Through two intertwined stories spanning nearly two decades, the authors address these questions. They also provide specific strategies for teachers trapped in similar circumstances. Emotionally intense, yet practical,
At the Schoolhouse Gate provides for every teacher what every good teacher wants for his or her students: inspiration and elevation.
Review
Ever wonder why some of our best and most talented teachers arent in the classroom anymore? This brave, sometimes heartbreakingly honest story of two teachersGloria Pipkin and ReLeah Lentwho put themselves and their careers on the line to defend the rights of their students, should be required reading for everyone working with young people or considering a career in education.Judy Blume, Bestselling, awardwinning author
Synopsis
"It can hardly be argued that either students or teachers shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate."
Synopsis
Click here to read the NCTE Council Chronicle review of At the Schoolhouse Gate: Lessons in Intellectual Freedom
-It can hardly be argued that either students or teachers shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.- With this pronouncement in 1969, Justice Abe Fortas laid down the law. But this has by no means meant that intellectual freedom reigns supreme. Far from it-American public schools can be the worst offenders, as Gloria Pipkin and ReLeah Cossett Lent make clear in this extraordinary account of courage, commitment, and caring for the teaching profession.
Over the last two decades Pipkin and Lent have worked together to build a tradition of intellectual freedom within public schools. Their book describes their struggles as cultural workers, the pedagogical and legal strategies they employed, the resistance they encountered, the lessons they learned, and the impact that they've seen on the lives of the students they serve. Their story brings vividly to life some of the most important questions in public education today:
- Do First Amendment protections apply to teachers and students in K-12?
- Who controls what we can read and write in schools?
- Is inquiry or indoctrination at the heart of schooling?
- Can critical literacy survive the machinations of shortsighted bureaucrats and board members?
Through two intertwined stories spanning nearly two decades, the authors address these questions. They also provide specific strategies for teachers trapped in similar circumstances. Emotionally intense, yet practical,
At the Schoolhouse Gate provides for every teacher what every good teacher wants for his or her students: inspiration and elevation.
About the Author
ReLeah Cossett Lent was a teacher for more than twenty years before becoming a founding member of a statewide literacy project at the University of Central Florida. She is now a consultant, writing and speaking about adolescent literacy issues. Her three most recent books include Literacy for Real: Reading, Thinking and Learning in the Content Areas (Teachers College Press), Engaging Adolescent Learners: A Guide for Content-Area Teachers (Heinemann) and Literacy Learning Communities: A Guide for Creating Sustainable Change in Secondary Schools (Heinemann). ReLeah's first two books, co-authored with Gloria Pipkin and published by Heinemann, At the Schoolhouse Gate: Lessons in Intellectual Freedom and Silent No More: Stories of Courage in American Schools, won the American Library Association's Intellectual Freedom Award and the NCTE/Slate Intellectual Freedom Award. ReLeah was also the recipient of the PEN/Newman's Own First Amendment Award in 1999. Her latest project with Jimmy Santiago Baca is a new teaching resource for reaching at-risk adolescents, which includes a book and DVD titled Adolescents on the Edge, Stories and Lessons to Transform Learning.Gloria Pipkin taught language arts in Florida public schools for more than twenty years. Since leaving the school system, she has written widely about censorship and other education issues. Her current struggles for intellectual freedom focus on resisting the orthodoxy imposed by high-stakes testing. Her email address is
[email protected].
Table of Contents
The Freedom to Read
The Road to Camelot
Choosing to Learn
Reading Under Fire
Confrontation
Building Public Support
Into the Infernov
Taking a Stand
Appeals, Rebukes, and Death Threats
The Power of the Pressv
Banned in Bay County
Saving the Classics
Christians Strike Back
Alone in the Wasteland
Courage and Despair
The Urge to Censor
Freedom of Expression
Yes and No at the Right Time
Lead out from Within
Remarking Ourselves
Rejecting the Human Search
Still Learning
The Writer or the Reader?
Silencing Mankind
The Fearful Magic of Print
Bad Decisions
No More to Build on There
For the Children
Safety in a Sane Society
Suppression and Suspicion
Offensive and Disagreeable Ideas
Specializing in the Impossible
Foundations of Freedom
Riches and Gaps
Challenging the Conventional Wisdom
Adding It Up / Intellectual Freedom Manifesto / What Can a Teacher Do?