Jonathan Friedman is the director of free expression and education programs at PEN America. He oversees research, advocacy, and education related to academic freedom, educational gag orders, book bans, and general free expression in schools, colleges, and universities. We discuss the driving forces behind campaigns to ban books and silence teachers.

Education has always been political and a part of the culture war. We’re currently experiencing an eruption of citizen anger against schools, books, school librarians, and teachers for allegedly engaging in something dangerous. For example, anything about diversity and inclusion is labeled as critical race theory. Libraries were actually put inside schools to encourage literacy and development, civic engagement, and exploration that is very healthy for a society. Politicians are increasingly trying to label whatever they don't like in schools as something that should be censored, and there are efforts to defund or close public libraries. 

Follow Jonathan on Twitter: 

https://twitter.com/jonfreadom

Follow Mila on Twitter: 

https://twitter.com/milaatmos

Additional Information

Future Hindsight Podcast

More shows from The Democracy Group

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.