Our Opinion: Book wars update: And the ban plays on

You may recall the recent story about people who were slipping into the Davie County Public Library in Mocksville and hiding books that they considered objectionable.

Turns out people in other communities have been hiding books as well in the latest skirmishes in the book-banning wars.

During Banned Books Week, the American Library Association on Monday cited book-hiding as a new challenge in protecting the public's right to choose what it reads, not a self-anointed censor.

That said, there also was some good news about books last week.

In its latest national report, the ALA notes that attempts to ban books have ticked down year over year. According to the report, 414 attempts were made to challenge 1,128 titles from January through August of this year, versus 695 attempts to challenge 1,915 titles over the same period last year.

But those encouraging figures come with an asterisk.

Though the number of challenges to date has declined so far in 2024, the number of attempts to censor books is still high, and "continues to far exceed the numbers prior to 2020," the report says.

Also, these totals may be deceiving. Some books are being intercepted before they become statistics because the mere threat of a ban is having a chilling effect behind the scenes.

The report describes it as "soft censorship," which it says includes:

Preventing a book from being adopted in the first place, making a challenge unnecessary.

Quietly pulling a book from the shelves without any public discussion.

Not including certain books in displays.

Not purchasing controversial titles for library collections for fear of them being challenged.

And the forementioned attempts to hide books by people who think they know better than the rest of us.

As it has in the Davie County library, fear seems to be taking its toll nationally. (In addition to hiding and moving books there people also were asking staff "harassing" questions about some books.)

Then there's conflicting data from a free-speech advocacy group, PEN America, which suggests a significant spike in book bans. The PEN America study covers a different period, the 2023-24 academic year, and finds that book bans so far have nearly tripled over the previous academic year, to more than 10,000.

Either way, the problem persists.

"As these preliminary numbers show, we must continue to stand up for libraries and challenge censorship wherever it occurs," American Library Association President Cindy Hohl said.

In a related development, the American Historical Association has three words for critics of public educators who claim history teachers are indoctrinating their students: It isn't so.

In a massive study of history instruction, the AHA found thoughtful teachers and strong, balanced curricula based on nonpartisan sources, including federal archives, museums and the Library of Congress.

The researchers briefed Congress on the results Tuesday.

"People should not be panicking about the state of the American curriculum," Nicholas Kryczka, who coordinated the project," told Education Week. "Most of the curriculum in the United States that is typically used by most teachers is perfectly defensible against charges of either liberal indoctrination or conservative chauvinism."

Then there was this pleasant surprise: Despite fears that they might be pressured, only 2% of the teachers surveyed said they had "frequently" encountered complaints or objections about what they were teaching and how they were teaching it.

"Those pressures and those problems are real, but they're not ubiquitous," Jonathan Zimmerman, a professor of the history of education at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education, told Education Week.To say the study was comprehensive is an understatement. It involved more than 200 interviews with history teachers, a survey of 3,000 more high and middle school teachers across nine states, a review of teaching materials and a review of teaching standards and legislation in all 50 states.

Yet, in an era in which facts are often ignored as inconveniences, will those who need to hear this story the most pay it any attention?