When school boards or legislators with little or no subject matter or pedagogical expertise ban books or direct how certain subjects should be taught, education is impoverished, and everyone loses. This principle applies without regard to the political basis for censorship. While, at the moment, pressures are coming principally from the right, educators also face pressures from the left. Among the ten most frequently challenged books of 2020 were Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird” and John Steinbeck’s “Of Mice and Men,” both deemed offensive for their inclusion of racial slurs and racist stereotypes.
