Social studies and history teachers should be free to expose students to controversial ideas and to teach critical thinking skills. But are they free? Do they have the constitutional right--call it academic freedom--to teach what they want and to discuss controversial issues in the classroom? The short answer is "no." In this article,…

Very few elementary public school teachers in the United States expose their students to religion and spirituality in an in-depth way. Even when they have the necessary knowledge base, they shy away from so dangerous an enterprise. They might fear provoking a challenge from parents who are irreligious and are shocked to find religion being…

A year ago, an upstate New York college withdrew a speaking invitation to Wade Churchill, a University of Colorado professor who had characterized 9/11 victims as "little Eichmanns." Churchill's portrayal of 9/11 victims as a mixture of conscious and unwitting participants in a systemic evil of Holocaust proportions indeed was…

Describes a recent court decision in which a school board and the superintendent did not support a teacher when he came under fire from the community for teaching a controversial subject. The teacher won his case against the district because it had violated the academic freedom rule and denied the teacher due process.(MD)

Discusses a California case involving a tenured professor's controversial teaching style, which focused on "obscene" topics and assignments that allegedly humiliated female students. The professor eventually prevailed in a Ninth Circuit appeal. The lesson: when attempting to eradicate sexual harassment, we cannot abandon important First…

Notwithstanding the First Amendment, book banning is a practice rooted in American history. In 1873, Congress passed the Comstock Law in an effort to legislate public morality. Though rarely enforced, the act remains on the books. A survey by the National School Boards Association found that one-third of challenges to school reading materials in…

Disagreements over teachers' First Amendment, academic-freedom rights in curricular contexts are again receiving judicial attention. Two federal cases involving termination of exemplary high-school drama and creative-writing teachers have upheld school boards' authority to control curriculum context in disagreements over permissable subject matter…

Presents an overview of the increase in incidents involving censorship in all areas of the United States. (NKA)