Right-wing book-burners attack right to education

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WELL... DO YOU STU HAVE A DICTIONARY?

TO SEE EXACTLY WHAT A SECULAR HUMANIST IS.

MOBILE, ALA ScHOOL all values are immutable and determined for us by God, condemned the book as the work of Satan. After a fierce campaign that split the community, "Value Clarification" was banned from Warsaw's schools. The fundamentalists celebrated their victory by burning 40 copies of the offending book in a public ceremony.

Pressure on publishers

Local campaigns create a lot of animosity and adverse publicity, while affecting the schools of only a single community. The Religious Right has therefore found it more effective to put pressure at the point of production—in the offices of the textbook publishers.

The economics of textbook publishing gives the censors a powerful lever. To -gether with California, Texas buys more school books than any other section of the country. Texas buys books for the entire state school system after acceptance by a review board.

For years the Texas board has been dominated by Norma and Mel Gabler, staunch supporters of the Religious Right. Little that is offensive to the Mosal Majority has slipped by these vigilant fundamentalists. The Gablers have wielded inordinate power because a textbook that is rejected by has elsewhere.

It is often uneconomic to print revised editions for other states. So Texas standards are often imposed on the rest of the nation. What these standards are was indicated by a sales representative of a major publisher. He said, "When you are publishing a book, if there is something controversial, it's better to take it out."

Science texts get the closest scrutiny. The sections on evolution are the particular target. Although evolution is an accepted fact in most of the world, the fundamentalists have their doubts. They want creationism, a literal interpretation of the Biblical version of creation, taught instead. At the least, they demand that evolution be offered only as an unproven theory.

Putting profits before integrity, major textbook publishers such as Doubleday and Macmillan have watered down their presentation of evolution.

They have dropped the name of Charles Darwin, and sometimes dropped the word "evolution." Or they have referred to it as an "assumption," "hypothesis," or "thought-provoking idea" instead of as an established scientific principle. In other cases the publisher has put coverage of evolution at the back of the book so teachers may ignore it or say "They did not get to it."

Secular humanism

Partial success with science textbooks has emboldened the fundamentalists to launch the most sweeping attack on America's schools. The enemy they see in the classrooms is secular humanism.

Humanists have a long and honorable tradition in Western thought. A 1973 document called "Humanist Manifesto II" presented the essence of humanist belief: " As nontheists, we begin with humans not God, nature not deity... We affirm that moral values derive their source from human experience. Ethics is autonomous and situational, needing no theological or ideological sanction."

This creed is anathema to fundamentalists, who have pejoratively identified their enemy as "secular" humanists. This term puts the godless humanists far outside the religious community-for the dictionary defines secular as "Concerned with worldly or nonreligious things."

To further identify the enemy, the fundamentalists have drawn up a list of some 40 terms used by humanists. Among them are such expressions as academic freedom, human growth, parenting, world view, and self-understanding.

This sweeping characterization presents the fundamentalists with a problem. Many people do not see anything wrong with academic freedom or self-understanding. So how can such "Satanic" secular humanist views be banished from the classroom?

Orwellian logic

A federal judge in Alabama has come to the rescue of the fundamentalists. On March 4, in a remarkable application of Orwellian logic and newspeak, Judge Brevard Hand ruled secular humanism to be a religion. Humanists are therefore guilty of spreading religious ideas in the schools in violation of the constitution.

Ironically, Judge Hand's ruling was the outcome of a suit brought by some Alabama parents against the introduction of prayers in the state's schools. The parents won that case. But Judge Hand, who claimed the Supreme Court had held humanism to be a religion, made these parents defendants in a new suit brought by fundamentalists.

Since Judge Hand's mind was already made up, he could rule without being confused by facts. Those who opposed religious dogma in schools were themselves pushing religion!

Over 40 textbooks containing ideas fundamentalists found objectionable were ordered removed from all Alabama classrooms. They include texts on home economics, history, and social studies. Only a stay of execution by a higher court saved Alabama students from losing their textbooks in the middle of the semester.

This sweeping book-banning order was ordered solely on the fundamentalists' assertion that certain passages offended their religious beliefs. Among such concepts banished from Alabama schools is the passage in a home economics book which stated, "Nothing is 'meant to be.' You are the designer of your life. If you want something you can plan and work for it."

After Judge Hand's ruling, an attorney for overjoyed."

Throwback to Inquisition

Not overjoyed, but astounded, is the reaction of legal experts who have branded Judge Hand's ruling as "bizarre" and "far out." Bruce Fein, a conservative con -stitutional scholar, said, "If we accept the notion that the regular school curriculum teaches religion, one would have to revamp every school curriculum in the country."

Judge Hand's decision is likely to be reversed on appeal, but this alone will not reverse the drive of the religious right to dominate America's schools. In an alliance with the political right, the religious right intends to buttress the rule of the capitalist class by instituting a regime of thoughtcontrol extending from kindergarten through college, to every phase of American life.

The possibility of censorship in the schools is a serious chink in the armor of democracy. There is no danger in offering our youth too many ideas. In the course of open discussion, in the long run, truth will prevail.

No one would deny anyone the right to hold any religious belief and to proselytize in a free and open forum. But forcing the views of any sect on our school children is not religious freedom, but a throwback to the days of religious tyranny and the Inquisition.

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the fundamentalists said, "This is exactly what we have been asking for. We are