“I’m not going to say, ‘this book is about rape, child abuse, and so-and-so,’ because that doesn’t do justice to the literature,”
NCTE member Louann] Reid said in an article in the Rocky Mountain Collegian.
“That just identifies, kind of, reasons not to read the book, and it doesn’t put it in the context that [I’m]using it for.”
Reid is pointing to the very premise of the NCTE Position Statement Regarding Rating or “Red-Flagging” Books
“that literature is more than the sum of its parts” and that “letter ratings and “red-flagging… books for controversial content undermines the process of book selection based on educational criteria.”
Reid goes on to point out how she selects texts in her classes and why she sometimes deselects texts, using principles outlined in the NCTE Statement on Censorship and Professional Guidelines which explains how professional guidelines, such as those Reid outlined
“help teachers make daily decisions about materials and methods of instruction, choosing from increasingly broad and varied alternatives in order to serve students who are themselves increasingly diverse, both linguistically and culturally.”