We’ve so far commemorated the past 30 years of the timeline of banned and challenged books and will end with the year 2012. The featured book is “Pedagogy of the Oppressed,” by Paulo Freire.

In 2012, under threat of violating state law and losing state funding, the Tucson (AZ) Unified School District voted to cut its Mexican American Studies (MAS) program. “Pedagogy of the Oppressed” and numerous other books affiliated with the MAS program were found in violation, removed from the curriculum, and stored in district storehouses. Freire’s seminal work, published in 1968 and translated into English in 1970, challenges traditional relationships between teachers and students, calling for an educational environment where learners are not treated as empty vessels for information but rather are respected as active participants in the learning process.

For more information about Banned Books Week, please visit www.ala.org/bbooks.