"DOWN WITH BOOKS"

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Purging books in Racine (Source)

"Down With Books," circa 2014:
"8000 books removed from Racine Public School Libraries," July 23, 2014 Wisconsin Daily Independent News Services. Excerpts below:

They are “weeding” in Racine these days. Initially, educators at Mitchell Middle School were going to remove roughly 2000 out of date books from the library. 

Targeted for tossing were books on the Holocaust, Hiroshima, the Bible, the Koran, and Beowulf. In the end, over 8000 books were removed from library shelves. 

What is weeding? 

The Racine Unified School District is purging “tens of thousands of books” copyrighted prior to the year 2000, according to a statement by the REA. Racine Unified School District spokesperson, Stacy Tapp, said the District works with school staff members each summer to refresh the libraries.

“We provide a list of books to the library media specialist to consider pulling from the shelves because they are outdated, in very poor condition, don’t align with curriculum or have not been checked out in many years,” Tapp said. “There are additional factors that are considered as well. The school libraries have funds each year to replace old items.”

"Down With Books," circa 1971: 
This phrase at the title of this blogpost, "DOWN WITH BOOKS," comes from The Individualized Learning Letter (T.I.L.L.): Administrator's Guide to Improve Learning; Individualized Instruction Methods; Flexible Scheduling; Behavioral Objectives; Study Units; Self-Directed Learning; Accountability, Vol. I (February 22, 1971: T.I.L.L., Huntington, N.Y.). Under the subtitle "QUOTES YOU CAN USE" it said:

DOWN WITH BOOKS. “Textbooks not only encourage learning at the wrong level (imparting facts rather than telling how to gather facts, etc.), they also violate an important new concern in American education—individualized instruction.... Textbooks produce superficially knowledgeable students... who know virtually nothing in depth about anything.... A good start would be to... declare a moratorium on textbook use in all courses.” Dwight D. Allen, Dean of Education, University of Massachusetts, writing on “The Decline of Textbooks, Change.”  See 3D entry which covers beginnings in 1971 of plans for individualized education and replacement of books by Skinnerian computer assisted instruction. [bold added]

or BANISHED?!

Below is a list of Who's Who that were involved in this 1971 "Down With Books" project:

Opting to become a greater force in promoting I.I. (Individualized Instruction), The Northeast Association for Individualization of Instruction (Wyandanch, N.Y.) has gone national—by substituting the word “national” for “northeast.”.... The enlarged 2–1/2 day convention is geared to give registrants more time to watch I.I. in action in live classrooms. Several of the nation’s I.I. leaders already lined up to run workshops include: Dr. Lloyd Bishop, NYU; Dr. Sid Rollins, Rhode Island College; Dr. Robert Scanlon, Research for Better Schools [Research for Better Schools and University of Pittsburgh Learning Research and Development Center (Robert Glaser) were instrumental in development of IPI in the early 1960s, ed.]; Dr. Edward Pino, Superintendent of Cherry Creek Schools (Englewood, CO); Dr. Robert Anderson, Harvard University; Dr. Leon Lessinger, Georgia State University; Dr. Robert Sinclair, University of Massachusetts; Jane Root, Stanford Research Associates; and Dr. Glen Ovard, Brigham Young University. Representatives of USOE, NEA, NY State Department of Education will be present. (The latter supports the conference with an annual grant.)....

"RECOMMENDED BOOKS" included this one:

Behavioral Objectives: A Guide for Individualized Learning. Four volume set covering more than 4000 objectives representing four years’ work of more than 200 teachers. Arranged by subject area. Covers language arts, social studies, math and science. A comprehensive collection. Westinghouse Learning Corp., 100 Park Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10017.

This 1971 material comes from pages 100-101 of my book the deliberate dumbing down of america.

Stop the Banishing of Books!