Ethnography Paper 1 Pager

I. My research question is how far the role of teachers should play into a student’s home life and just how far the role of a parent should play into a student’s school life when it comes to deciding what books students should or should not read and deciding which books should and should not be allowed?
II. The primary sources I got for this paper are interviews with three high school students, interviews with three high school teachers, and interviews with three parents of high school students.
III. As a result of my research, I have found that there is a general agreeance that the teacher’s role can play into the home only so far as the parent will allow it, while the parent’s role, regarding their own kid(s), can play all the way into the school in deciding which texts to allow. A teacher can only go so far as to where there is no disagreement among parents. Once a parent disagrees, that is here that a teacher’s role stops playing into a student’s home life. If a parent disagrees however, that parent’s role plays right into the heart of the school. The teacher must then assign a different reading or different assignment for at least that student, which could affect the entire class. A parent can also go beyond just not letting their kid(s) read a book to trying to get the book removed altogether, which could result in none of the students reading the book. This would greatly affect the school and particularly the teacher’s classroom. While that is the extent of it, it seems that the real answer to my question lies in morals.
Amongst the students, teachers, and parents that I interviewed, there seems to, for the most part, be a generally accepted answer that depends on certain morals. It seems that everyone agrees that the extent to which the role of the teacher can play into a student’s home as far as selecting what books to read is simply as far as the parents will allow. If a parent does not want their child to read a book, the teacher shall not make them and will provide a different reading or assignment at no expense to the student. The extent to which the role of the parent should extend into the school as far as which texts should be read is a bit more complicated and vague of an answer, but the overall answer that seems to be what the majority agrees upon seems to be based on morals. The most commonly agreed upon answer is that the role of a parent can extend all the way into the school so long as that role only affects their own kid(s). If a parent disagrees with a text, they have every right not to have their kid(s) read it, however, it seems to generally be agreed upon that it is wrong for the parent’s role to go beyond this. While there are of course exceptions to this, it seems that a majority agree that the role of the parent is going too far when it tries to affect what other kids are reading. If a parent disagrees with a text, and as a result tries to remove the book altogether in an attempt to keep all students from reading it, they are over stepping what a majority of my interviewees would agree are their moral boundaries.
IV. What can a teacher do to refute the removal of a book? What can be done against organizations, such as certain Christian organizations, that fight to get books that are often great for teaching banned for having some profanity, sexuality, drug use, or other such reasons? Should laws be passed to protect the freedom of speech as far as censoring books or should laws be passed granting teachers the final decision in what books they select?
V. Kathie Dubrin’s “Books Under Fire,” Julie Gorlewski’s “Christ and Cleavage: Multiculturalism and Censorship in a Working- Class, Suburban High School,” Suzanne M. Kauer’s “A Battle Reconsidered: Second Thoughts on Book Censorship and Conservative Parents,” Margo L. Roberts’s “Parents Censor High School Literature and are Allowed to Burn Books They Find Offensive,” and The American Library Association’s “Intellectual Freedom and Censorship Q & A.”