(originally published on Boundless on October 3, 2012 during Banned Book Awareness Week)
Any search for Emily Dickinson is blocked on my school server. Because her name has the word “dick” in it. Yes. Seriously. So that means Dick Cheney, Josh Reddick, Reddick, MA…they are all blocked too. We can still look up Massachussetts, cockroach, and the Constitution, but I have yet to bring that to anybody’s attention in case they decide to block all sites that may have unintended anatomical vernacular in them.
This may seem ridiculous to those who do not work in public schools, but unfortunately it is an all-too-common reality. This summer at a nationwide conference, a teacher told me
