Last week, we learned that an Alabama high school pulled a summer reading list after some residents protested the texts written by conservative authors such as Ann Coulter, Mark Levin, Ron Paul, Ronald Reagan and Michael Savage.

According to Gulf Coast News Today, students in an advanced placement government and economics class at Spanish Fort High School were originally asked to pick one book out of 31 on a list and do a report on it over the summer. The list of subjects included "Liberty and Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto" and "48 Liberal Lies About American History (That You Probably Learned in School)."Eddie Tyler, superintendent of the county school system, said the list was flagged because it was not endorsed by the school system. The teacher, Gene Ponder, who was a Republican candidate for Alabama lieutenant governor in 2010, then emailed his students and their parents to let them know the summer reading assignment was dropped.While the list included a number of conservative writers with right-wing opinions, we hope the board's rejection wasn't based on political or politically correct reasons. Books have long been the subject of school controversy. An exhibit by The Library of Congress called "Books that Shaped America," explored books that "have had a profound effect on American life" and have been banned or challenged.The exhibit included:• "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn," Mark Twain. This has been one of the most-challenged of all time because of its frequent use of a racial slur. Critics allege the book is "racially insensitive," "oppressive" and "perpetuates racism.• "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee." The book was banned by a school district official in Wisconsin in 1974 because they wanted to avoid controversy at all costs. "If there's a possibility that something might be controversial, then why not eliminate it," an official stated.• "The Call of the Wild." Generally hailed as Jack London's best work, this man-and-his-dog story has been challenged for its dark tone and bloody violence. It was burned in bonfires in Nazi Germany in the 1930s because it was considered "too radical."• "Uncle Tom's Cabin." Critics through the years have challenged the historically and culturally accurate depiction of the treatment of Black slaves in the U.S.Student News Daily, a national nonprofit current events website for high school students, seeks to build students' knowledge of current events and strengthen their critical thinking skills. In 2010, the editors published a comparison guide on issues from a liberal and conservative viewpoint.In education, for example, the guide compared vouchers and charter schools.The liberal position states that public schools are the best way to educate students. Government should focus additional funds on existing public schools, raising teacher salaries and reducing class size.The conservative point of view is that school vouchers create competition and therefore encourage schools to improve performance. Vouchers will give all parents the right to choose good schools for their children, not just those who can afford private schools.In his his book "God Less America," American conservative columnist and commentator Todd Starnes, said that public education is supposed to be neutral and expose children to both sides of an issue and allow them to formulate their own opinions," but in reality the public schools have become left-wing indoctrination centers.A report from the American Academy of Arts and Sciences commissioned by Congress, the Heart of the Matter, determined that education is "the keeper of the republic." It further acknowledged that American democracy depends on a shared knowledge of history, civics, and social studies; "the humanities remind us where we have been and help us envision where we are going."Francis Fukuyama, an American political scientist, political economist and author of "The End of History and the Last Man," maintains that we don't see America's current institutional decay clearly because we lack a historical perspective on it, and that a sense of the past is essential to grappling with the present.When school districts began filtering and defining reading material along political lines, it denies students a forum to discuss differing viewpoints and a free exchange of ideas.By Jim Zbick |

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