In case you missed it Feb. 24 to March 2 was Canadian Freedom to Read Week, an annual event that encourages people to think about and reaffirm their commitment to the printed word and the intellectual liberty guaranteed under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Freedom to read, initially enabled by the invention of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg in the mid 1400s, meant that, for the first time, literature could be mass-produced for everyone.
That changed the history of the world.
Before that, the general population had to rely on priests reading from their Latin scrolls and to accept their interpretations as the end-all truth.
Any form of dissent was quickly burned by the church.
That kind of repression of intellectual freedom survives today only in populations still under the thumb of brutal dictators who fear opposing thoughts and philosophies.
Never again you say, and certainly not here in sa国际传媒.
Well, not unless someone in authority takes exception to the kind of the radical activism of children鈥檚 author Dr. Suess.
And that鈥檚 what happened in sa国际传媒 some years ago when a聽school district banned Yertle the聽Turtle.
Yertle鈥檚 offence was to observe that 鈥渦p on top you are seeing great sights but down here on the bottom we too should have rights.鈥�
Those 鈥渙n top鈥� interpreted this as a comment on teacher negotiations at the time and teachers in that district were forbidden to display the quote anywhere.
It took a freedom of expression grievance by the sa国际传媒 Teachers鈥� Federation to convince the sa国际传媒 Public School Employers鈥� Association that the Dr. Seuss children鈥檚 book was just about a turtle trying to assert its rights.
Since Gutenberg鈥檚 printing press sparked the religious Reformation of the 15th century, the printed word has scared all kinds of people about all kinds of things and the response has always been predictable 鈥� ban the book which is so offensive.
Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne has, from time to time, been consigned by a variety of authorities to literary no-man鈥檚 land because it was felt that talking animals were an 鈥渋nsult to God.鈥�
Other authorities took exception to Enid Blyton鈥檚 best-selling Noddy because they detected a questionable relationship between Noddy and Big Ears.
I鈥檓 not making this up.
And the list goes on: Charlotte鈥檚 Web by E.B.White, Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling, Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carrol were all banned from time to time, the latter because it was feared that Alice was promoting drug use among children.
And those were just the kids鈥� books that aroused fear and loathing among some sectors of the population.
The 10th edition of the Merriam-Webster Dictionary was banned in several classrooms in California because it included the definition for 鈥渙ral sex鈥� and other naughty words kids (including me) took delight in looking up.
When boxes of Between Man and Man by scholar, theologian and philosopher Martin Buber landed in Sydney, Australia, the book was immediately banned until somebody explained to rightist-thinking politicians that it was a profoundly academic examination of the deepest realities of human life based on dialogue between one human being and another, not a handbook of instructions about homosexuality.
On May 10, 1933, Nazi youth groups burned 25,000聽鈥渄egenerate鈥� books on a large bonfire in Berlin, with radio broadcasts to publicize the event to those who could not attend in person.
Books by such authors as Albert Einstein, Bertolt Brecht, Helen Keller, Sigmund Freud, Thomas Mann, Karl Marx, Ernest聽Hemingway, and H.G.聽Wells were tossed on the flaming heap.
In an age when governments again edge ever so slightly toward populism, described by some as the 鈥渢yranny of the minority,鈥� and with a U.S. president openly avowing, 鈥淚 love the poorly educated,鈥� education and its keystone, the printed word, is once again, under assault.
When a one-time Quebec MP, and now candidate for the office of Canadian prime minister, is comfortable launching a racist and xenophobic broadside assault on Canadian multiculturalism and diversity, it seems a short step to the pre-Gutenberg days of comfort for wannabe political leaders to rely on voters simply accepting what they are being told by 鈥渢hose on top,鈥� not what is more thoughtfully researched and written by and for 鈥渢hose below.鈥�
So while you might have missed the full significance of sa国际传媒鈥檚 Freedom to Read week, it is freedom for the printed word which still is, and will continue to be, the foundation of our democratic way of life.
Geoff Johnson is a former superintendent of schools.
