Some of the most contentious battles over intellectual freedom are fought in elementary and high schools, where the protections of academic freedom are often much weaker.
James Daly, Patricia Schall, and Rosemary Skeele (2001) write in Protecting the Right to Teach and Learn: Power, Politics, and Public Schools (Teachers College Press): “Preserving academic freedom is our common cause. Everyone has the right to learn in an environment that is open to multiple possibilities and perspectives. No individual, group, or political body should be able to restrict these rights.”(p. 1)
Even the opponents of academic freedom endorse its name, as when a Louisiana law claiming to “protect academic freedom” tried to compel public school teachers to teach “creation science.”(Edwards v. Aguillard, 1987) A similar approach to “academic freedom” is used in this essay: “Teaching Darwinism and Creationism: Academic Freedom’s Foes Squelch Darwinism’s Critics” by Catherina Hurlburt: http://www.cwfa.org/library/education/2001-08-23_evolution.shtml
The evolution cases help show that academic freedom is not defined by intellectual relativism. Teachers should not proclaim that all ideas are equally right in order to avoid censoring certain beliefs.
Anti-Evolution Website: Academic Freedom Foundation: http://www.balancedscience.net/
Banned Books Online: http://digital.library.upenn.edu/books/banned-books.html
Banned Books Week (Sept. 21-28): http://www.ala.org/bbooks/bbwreporters.html
Colorado Springs School District Eleven policy on academic freedom: http://www.cssd11.k12.co.us/boe/ib.htm
NEA and Sexual Harassment (1997): http://www.nea.org/he/head9697/advo9705/aline.html
Education Week stories
Massachusetts high school teacher suspended for teaching Aristotle: http://www.edweek.org/ew/ewstory.cfm?slug=0222snr.h01
Debate over teaching evolution (2002): http://www.edweek.org/ew/newstory.cfm?slug=27ohio.h21&keywords=academic%20freedom
LeVake v. Independent School District (2002): http://www.edweek.org/ew/newstory.cfm?slug=18scotus.h21&keywords=academic%20freedom
School officials wary of academic freedom (1999): http://www.edweek.org/ew/ewstory.cfm?slug=24judge.h18&keywords=academic%20freedom
Tenure on Trial (1996): http://www.edweek.org/ew/ewstory.cfm?slug=19tenure.h15&keywords=academic%20freedom