{"id":226,"date":"2023-04-21T14:15:59","date_gmt":"2023-04-21T14:15:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/ncte\/?page_id=226"},"modified":"2023-04-27T14:46:12","modified_gmt":"2023-04-27T14:46:12","slug":"political-controversies","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/ncte\/exhibits\/political-controversies\/","title":{"rendered":"Political Controversies"},"content":{"rendered":"

“The reasons for [the] great American success story of [Reader’s Digest<\/em>] are many…. Add to this the rapid-transit mentality of the American public which demands its reading in tabloid form or in ‘twenty words \u2014 no more, no less.’ Consider further the fact that America is the greatest pill-taking nation in the world; hence its acceptance,\u00a0Reader’s Digest<\/em>\u00a0style, of all thought and opinion in capsule form.”
\nSamuel Beckoff, “The Rainbow,” The English Journal (1943)<\/cite><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As a national organization with over 54,000 members, the National Council of Teachers of English has the clout to be heard across the country. The Council’s platform gives English teachers the ability to broadcast their concerns on contentious issues to a national audience. As already illustrated in previous exhibits, such as the NCTE’s advocacy for\u00a0minority groups\u00a0and its rallying against\u00a0doublespeak\u00a0and\u00a0censorship, the Council does not shy away from controversy.<\/p>\n

However, even when the Council is not necessarily looking for national attention, that does not stop it from being drawn into controversy. Language can provoke heated debate and naturally drag English teachers in as experts. In\u00a0Women and Language in Transition<\/em>, Allen Pace Nilsen, a member of the NCTE Committee on the Role and Image of Women in the Profession, provided this anecdote:<\/p>\n

“In a startling change from the days when the confession of being an English teacher served as a STOP sign to light social conversation, English teachers began to be sought out at cocktail parties to either settle disputes or add fuel to the fire as people argued about the feminist movement and its relation to language” (1987, p. 38)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Nilsen was referring to the 1970s and the debate over sexist language. When the NCTE produced\u00a0Guidelines for Nonsexist Use of Language in NCTE Publications<\/em>, following what many other publishers were doing at the time, the pamphlet received national attention. Conservative columnist, William F. Buckley Jr., blasted NCTE’s guidelines, his criticism appearing in newspapers across the nation.<\/p>\n

Other issues that propelled NCTE into partisan politics included a conflict with\u00a0Reader’s Digest<\/em> during World War II and the relatively recent attempt at establishing national standards in English teaching in 1996. To learn more about these controversies, take a look at the featured topics below:<\/p>\n