5TH ANNUAL EDUCATING FOR CHANGE CURRICULUM FAIR "Claiming Education as a Civil Right" Featured Speaker: Jill Freidberg Saturday, September 26th 9 - 3 pm UMSL, South Campus, Marillac Hall We are now accepting proposals for poster displays from teachers, community activists and practitioners, resource tables from social justice focused community organizations and workshops. Download a Call for Proposals Form Here Download a Flyer Here

Join Us as We Campaign For....
EDUCATION AS A HUMAN RIGHT

Event #1 Banned Books Donated and Forum on Intellectual Freedom
November 19, 2008 10:30 am Julia Davis Library, St. Louis

On November 19, 2008 at 10:30 am the Literacy Roundtable, in commemoration of its tenth anniversary, donated a selection of books that have been banned or formally challenged to the Julia Davis Library. The Literacy Roundtable is a consortium of about 20 literacy providers throughout the St. Louis-Metro East area.

An additional selection of banned books were donated to three adult education classrooms in the greater metropolitan area. To highlight the nature of the banned books, they were wrapped in brown paper, hiding their titles. The titles come from the American Library Association’s Top 100 Banned/Challenged Books in 2000-2007 list.

A community forum on intellectual freedom immediately followed the donation in the Julia Davis auditorium. This is the first in a yearlong series of events initiated by the ad hoc ABC’s of Literacy Committee. The focus this year is on education as a human right. The committee has held a series of forums and conventions on literacy issues for the past five years, often meeting at the Julia Davis Library.

Event #2 Celebrate Readers' Rights
Monday, December 8, 2008 6-8 pm
Legacy Books and Cafe, 5429 Delmar Avenue St. Louis

In honor of the Literacy Roundtable’s 10th Anniversary, we held a "Read-In" to draw attention to issues around censorship and intellectual freedom. Each year hundreds of books are formally challenged or banned from schools and libraries, and thousands more book challenges go unreported. We believe that censorship is a violation of our intellectual freedom and, in our roles as literacy educators and advocates, affirm the importance of free speech and education as a human right. Our fight against censorship continues. Special invited guests read from literature that has been censored or banned.

Event #3 Obama's First 100 Days: Putting Public Education First
Tuesday, February 24th
Julia Davis Library