Liberating Literacy Under Threat: Re‐reading James Moffett's Storm in the Mountains

Abstract

James Moffett's Storm in the Mountains: A Case Study of Censorship, Conflict, and Consciousness remains as relevant today as it was when it was published in 1988 for those who want to understand the nature and sources of contemporary conflicts in American language and literacy education. Censors continue to try to restrict student access to ‘controversial’ texts in order to ‘protect’ them from ideas that challenge prevailing orthodoxies. Advocates of different approaches to teaching reading continue to argue over how to do so. And schools continue to struggle with conflicting values around opening up versus covering up ideas and issues. Moffett helps us recognize the source of these conflicts and his explanations enable us to understand their continuing relevance. Efforts to control children's interpretations of texts stems from what he calls agnosis, a fear of knowing about anything that might challenge the conventional conservative verities.