OfTheCross
Veteran
This is a ridiculous book to ban 
America strange as hell
www.theregister.com
The Girls Who Code series is a mashup of The Babysitters Club and Computer Science 101. A group of four or five (depending which book in the series you are on) diverse tween girls navigate friendship, life, coding and hackathons while the authors drop some code fragments into the storyline.
It's the type of stuff parents buy their kids in hopes of making IT seem cool.
But apparently not everyone found it aspirational. The four books ended up on freedom of expression advocacy group PEN America's Index of School Book Bans, which states the series was "banned in the classroom" sometime between July 1, 2021 and June 20, 2022.
Girls Who Code's founder, Reshma Saujani, has pinned the ban on a group called "Moms for Liberty", which advocates for parental rights in schools and oversight of educational material.
Saujani detailed her reaction to finding the books on the PEN America list:
To be honest, I am so angry I cannot breathe. This series was our labor of love, our commitment to our community to make sure that girls – all girls – see themselves as coders. You cannot be what you cannot see, and this was our effort to get more girls, girls of color interested in coding. And it worked!!
The founder later tweeted: "Maybe they don't want girls to learn to code because that's a way to be economically secure …"
Saujani also vowed to fight back against Moms for Liberty through her other nonprofit, Marshall Plan for Moms.
The Register reached out to Girls Who Code, Moms for Liberty, and Pennsylvania's Central York School District to better understand the offending content within the series, but did not immediately receive a response.
Online book reviews suggest the Girls Who Code books are innocuous. One review read:
My daughter is six and loved this book. She has been reticent to listen to or read chapter books lately, and she had me read this to her twice in one day. I liked there was conflict resolution, positive role models, and it felt grown-up enough to make her feel like she was peering into 6th grade. There were two examples when the character used the word 'suck' or 'stupid' but otherwise it was pretty tame.
Moms for Liberty (MFL) lists many instances of its members being quoted in conservative media, all of them featuring comment critical of topics such as critical race theory, sex education, and inclusive gender language.
As for banning books, MFL cofounder Tina Descovich told Fox News the group is only concerned with children's access to pornography and sexually explicit material in the school environment.
"I haven't seen any of our chapters that want to get rid of any books that help children find characters they identify with," said Descovich. She also conceded "there are a lot of books in gray areas."
The Register was unable to find any signs of pornographic or sexually explicit material within reviews or summaries describing the Girls Who Code books.
Pennsylvania's Central York School District is reportedly in a critical political swing region where Girls Who Code has an active club.
One Twitter user said their daughter had quite enjoyed the Girls Who Code summer coding program, but their beef lay in content the organization included in its mailing list, which in the past touched on abortion, and the rights of transgender people.
"I love the missions to get girls interested in programming. I just do not appreciate it with a side of politics," said the mom and Twitter-er. ®
America strange as hell
"Girls Who Code" books banned in some US classrooms • The Register
Culture wars may have come to gentle tales of tweens enjoying friends, fun, and programming
www.theregister.com
The Girls Who Code series is a mashup of The Babysitters Club and Computer Science 101. A group of four or five (depending which book in the series you are on) diverse tween girls navigate friendship, life, coding and hackathons while the authors drop some code fragments into the storyline.
It's the type of stuff parents buy their kids in hopes of making IT seem cool.
But apparently not everyone found it aspirational. The four books ended up on freedom of expression advocacy group PEN America's Index of School Book Bans, which states the series was "banned in the classroom" sometime between July 1, 2021 and June 20, 2022.
Girls Who Code's founder, Reshma Saujani, has pinned the ban on a group called "Moms for Liberty", which advocates for parental rights in schools and oversight of educational material.
Saujani detailed her reaction to finding the books on the PEN America list:
To be honest, I am so angry I cannot breathe. This series was our labor of love, our commitment to our community to make sure that girls – all girls – see themselves as coders. You cannot be what you cannot see, and this was our effort to get more girls, girls of color interested in coding. And it worked!!
The founder later tweeted: "Maybe they don't want girls to learn to code because that's a way to be economically secure …"
Saujani also vowed to fight back against Moms for Liberty through her other nonprofit, Marshall Plan for Moms.
The Register reached out to Girls Who Code, Moms for Liberty, and Pennsylvania's Central York School District to better understand the offending content within the series, but did not immediately receive a response.
Online book reviews suggest the Girls Who Code books are innocuous. One review read:
My daughter is six and loved this book. She has been reticent to listen to or read chapter books lately, and she had me read this to her twice in one day. I liked there was conflict resolution, positive role models, and it felt grown-up enough to make her feel like she was peering into 6th grade. There were two examples when the character used the word 'suck' or 'stupid' but otherwise it was pretty tame.
Moms for Liberty (MFL) lists many instances of its members being quoted in conservative media, all of them featuring comment critical of topics such as critical race theory, sex education, and inclusive gender language.
As for banning books, MFL cofounder Tina Descovich told Fox News the group is only concerned with children's access to pornography and sexually explicit material in the school environment.
"I haven't seen any of our chapters that want to get rid of any books that help children find characters they identify with," said Descovich. She also conceded "there are a lot of books in gray areas."
The Register was unable to find any signs of pornographic or sexually explicit material within reviews or summaries describing the Girls Who Code books.
Pennsylvania's Central York School District is reportedly in a critical political swing region where Girls Who Code has an active club.
One Twitter user said their daughter had quite enjoyed the Girls Who Code summer coding program, but their beef lay in content the organization included in its mailing list, which in the past touched on abortion, and the rights of transgender people.
"I love the missions to get girls interested in programming. I just do not appreciate it with a side of politics," said the mom and Twitter-er. ®
