Each year during its Banned Book Week celebration, the ALA releases a list of the most "challenged" books of the year.  Throughout the year, it has a very active program to collect and record these challenges, and it does an excellent job of documenting each time anyone reports that someone has requested a governmental authority--including school boards, teachers, principals, librarians, city councils, etc.--ban access to a book, restrict access to a book, require a child to have signed parental permission to look at a book, stop a book from being read to a class by a teacher, use an alternate textbook, remove a book from a required reading list, or take any similar action. 

Most challenges occur in public schools, generally either as objections to the type of material made freely available to young children in elementary schools or as attempts to have books removed from mandatory reading lists.  While clearly any prohibition by a governmental authority to keep a book out of a public setting--including a school--is censorship and is in opposition to the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, this seldom, if ever, occurs.  Often, individuals or organizations will rail against perceived censorship when it may not have really occurred; the line is not as clear as one might at first think.

For example,

• When funds are limited and librarians or others make decisions not to purchase a book, or to purchase one book instead of another, is that censorship?
  

• When librarians or others make a decision to add or not to add a book to the library collection based on the their professional assessment of the needs or the expressed desires of their supported communities or schools, is that censorship?
  

• If a teacher takes the feelings or beliefs of students into consideration when determining which books to add or not to add to a required reading list, is that censorship?
  

• What if a teacher selects only books that demean a certain race or religion or promote only one particular brand of political or economic thought for assigned readings, is that censorship? 
  

• What if this occurs and parents subsequently object, are they attempting to prevent a teacher from exercising "academic freedom" or First Amendment rights?  (Actually, the extablished law is fairly clear in this instance.  In the United States, school teachers have no claim to "academic freedom," as that term is defined by the "1940 Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure" which has been upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court; "academic freedom" is reserved for tenured professors at regionally accredited universities.)
  

Should these types of questions concern us, especially in light of the "culture war" that rages today?  I personally think so, even if I don't always agree that they are usually First Amendment issues.  A teacher's attempt or an instituition's attempt to mold the thoughts of students into any particular point of view rather than teaching them to critically evaluate a variety of viewpoints is a far more dangerous than a wacko parent who objects to a health text because it fails to recommend "Christian prayer" as a method of preventing stress.

So, if we should be concerned about possible challenges to First Amendment rights as they play out in public schools and libraries, how big is the actual problem?  Well, based on the records maintained by the ALA, the outright prohibition or banning of a book by any governmental authority in the United States almost never occurs, and challenges are incredibly infrequent as well.  In the eleven years between 2001 through 2010, the ALA received 4,659 reports of books being challenged.  That equates to an average of just under 460 challenges per year. 

• As there are approximately 17,900 public school districts or similar public agencies in the United States, this equates to approximately 1 challenge per year for every 39 school districts.

• As there are approximately 98,800 public schools in the United States, this equates to approximately 1 challenge per year for every 214 schools.

• As there are approximately 49,400,000 public school students in the United States, this equates to approximately 1 challenge per year for every 107,390 students.

Clearly, in the United States, very few citizens are initiating any of the actions that result in the ALA recording a challenge, much less requesting the outright banning or prohibition of any book.  Still it's worth knowing not only what books some folks challenge, but also why they the challenge them.  The list below identfies the books that the ALA reports being most frequently challenged books in 2012.