The VPR Saturday Special Goes Back To School!

Here’s something you’re not likely to hear as your kids go back to school this month: “Stay out of school until the books are gone!” But you’ll hear it spoken in earnest on this week’s VPR Saturday Special from American Radio Works.

This week we’ll hear about “The Great Textbook War,” a fight that erupted over controversial textbooks in West Virginia in the 1970s. A proposed change in textbooks and novels taught in public classrooms prompted a discussion on race, religion and class that boiled over into violence and captured the nation’s attention. Parents protested the schools, insisting that their kids stay out of school until the controversial texts were removed.

It’s a powerful hour of radio, and one that resonates today, given how heated discussions about religion and race still seem to be. Listen Saturday at 4 o’clock on VPR.

And listen to the VPR Saturday Special on September 11th and 18th for two more documentaries from American Radio Works. On September 11th, we look at the way teachers are trained, tested, hired and fired, and how that effects educational opportunity for impoverished students across the country.

And on September 18th, we examine why President Lyndon B. Johnson’s “Great Society” dream is still beyond our reach.

We'd love to hear your comments, questions, and suggestions for the VPR Saturday Special and we hope you enjoy the programs!