When Law Limits Books, We Limit Our Children’s Freedom to Imagine
When a new North Carolina law demands that teachers catalog every book in their classroom and post it online, on its face it may sound bureaucratic. Yet in practice, it is a burden born by educators—and a barrier placed before curious young minds. As advocates for children and community learning, Roots of Wisdom Scholars are deeply troubled by the real harm this law is inflicting on the promise of reading, creativity, and liberation.
According to reporting in the News & Observer, the law has already led many teachers to remove or cover their classroom libraries, refusing student access until every book is indexed. Some schools have interpreted it so strictly that students are not allowed to touch or browse books that are not yet cataloged. Meanwhile, teachers—already overworked—find themselves grappling with the monumental task of inventorying hundreds of books, often without extra staffing or time.
This law poses at least three injustices that we refuse to accept.
1. A Threat to Equitable Access
For many of our scholars, school libraries and classroom collections are refuge, inspiration, and a bridge to worlds they may never otherwise encounter. To restrict or delay access is to reinforce educational inequities. Schools in well-resourced districts may navigate the cataloging burden more easily, but underfunded schools—serving Black and Brown children—will suffer longest. Reading should not be rationed by bureaucratic compliance.
2. A Misplaced Burden on Educators
Teachers are already bearing too many demands: curriculum mandates, standardized testing, administrative duties, and caring for students’ well-being. This law adds yet another herculean task: auditing their own classroom libraries. Many educators have publicly said, “I simply do not have the time,” or “I have hundreds of books — how do you expect me to catalog them all?”
When the state’s policy demands more from teachers without providing corresponding support, we are failing teachers and students alike.
3. A Symbolic Attack on Intellectual Freedom
Books are not mere commodities; they are vessels of thought, identity, imagination, and resistance. When we demand pre-approval or curation before a child can even touch a book, we erect walls between youth and their intellectual freedom. This is especially dangerous when so many stories that matter — stories centering Black, Indigenous, queer, marginalized lives — are already under threat or scrutiny.
A Liberating Path Forward: What We Propose
At Roots of Wisdom Scholars, we believe a just education must give children more pathways to discovery, not fewer. Here are steps we urge state leaders, school boards, and the community to take:
Suspend the cataloging requirement during this transition year. Let classrooms continue to operate with penuh access to books while the state works out practical, phased implementation.
Allocate dedicated resources and staffing to support teachers in cataloging — not as a volunteer or extra duty, but as compensated and trained work.
Prioritize student and teacher voice. Stakeholders in school communities should be consulted about how such policies affect them. Top-down directives without listening will always cause harm.
Protect intellectual freedom and diverse voices. Policies should defend—not restrict—the right of students to access stories that reflect their lives, their struggles, their hopes.
Invest in community partnerships. Collaborate with nonprofits, local reading initiatives, and groups like Roots of Wisdom Scholars to co-curate classroom collections, reading programs, and outreach to marginalized communities.
Final Word
At its core, education is liberation. But laws like this one risk turning, instead, into impediments. When we limit what books a student can hold or read, we limit their capacity to imagine new futures, to question, to heal, to dream.
In Wake County and across North Carolina, we must stand together — educational leaders, parents, scholars, and community organizations — to reject that limitation. We must insist that every child have abundant access to books, to voices, to possibility. Because when we deny a child access to stories, we deny their freedom itself.
Roots of Wisdom Scholars is committed to partnering, advocating, and acting — not just for more books, but for more justice.
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