Censorship of Books in School

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Recommended: The negative effects of censorship

In schools around the nation, many books have been banned from the teaching curriculum. Some of them deserve to be banned due to the explicit content only suited for adults. Some books like the Harry Potter series, The Catcher in the Rye, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Hunger Games. Granted, there are language issues in Catcher and Huckleberry Finn, but that language exists everywhere. The censorship should not be as strict as it is because many great books are being banned that students should be reading in order to gain an understanding on who some great writers were. Some of the banned books should be reconsidered on whether they should be censored or not.
First of all, what exactly is censorship and what are some reasons to ban a book? The censorship of books deals with removing them from school or local libraries because they contain things like vulgar language, sexual references, drug use, or extremely violent details. These are the same reasons a book can and will be banned from a library. Some of these bans take the meaning of the book too seriously or completely out of context. Why is censorship so strict on what students read? The ban list can try to keep the vulgar language away from the students in school, but what about home? These kids could be surround by this language every day. This use of profanity has become too common that it has basically became normal to hear in public. This use of profane language is found a lot in The Catcher in the Rye and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
The Catcher in the Rye is a very famous novel, but the profane language forced the book to be placed on the banned book list. The story focuses on a boy named Holden. Holden had a very colorful vocabulary and was not ash...

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...sed on the age level of the reader. For example, if a book is banned due to language issues, it should only be banned from elementary schools and possibly middle schools, but it should only be allowed in high schools. If a book is banned for “witch-craft,” the book should be allowed in middle schools and high schools only. By determining where the book can be read and where the book should only be banned, this makes it possible for students to read classical works when they are age appropriate for them to read.

Works Cited

Baldassarro, R. Wolf. "Banned Books Awarness: The Giver by Lois Lowry." bannedbooks.world.edu. Deep Forest Productions, 27 Mar. 2011. Web. 6 Nov. 2013.
Hubbard, Ben. "Potter." Education Journal 60 (2002): 17. Academic Search Premier. Web. 6
Nov. 2013.
Salinger, J. D. The Catcher in the Rye. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 1951. Print.

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