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The Importance of sexual education
Negative effects of censorship in schools
Education censorship
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Recommended: The Importance of sexual education
While censorship seems beneficial in some situations, it can prove to have a negative effect on the education system. It affects the way teachers choose what their class is going to read, and what way would be an acceptable way for a child to learn. School administrators also have to learn to work with these “restrictions”, even though they don’t even exist. According to Censorship in the School's, censorship also prevents children from having a true education; the sensor is denying children the right to form their own thoughts and opinions on a certain topic by preventing them from learning about it. The end results of censorship can also prove to be harmful to society and promote ignorance. Censorship is harmful because it can take away the benefits of a better education and have …show more content…
According to Pros and Cons of Censorship, censoring inappropriate or pornographic material can prevent the minds of children from becoming corrupt, and this argument has been used several times to prevent children from learning about sex in schools. Parents have stepped in to prevent their kids from learning sex education because the material is too graphic for such young children, and most schools avoid the topic of different sexualities in general in fear of it causing a religious conflict. However, in the case of censorship because of sex education, it isn’t always the parents stepping in. According to State Policies on Sex Education in Schools, only 24 states and the District of Columbia require public schools to teacher sex education, 21 of which requiring both sex education and HIV education. Sex education is probably one of the best examples of why censorship can be harmful because the lack of it encourages rape culture, teenage pregnancy, or just accidental pregnancy. This type of ignorance isn’t just harmful to the mind, but also to
“Censorship is telling a man he can't have a steak just because a baby can't chew it” were the famous words of Mark Twain. Since early times censorship has had a critical role in history. Many individuals do not understand the true meaning of censorship because they were either brought up to see it as something different or they misinterpret it from how history looks at it. It has been misconstrued by history to be seen as a negative but in reality it is meant to be positive.
The American Association of School Administrators (AASA) defines censorship as: “The removal, suppression, or restricted circulation of literary, artistic, or educational materials… of images, ideas, and information…on the grounds that these are morally or otherwise objectionable in light of standards applied by the censor” (Miner 1998). In schools there are three types of censorship, one type is a “parent who doesn’t want their child to read a particular book. Another is a parent, teacher, administrator, or school board member who argues that no one in the class, or school should read the book in dispute. Lastly, there is censorship that involves someone who is part of an organized campaign, whether of a local or national group, and who goes in ready for a fight and wants to make a broader political point” (Miner 1998). Although there are many others ways that a piece of literature could get censored, most censored works are asked to be removed from classrooms and school libraries.
Censorship is a concept with several different meanings. To each individual censorship has its own meaning. Is it a violation of our rights or is it a protection for our well being? Censorship in the generic sense refers to the suppression of information, ideas, or opinions. It occurs in all forms of communication from technological media to print media. Each society, culture, or individual's belief is violated by the codes of censorship that our society instills.
Thesis: Although some people believe that censorship is adequate to select what things does the society will be good and can live around it while others believe that there should be no censorship because it takes away your right of expression of freedom.
According to “Freedom of Speech” by Gerald Leinwand, Abraham Lincoln once asked, “Must a government, of necessity, be too strong for the liberties of its people, or too weak to maintain its own existence (7)?” This question is particularly appropriate when considering what is perhaps the most sacred of all our Constitutionally guaranteed rights, freedom of expression. Lincoln knew well the potential dangers of expression, having steered the Union through the bitterly divisive Civil War, but he held the Constitution dear enough to protect its promises whenever possible (8).
Censorship has been a big part of the world’s history and especially America’s history. One of the most quoted amendments to the United States constitution is the first amendment; “Congress shall make no law…abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press ...” This amendment guaranteeing free speech, press, and religion is still heavily debated and contested today. Censorship, as a challenge to free speech and press has been allowed many times and has been heavily debated itself. Many people censor for many different reasons and in many different forms. Censorship itself is not always a bad thing and has in some cases been used for protection of the general population.
Censorship by definition is the suppression of speech or removal of communicative material which may be considered objectionable or repulsive. Censorship is nothing new and its effects are constantly felt throughout society. Many societies use censorship to protect the established moral and social order. Book censorship in western cultures can be traced to the earliest years of Christianity, when the church began to suppress opposing views as unorthodox. In ancient times, before the printing press and the mass production of literature, book burning was an effective form of censorship. This process guaranteed that no one would ever read them. Although book burning was very efficient it is now used as more of a gesture of protest to shock people rather than a real method of destroying a book. In modern times, censorship refers to the examination of media including books, periodicals, plays, motion pictures, television shows and radio programs for the purpose of altering or suppressing parts thought to be offensive. Today’s censorship occurs when certain people succeed in imposing their personal or moral values on others. Censorship deals mainly with the first amendment constitutional. “The law requires that if a book is to be removed, an inquiry must be made as to the motivation and intention of the party calling for its removal. If the party’s intention is to deny students access to ideas with which the party disagrees, it is a violation of the First Amendment” [First Amendment Center]. Though the First Amendment bars government authorities from prohibiting the free exercise, abridging the freedom of speech or practicing religious censorship in the United States, individuals have successfully pushed to remove books from public and ...
The result, however; is always and ever the denial of another's right to read. The censors are mostly parents and other community residents of all backgrounds, political and religious beliefs, who are sincerely concerned about the reading habits of today’s children. The situation leads to the personal standard of what one parent or small groups of parents, being mistaken for a community standard. A minority ends up dictating the silent majority. That goes against all of America’s basic freedoms.
Walt Whitman once said, “The dirtiest book of all is the expurgated book.” Between the years 2000 and 2009 a total of 3200 books were challenged in school libraries in an attempt to expurgate, or censor, the content in books provided to students. Today the trend of censorship continues as popular novels such as The Hunger Games, The Fault in Our Stars, and Captain Underpants are censored from schools across the nation (Challenges by Reason).Censorship in regards to literature refers to the examination and suppressing of a book because of objectionable material. The process of censorship in school libraries often begins with an outspoken parent, teacher, student, or administrator and ends in the banning or abridgement of a novel deemed inadmissible. Censorship is protecting many students from controversial, immoral, and potentially unsuitable content; however, this is not always the case. Students, parents, teachers, and administrators with different backgrounds, beliefs, and morals are not creating a library pleasing to everyone because of the variety of opinion. Censorship in school is not justifiable, because it restricts discussion and knowledge of new, controversial, and necessary ideas, allows a handful of people to make decisions for a larger group based on opinion, and undermines democratic ideals.
Censorship in schools can protect children and eliminate problems, but it can also cause many other problems. For one thing, it sometimes violates the First Amendment. The First Amendment states that “congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances” (Taylor 15). These rights are guaranteed to all American citizens, and that includes schoolchildren as well. According to the Constitution, the government cannot take away these basic rights. Public schools are government funded, so they must be sure not to infringe on student’s rights or there could be a lawsuit on their hands. In addition to legal consequences, school is about learning and ...
Censorship in Schools There has recently been a renewed interest and passion in the issue of censorship. In the realm of the censorship of books in schools alone, several hundred cases have surfaced each year for nearly the past decade. Controversies over which books to include in the high school English curriculum present a clash of values between teachers, school systems, and parents over what is appropriate for and meaningful to students. It is important to strike a balance between English that is meaningful to students by relating to their lives and representing diversity and satisfying worries about the appropriateness of what is read.
People involed Many parents and public schools are involved in this due to them having to keep pressing about the disapprove of language or ideas that differ from their personal value. According to Censor goes to schools, schools are involved because of the difficulty they have protecting parents and students. Parents are invloved because its their child educating that is being hinder. Parents are also involved because it can change the act of their child .
Ever wondered the reason behind racial discrimination, sexual discrimination, children committing crime or violence? The main reason is that censorship is not properly imposed or there is a need of censorship in the society. Censorship is the suppression of ideas and information that certain people, individual, groups or government officials find it objectionable, offensive or dangerous on others. There are varieties of other definitions but all have in common the concept of withholding information and/or resources from those who seek it. Hence censorship is essential in society to eliminate discrimination on basis of race and sex, protect children, maintain stability and restore what censor sees as lost moral values. Censorship occurs when expressive materials like books, magazines, movies, videos, music or work of art are restricted to particular audiences based on their age or other characteristics. (http://www.ala.org/oif/intellectualfreedeomandcensorship.html)
“How dare that song say such a thing? There’s children listening”. Many songwriters, artists, and creators have heard this several times after expressing their work. In the sources read, arguments were presented in regards to censorship in media centers. Censorship is “the practice of suppressing ideas” and has a long history in America.
Censorship affects our society in many different ways, it affects the music we listen to, the movies we watch, the books we read, and many other aspects of our everyday lives. Even though many might argue that censorship doesn't really have a place in a society that emphases freedom of speech and the freedom to express oneself, but censorship is an essential and needed part of our growing society, it's needed in the television industry, the Internet, and the music industry. Censorship helps to make our world a better place because it creates a better environment for us to live in.