Intellectual Freedom: The Case Against Banning Books in Schools. The debate over banning books in American schools has long been a contentious issue. While some argue that certain books should be prohibited due to mature themes, offensive language, and graphic content, this position undermines the principles of intellectual freedom and the well-being of society. Books, even those that challenge and disturb us, play a crucial role in fostering critical thinking, empathy, and a deeper understanding of human experience. Instead of banning books, we should promote open discussion, provide guidance for mature content, and trust in students' capacity to engage with complex literature. The Importance of Challenging Literature Primarily, literature exists to challenge, provoke, and expand our understanding of the world. Banning books based on themes of gender, violence, or strong language risks depriving students of the opportunity to grapple with the very issues that shape our society. As author and free speech advocate Judy Blume notes, "Censorship grows out of fear, and... is the sharpened edge of that fear—at …show more content…
Books like The Catcher in the Rye and To Kill a Mockingbird, frequently targeted for banning, offer profound insights into alienation, prejudice, and the complexities of the human condition. As Rudine Sims Bishop, a leading scholar on multicultural children's literature, argues, "Books can be both windows and mirrors. When writing for children, authors have a responsibility to provide mirrors for young readers, reflecting their own lives and experiences. At the same time, books can offer windows into the lives of others, broadening young readers' understanding of the world." By banning books that address difficult social issues, we deny students the chance to walk in others' shoes, limiting their capacity for empathy and social
The practice of the censorship of books in schools has been prevalent due to the explicit content of them. Parents have been complaining to schools about books that count as required reading because they disapprove with the points made in the book. If a book consists of offensive or sexually explicit material, then parents would challenge the schools about them in order to prevent their children from reading them. Censorship in general has been an intensely debated issue because it is considered an infringement to the First Amendment of the United States Constitution while others argue it is used to conceal inappropriate things (Aliprandini and Sprague). The banning of books in school curriculum has also been debated since parents see certain books as inappropriate while others argue that banning them hinders student learning. Against the censorship of books in schools, Fenice Boyd and Nancy Bailey, authors of Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, believe that banning books creates a barrier between students and intellectual development (Boyd and Bailey, 655). Banning books from schools and removing them from the curriculum prevents students from exploring different ideas and developing creativity and critical thinking skills.
Countries worldwide actively call for the banning of books that are found to be politically inconvenient, religiously awkward, or embarrassing in one form or another. But for writers like Russia's Vasily Grossman, a book's ban means far more than just a dip in sales. In 1961, he pleaded with the Soviet censors, "I am physically free, but the book to which I have dedicated my life is in jail." (Merkelson). A book represents an idea, thus limiting access to a book is banning the representation of an idea. The banning of books in American schools should not be allowed, because banning books will prevent students from learning the reason for the controversy and alternate viewpoints they can come to on their own.
Banning Books “It’s not just the books under fire now that worry me. It is the books that will never be written, the books that will never be read. And all due to the fear of censorship. As always, young readers will be the real losers” (Blume 1999). Judy Blume can not explain the problem of book censorship any clearer.
Something else that must be mentioned in order to understand the evils of school censorship are facts censors ignore; the first being literary quality. When they chose to censor a book they do not take into account the educational value of the book. How can one say a book does not belong in schools if they do not know what lessons it teaches? The second key element ignored is the manner in which teachers lead students to interact with texts. They g...
Books are banned for many reasons but more times than not it is because of the sensitive information found within the novel that agitates the reader. As long as people have been able to develop their own opinions, others have sought to prevent them from sharing. At some point in time, every idea has ultimately become objectionable to someone. The most frequently challenged and most visible targets of such objection are the very books found in classrooms and public libraries. These controversial novels teach lessons that sometimes can be very sensitive to some but there is much more to challenged books than a controversial topic. What lies within these pages is a wealth of knowledge, such as new perspectives for readers, twisting plots, and expressions that are found nowhere else. For example, To Kill A Mockingbird, contains references to rape, racial content, and profanity that have caused many to challenge the novel in the first place. The book was banned from countless
School boards and teachers have a responsibility for protecting the minds of their students and covering age appropriate material. However, does this responsibility cover the extreme act of banning books from school classrooms? Does not the teacher have a duty to introduce to their students world issues in order to better the students ability to cope with problems in the world? How does a school decide which books should be banned from the classroom, and should it be left up to the teacher to decide what is decided in his/her classroom. By banning books from the classroom, we prevent our students from learning about controversial topics in a safe environment, and we also encroach upon the student’s freedom of reading what they want in school.
Why are books challenged and further on banned? To challenge a book is an attempt to remove the material from schools and/or libraries, and to ban a book is to successfully remove the material from these places. Books are usually challenged to protect children from the censors of these books. This book was banned for all the wrong reasons. This paper will focus on racism, sexism, homosexuality, and violence since these were reasons the book got banned which on the contrary should have given it much more motive to let high school students read and learn from it.
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.
When our country was founded in 1776, it was founded on the liberty of expressing and having your voice be heard which gave us the first amendment. Part of the first amendment is freedom of speech which lets many authors express themselves through words and informing readers about real world issues that nowadays people just ignore, and information that might be essential to someone on the days come forth .By challenging, banning or censoring a authors book you're basically restraining them from using their first amendment. When censoring a book it’s censoring a part of a book that either one or more have found offensive and with banning its the whole book. Banning or challenging a book is absurd , no one has the right to decide for everyone
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.
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. This burden often falls on teachers. The purpose of this research paper is to discuss censorship in schools and to argue that the censorship of books in the high school English curriculum is limiting and takes away literature that is meaningful to students.
But the truth is, book banning is always unjustified since the parents and politicians who ban these books are restricting other children from getting the knowledge they need to learn about life. To explain, the National Coalition Against Censorship writes, “Even books or materials that many find ‘objectionable’ may have educational value, and the decision about what to use in the classroom should be based on professional judgments and standards, not individual preferences” (ProCon). It is admirable that parents would like to protect other children, but the decision on whether a book should be removed from other students should be based on professional opinions, not just a parent’s perspective on the book. Even then, these professionals could judge the books in the wrong way, causing the book to be banned and not serve its purpose. Therefore, since children are our future, books shouldn’t be banned, so children can be educated on important issues and lead the world out of hate and pain.
Banning books keeps children from learning about or discovering themselves and the world around them. In an article from ProCon.org, the advantages and disadvantages of banning books are discussed. Author Robbie H. Harris, who’s children’s books are frequently challenged, talks about the effect books have on children’s understanding of the world. “I think these books look at the topics, the concerns, the worry, the fascination that kids have today. It’s the world in which they’re living” (procon 3).Harris says that books address the “topics”, the “concerns”, and the “fascination” children have about the world that they’re living in today.
It’s Complicated” stars Meryl Streep and Alec Baldwin as an upper-middle class divorced couple in their fifties. Jane (Streep) is single and owns a successful bakery. Jake (Baldwin) is married to much younger woman, Agness, and is an attorney. However, Jane and Jake have three grown children together. While in New York for their son’s college graduation Jane and Jake begin having an affair.
Did you know that there have been more than 4,000 bans on books in the first half of the current school year? Books get banned all the time for not being appropriate, but on one side of the argument they say they shouldn’t be banned while the other says that book bans help society. Books should not be banned because they can be banned for invalid reasons, books can be kept from younger children while still being available to the proper audience, and book bans can have effects on the students who aren’t getting the chance to read them. From a historical perspective it can be argued that books should not be banned because people are banning books for invalid reasons. While some may argue that book banning keeps kids safe from books that are inappropriate, books like To Kill a Mockingbird and Uncle Tom's Cabin are books about parts of history that kids should learn because it is the truth.