Essay On Censorship In Schools

“Books usually are challenged with the best intentions-- to protect others, frequently children, from difficult ideas and information” (Scales 163). A challenge is an attempt to remove or restrict materials, based upon the objections of a person or group. A banning is the removal of those materials. Challenges do not simply involve a person expressing a point of view; rather, they are an attempt to remove material from the curriculum or library, restricting the access of others. Due to the commitment of librarians, teachers, parents, students and other concerned citizens, most challenges are unsuccessful and most materials are retained in the school curriculum or library collection.

One of the key principles that make the country great is our freedom to say, write, and read whatever we want. Despite this, countless public figures and schools have chosen to restrict access to certain books, whether it’s in order to protect political correctness or explicit sexual content and violence. Rarely do these people stop and consider the dire effects book banning might have on both students and society as a whole. An author does not write because they are looking to offend someone, they right because they have a story to share. The First Amendment of the Constitution not only works to protect this right to the fullest extent possible, but also serves to protect the rights of the people that choose to be offended by these stories.

Banning books in school libraries takes away students academic freedom. “Academic freedom is the right and responsibility of educators and students to study, investigate, present, interpret

Censorship Censorship in schools may not be the best choice for enriching the future minds of the United States of America. Children of the United States of America should have the right to learn about anything for it is there amended right. Taking knowledge away from them and censoring it should not be the answer to keeping our Children pure it should be what we teach our kids. We need to teach them right and wrong that is what will keep our child’s mind pure. Many books are being taken off shelves every day in student libraries because a couple people do not think that the book is suitable for children.

Children and teens should be able to access literature “free of restrictions” (70). Censors of young adult literature “fail to see” the similarities between their “desires to suppress information” about sexuality, violence, and religion and the “successful attempts by dictators to control their countries’ population” (70). Countries who have tried to implement censorship are practicing control over their citizens, which is why Canada should not suppress the population from any literature. If children are told they are not able to read books they are interested in or curious about they will be deterred from pursuing leisurely reading which limits their intellectual

“American citizens who care about the improvement of education are urged to join students, teachers, librarians, administrators, boards of education, and professional and scholarly organizations in support of the students’ right to read” (The Students Right to Read). Citizens should be allowed to stand up if they believe books should not be banned. It is important that writers should be able to have their books out to the public without getting banned. “Challengers often employ a definition that maintains that banning materials is the only true form of censorship,”(Knox 740). Censorship of books is common and a real problem.

Books are an essential way to gain knowledge whether they are controversial or not. Thousands of books have been banned from public libraries and schools due to being deemed ‘inappropriate’ by parents, administrators, or religious leaders. Whether Americans should ban books in public libraries and schools is an often debated topic. This censorship of books is dangerous, as it restricts the American people's’ ability to access information, leaving Americans ignorant. Historically, banning books is not a new practice.

Intro 1: What if your young child is looking through a book at your public library and comes across a topic that was way too mature for their mind set. Would you be okay with it? A big controversial issue that has been going on in the past year is if books should be banned. Now, no one is trying to banish libraries across the globe but people have requested to ban books that are inappropriate. This matter has grown to be worse because everyone has an opinion.

First, this text states, “Children should not be exposed to sex, violence, drug use, or other inappropriate topics” (Procon.org). To explain, parents are banning books from schools because they do not want their children to be exposed to these inappropriate topics. Moreover, banning these inappropriate topic books would be a great deal for parents and their children. Furthermore, the same text states that “Keeping books with an inappropriate content out of libraries protects kids, but does not stop people from

Censorship in America is often debated. Erin Manning, texas-based writer explains that the American Library Association chooses to censor certain books because of “inappropriate content” and “second rate writing”(Manning 1). Parents attempt to protect their children from the outside world, by limiting their exposure to age appropriate language. When parents do this, their children’s knowledge of the outside world may be limited to what parents let their child view. Although some parents may feel that their child needs filtered information and entertainment, others believe that children and teens need to be shown uncensored content.

However , no piece of literature should be banned or censor. Instead , there should be warning labels such as movie labels. According to a graph from www.ala.org , one of the main reasons why books are banned was because of offensive language , and violent behaviors. Why are books being banned when the media is showing similar materials without being banned ? We as students , are actively aware to events occurring with media.

Book banning is not as common as it is made out to be in the U.S., but it does put a restriction the constitution’s first amendment. To ban a book, in the U.S., from a public or school libraries, for offensive content, a challenge must be made against the book. A challenge can be made by anyone but of the challenges made between “1990 and 2000, there were 6,364 challenges reported... sixty percent were reported by parents, fifteen percent by patrons and nine percent by administrators” (Schools and censorship: Banned Books). Most of these challenges sent to the American Library Association do not get accepted and officially ban the book.

At one point in time, over 7,220 books have been challenged to be banned. Though these books have been removed for the safety of children, not all books should be banned for many reasons. These include the fact that banning books is infringing on the First Amendment, keeping children from understanding the real world, and, even though there are many reasons for book banning, not banning books could help a student’s education and can even work against itself. Banning a book from a school or public library could go against a person’s First Amendment of the freedom of press.

Would you rather read a book of your choice or read a book that has been banned. ”Often challenges are motivated by a desire to protect children from “inappropriate” sexual content or “offensive” language. The following were the top three reasons cited for challenging materials as reported to the Office of Intellectual Freedom: content was considered to be sexually explicit, contained offensive language, and the materials were unsuited to any age group.” Banned books give people a sense of curiosity and excitement, which is why more and more people want to read banned books; to see what the hype was about.

Everyone wants the best for their children. No one wants their sweet child to take part in drugs, crime, violence, profanity, and racism, so these behaviors should definitely not be encouraged. However, it is naive to hide the existence of these behaviors. Children should be able to engage in critical thinking. But, the Americans people should have a say in what children are exposed to. In order to allow school boards to ban books from schools, the Supreme Court must first undergo judicial review of the first amendment to the U.S. Constitution, and the American people must vote on whether they will allow book banning in public schools.