Banning Books In Schools

Supporters of banning say profanity can negatively influence the actions and thoughts of readers, especially younger readers that may not have heard or read many corrupt words. Huckleberry Finn, a book commonly inveighed for its use of contentious racial language, is commonly challenged for that reason. For USA Today, Martha Moore wrote, “When the younger reader is staring at that word five times on a given page and the instructor is saying, 'Mark Twain didn't mean this and you have to read it with an appreciation of irony,' you're asking a lot of a younger reader”. Granted, foul vocabulary is a challenge that academies need to address, but not through barring novels. Besides, if the reader is sufficiently mature for the book, they can still learn from it. For instance, some racial characterizations do not intentionally persecute people, but show the contrasting tensions between them, conforming to the time period. Again, the article “Huck Finn Navigating Choppy Waters Again” revealed, “The word is there for a reason… The word is terrible, it's hurtful, but it's there for a reason” (Moore). The racial epithets used in that book convey the attitude of Missouri in the 1840s when friction between African Americans and white people was rising. Additionally, banning a book due to concerns about the language is not beneficial to pupils because it prevents them from learning from other components of the book. “Often the organizations or schools that ban these books fail to see the book as a whole; they often center on the one page, the one scene or even the one word containing the offensive language or meaning and judge the whole book based on that one aspect,” according to an article by Adriana Lopez. She makes a sound point. A book contains a whole plot with themes that

All around the world, certain books are being banned or challenged in school districts often because the material is considered sexually explicit, unsuited for the age group, or includes offensive language or actions.

According to the American Library Association, the most common group of people, challenging a book being read in schools, was the parents of the students. Parents have a right to be in charge of what is put into the minds of their students, however just because one parent objects does not mean that the whole school should ban the book from the list. A solution for this book would be to enforce parental consent for books to be read in the classroom. If a parent does not want a book to be read in the classroom, then there should be other options for the student to read. The school and teacher should not trespass on a parent’s rights of raising their child. I believe that if a parent has a concern, they should go and discuss the problem with the teacher so that the teacher will be able to defend their reasoning for choosing the book to be read in the classroom.

It is reasonable for a book to be banned if it is just not suitable for children as in its mature content. But if a book is being banned because of a parent who does not like the book or thinks it is a touchy subject, then it is just not reasonable and there should not even be a discussion about banning it. “Parents who don't like specific books can have their kids "opt out" of an assignment without infringing on the rights of others.” (www.procon.org/headline.php?headlineID=005365). There is no reason for a parent to try to have a book banned because they do not like the content in the book.’’ Also, the parent can choose to have their child not read the book without having it banned from the whole school. Parents should censor their own child and not the entire

Many schools are taking books out of their curriculum because of the harsh and uncomfortable language and topics. The Biloxi School District had taken To Kill A Mockingbird out of their classrooms and Drake High School had even burned all copies of Slaughterhouse -Five. It is wrong that schools began taking books like that from their lesson plan because students should not be oblivious to these kinds of topics and it is sending the wrong message about the authors and their books.

All it takes to challenge a book is for a parent or other citizens to file a complain against a teacher, library, school, or bookseller, for that reason many teachers and librarians choose to remove the books from the curriculum or shelves before an issue is brought up (Pitner). The fear of a lawsuit keeps many people from expressing their belief that banning books is unnecessary (Kennedy, Banned Children’s Books).

First of all, people think that they should ban books because of the wording. Some of the words that the books use now are bad but these books were meant for that timeline and back than these words meant something else. Some of these words can be offensive like say I am an indian and an american says that is it your culture that you do this. This stuff can be offensive but the teachers will have to show the children how come. Also these words can be racial meaning some of these words can be racest.

When being assigned this project, I immediately went to this issue of banning books in the classroom. I remember growing up reading some of these books on the banned list. But not remembering them for being racist or indecent, but rather them depicting a time period and a glips of society back them. I wanted to get down to the reason why and who has the power of banning books. I wanted to dig deeper into the reasons why books were becoming banned and reach out to the community of educators for their opinion on this topic.

In 2014, 311 books were banned or challenged in schools and libraries across the United States (Banned Books: Reasons for Banning Books). Each year books are being banned or are unavailable at certain places for many different reasons. Some might say that all books should be accessible for anyone who wants to read them. However, some books have content that some may not understand clearly or might have an effect how they think afterwards. Therefore, books should only be available for the correct age group because some books may confuse those younger than the indented audience.

People read books about dystopians all the time, you know those books that have everything possible go wrong. Books like The Hunger games, or Fahrenheit 451, Ect. Some people look at them as just stories, just fictional books. Those books are all about censorship and having the government controlling and watching your every move. What most people don't realize is that there is censorship happening right now, every time you send a text or make a phone call, the government can see/hear it. There is censorship on books at schools and ratings on movies. There is censorship happening all around you and most of us don't even notice it. That's because they are minor, but, over time things can progressively get worse. Someday those

According to the American Library Association, famous children books such as, Alice in Wonderland, The Giving Tree, Charlotte’s Web, and The Lorax were all banned in certain states in the country. These are not the only books that have been banned, countless numbers of a variety of books have been removed, erased, or trashed because of how people negatively perceived them. The banning of books has been a long controversial argument from the time they were created. All over the world, a book has been banned or challenged because it did not meet the criteria a book should have in that community. Whether it be parents, educators, or officials, people regard the contents of the certain books as inappropriate and socially insensitive.

Every year, hundreds of books are challenged, banned, and/or removed. According to American Library Association, more than 11, 300 books have been challenged, banned, or removed in schools and libraries across the country since 1982. The reasons why books are banned were discussed during an interview between Time For Kids and the director of ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom, James LaRue. "Books are banned because they fall under one of these categories of controversy: Religion, Sexual Content, Profanity, or Race." (LaRue, 2016). Many books that have been banned, at one point in time, fall under one these categories. Some more well-known books included: The Holy Bible, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Catcher in the Rye, To Kill

My generation, could be the most aware group of adolescents to face our futures. We come across many of the same challenges adults do; while handling it with our young selves - which does not mean that we should still be treated like kindergarteners. Censoring books in high schools is taking away from a clear outlook on reality that we could be seeing. At Hebron, the book “The Kite Runner”, is being challenged due to the seen to be inappropriate content. The banning of books should not be allowed at Hebron or any high school. These stories provide powerful eye-openings and education of the real world chaos - that we could be getting a better learning of. While all these challenger’s simply want is purity in our eyes, it’s wrecking the author's real ideas and preventing us to think for ourselves.

They get banned because of the naked truth of their subjects. Stories that touch on the harsh reality of racism are deemed inappropriate for school. “The classics have one thing in common: they say something humanity needs to hear, and they say it masterfully,” Was stated in one of the articles. The classics, along with other stories about the history of the world, tell us things we do not want to hear. Because of books using harsh topics like what is going on with the world, they get banned from libraries and schools.

It is my belief that since by the time the child is required to read such literature in school, they are at an age where they can distinguish between things that should and should not be said and it is the job of the parents to educate the child that just because they say it in a book does not mean he or she should.Another subject common to banned and censored books is sexuality.