Banning The Freedom Of The Press

Once upon a time, in a world not far from here, there are students who are forced to miss their annual train ride to Hogwarts, lock the wardrobe to the magical land of Narnia, and walk through the English countryside themselves instead of upon the back of Black Beauty. Why are these students deprived of those occurrences? They live in America, the land of the free- except when it comes to the books they can read. In fact, many schools across America exercise the practice of banning books. Since 1982, libraries, parents, and schools have attempted to ban 11,300 novels, according to the American Library Association. The essentially innoxious books are challenged for an assortment of reasons, including use of malapropos language, graphic or explicit

“Protecting one of our most fundamental rights- the freedom to read- means respecting each other’s differences and the right of all people to choose for themselves, what they and their families read.” So, how is it that boards of education are the ones making decisions on books? Which ones should be censored? What right do they have to do so? The boards are not the ones who should be held accountable for what books children and adolescents absorb; this is primarily the responsibility of parents.

The act of book banning could prove beneficial to the society because it could keep the students and youth of our culture away from books with a bad influence or things that would not help them in any way, shape, or form. “If a book is deemed offensive, some may argued, that it is promoting ideas which can have a detrimental influence on individuals (often children) and on society as a whole” (Aliprandini, Sprague 2016). This quote proves that those who believe that book banning is a good idea have valid reasons to believe so. Although books should not be banned, there is solid evidence that proves otherwise.

It is understood why somebody may think that books should not be banned at schools because by doing this parents are hurting their children by restrain their knowledge. When a quality book is banned, the children lose the opportunity to learn from that book. It is better supported that, some books should be banned from schools because they can introduce students to unacceptable topics and teach them bad or useless

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.

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

A certain few people can restrict others right of freedom to read. This can be a problem as many shall miss out on content that would be of value to them. The banning of books should not be enforced upon all, instead only upon those who see the book unfit to them or their children. Many reasons have been given for the

Isn't banning books disobeying the freedom of speech, and infringing on the freedom of the press? First Amendment, states that "citizens must be free to seek out any media, regardless of content, that they deem appropriate for entertainment, information, or education. With said, banning books stunts the extension of education. In addition, Books containing “Racial Issues, Blasphemous Dialogue, and Sexual Situations” parents' supervision is indicated. So, if read by children; banning books will not be an antidote for bad parenting. But, Most opponents of book banning understand parental preferences regarding their own child’s reading material, but they refuse to grant them the right to make a decision on behalf of all parents about what is or isn’t appropriate. The disadvantages, books can teach you a negative habits and that’s why some books should be banned. Literature will fully-develop children for the real-world.

Finally yet importantly, freedom to read is one of the reasons that oppose banning Of Mice and Men. According to the first Amendment, the government shall not intervene or prohibit the freedom of speech and press ("Cornell University Law School"). Long ago, the Founding Fathers had cherished freedom of humankind and they composed the Constitution to protect Americans’ freedom. Liberty has followed the United States for centuries and helps leaders develop a stable political system. Hence, authorities have no rights to restrict what citizens should and should not read ("American Library Association"). One can draw conclusions based on what they read, but that person may never prevent others from reading that information. One can warn others about the impacts of information, but that person should respect the right to read of others. If authorities decide what Americans may or may not read, the United States will become a dystopia, where citizens have no freedom except to comply to the leaders. Of course, no one wants that to happen, not when the Fathers had sacrificed themselves for the freedom of their children, schools should not ban Of Mice and Men, for it is a powerful book that helps fix the society.

School boards, principals, and teachers have a responsibility for protecting the minds of their students by covering grade and age appropriate material in the classroom. However, does this given responsibility cover the act of banning books from their classrooms? As an advocate for each student, does the teacher not have a duty to introduce the students to a these words issues in order to help the student cope with the different problems in the world? How does a school decide which books should be banned and how much say does the teacher have what should be left up to the teacher? Some say that banning books from the classroom, we prevent them from learning about different controversial topics in a safe and secure environment. In this paper I reflect on my research question: Why do schools ban books in the classroom?

One counterpoint of the argument of the topic is that banning books hinders students from discovering new things and obtaining knowledge. According to the article, “Banning Books: An Overview”, Michael Aliprandini and Carolyn Sprague state, “The core arguments against the banning of books have been based on protecting the rights of individuals to free speech as well as to promote intellectual freedom – the rights protected by the First Amendment.” They are basically explaining how arguments of book banning connect to the idea of intellectual freedom and protecting individual rights, which are implied in the First Amendment. Censorship of books can be expressed as violating the rights and freedom of the individuals. Boyd and Bailey support this idea of intellectual freedom by presenting how banning books in schools with the quote from their journal, “Censors evoke barriers to free thought and speech when they block knowledge acquisition, intellectual development, as well as creative and critical thinking…” (Boyd and Bailey, 655). In other words, students will not be able to develop the academic skills they need in order to succeed in school if books are banned for them. Previously, there have been books banned from the school curriculum because of the

Book banning is something that should be done away with in schools. It hurts everyone, and the only time it is appropriate is if the book is deemed to be truly inappropriate for children by students, teachers, parents, and everyone else that deals with children for reasons related to obscenity and an imminent clear and present danger. In the outside world, public libraries and such cannot ban books. First amendment affects book banning a great deal.

Over the past few years, with the increasing inflammation of America’s political climate, many books have been banned all across American schools simply for the inclusion of material that was deemed “offensive” by teachers and other staff alike, with the children tending not to be significantly affected by the contents of the books. Several books subject to this censorship include Slaughterhouse-5, Fahrenheit 451, 1984, and To Kill a Mockingbird. I wholeheartedly believe they were unjustly banned, as their pro-freedom messages were interpreted as being against freedom, and that they deserve to be given a second chance in many schools.

Often times when reading about a controversial topic we believe that removing the topic from schools helps create a better environment for students. The freedom to read or speak shouldn’t allow censorship or banning of books for subject surrounding the matter of vulgar language usage, violent situations or often controversial topics to be taught at schools. The removal of banned books is to help protect children and young adults from knowing about the world and the hardship that follow along with it. With banning books we decide what is seen as a good choice in books that we allow students to read for the safety of people's beliefs.

A parent should be able to filter out what their child checks out and reads. I feel that especially at a young age, the more power that the parents have over what material their child is exposed to, the better off it will be for both the parents and the child. Although I do agree with the fact that in order to grow up and mature as an individual, it is important for a child to see how the world really is, I also feel that every child is different and that every human matures at a different time and at different rates. Nobody knows a child as well as their parents know them.Their parents are the ones that care about them most so their parents should be able to control what they check