Book Banning Essay

As United States citizens, we have the right of freedom of expression; the First Amendment of the United States constitution states, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or the press…" (First Amendment Oct. 20, 2013). As this concerns books, people should have the freedom to choose what they want to read and what they don't want to read. By banning books, our basic rights as US citizens are abused. Book banning affects many different people, from the people who read books to the people who write them. Why do

The biggest problem school libraries seem to face is where to draw the line on book content. But school libraries must understand that allowing book banning, they are taking away the opportunity for all students to read , instead of letting the parents decide what their child should be reading. Finlo Rohrer, BBC News Washington, explains that “In the US more and more parents are pressing schools to withdraw books with bad language or sexual content.” Parents that are uncomfortable with books in school libraries have made the effort to completely remove them from the library altogether. But when parents press to remove books that they might find unacceptable, they are actually deciding for the rest of the students as well. Mike Rose argues that “One disturbing aspect if censorship is its power to deny students in one class or an entire school system the right to read particular texts” (Agee, 61). Parents have every right to watch what their child reads and

The problems with banned books has been a controversial issue between parents as well as adults. The concerns that parents have are with the fact that these certain books are to be banned to keep their kids from being exposed to some of the ways of the world. Some of the concerns that these parents have are with usage of some derrogatory words or lanuguage not preferrred by some parents. The things that parents fail to realize is that by law, a librarian has the responsibility that they must uphold; including their responsibilty to the stocking of books on their shelves. I would take the side of the librarian because their position would be worthless because their rights would be useless, and their job would

From the very beginnings of literature, the act of banning books has long been a heated controversy. While almost everyone can say that there are definitely books that they do not want their children reading, the line between what is acceptable and what is not is much harder to define, especially in today’s world. In “How Banning Books Marginalizes Children” (2016), Paul Ringel argues that the current policy of banning books has had a negative impact on children because it has conveyed a message that rebuffs diversity and has contradicted the fact that the power to ban books should be used to “curate children’s choices with the goals of inspiring rather than obscuring new ideas.”

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?

Banning books that some people consider inappropriate could prevent the knowledge of past history, as well as intelligence and different aspects of opinions. For all these reasons, I believe that books should not be banned! Banning books is similar banning the freedom of expression. Not only can banning books prevent this, but it also prevents people from being able to learn from real issues that authors want to share with their readers.

At the present time, at least seventy-five books are being banned. This is hurting our culture more than it is helping. This has to be stopped; books cannot be taken off of the shelves at the rate that they are today. The books that are being taken off of the shelves are, for the most part, considered classics. The act of book banning puts limitations on what authors can say, and what readers can read (Dorshemer p.1). The banning of books in America is a violation of our first amendment rights. Amendment 1 of the United States Constitution states as follows:

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.

Is it necessary for schools to ban books just because some parents don’t like what their child is reading in English class? The topic of banned books has generated a lot of argument for both the viewpoint of schools not banning books because of the harmful content, and the opposing viewpoint of schools banning books because they have harmful or offensive content. The viewpoint of not banning books in schools because of the content is stronger, because banning some books that might have some hurtful content in them, the ability to learn a valuable lesson. Banning books also takes away children’s freedom of reading what they want. While there are many other main ideas to support the viewpoint of not banning books in schools, by banning the books that have potentially hurtful content, the chance to learn important lessons is lost. This is the reason found to be the most effective.

Because violating rights is seen as unconstitutional, “true book banning is rare” in democratic countries such as our own (Bily 11). For example, in the United States “the last time the federal government prohibited a book from being imported or sold in the country was 1963” (Bily 11). The government clearly does not consider book banning as the solution to all the worlds problems and does not endorse the overuse of book banning in today’s society. So why are concerned parents and school administrators choosing to do something their government only views as a last resort? Banning books is a violation of authors’ freedom of speech. It is so much so that the American Library Association (ALA) “Office for Intellectual Freedom promotes awareness of challenges to library materials and celebrates freedom of speech during Banned Book Week,” which is usually “observed during the last week of September” (Banned Books Week…). Authors have the right to voice their opinions, and banning a book is crossing a line of violation, even if their opinions are not agreed upon by the general population. “Proponents for book banning say that certain subjects are inappropriate for certain-aged readers who are not emotionally or mentally mature enough to understand the books contents” (Yung). But book banning violates the freedom of choice for those children and those whose parents believe that they are mature enough. In fact, “the ALA promotes

Book Banning in Schools Books are banned in school libraries every year. They are pointed out for having inappropriate content, which some believe should not be allowed to be read by students. Unlike in the past, people are allowed to argue against the banning of books as well as fight for it. There are many arguments for the banning of books, such as: it protects family values, parents must protect children from the offensive material that can be found in them, and there are legal standards for the removal of books. On the other hand, there are some that believe that students need bold books to further grow and mature.

So many people think that schools boards should not be able to ban books but they don’t understand how bad some books can be in some people’s minds! School boards should be allowed to ban books because some people or kids might not know what they are reading is bad, they could spread it to their friends and it could become something worse than in the book, and they can copy/ redo what they have read in their books. So school boards should be able to ban books for so many reasons and for kids, and adult’s safety. If certain books got into the wrong hands, something horrible could happen. Kids need to learn about the things that might be in books found at the school libraries. So, school boards should be allowed to ban books from school libraries. People talk, rumors can be started, and trends are made. People can spread bad things that have been read in school books.

Historically, banning books is not a new practice, because for as long as writers have written books, people have been wanting to ban them. Before the printing press, only a few handwritten copies of each book existed. If leaders deemed a book ‘inappropriate’ or ‘undesirable’, they burned the few copies that existed, ensuring people would no longer read the knowledge inside them again. After the invention of the printing press, books could be printed in mass quantities, leaving book burning an ineffective form of censorship. Soon after, an Archbishop in Germany begged for town officials to ban “dangerous publications” that allowed for people to question the church, thus creating the first official book censorship. Throughout America’s

Banning books is a practice that has been used all throughout history. It affects many people such as authors, religious groups, students, and other citizens. When books are banned, it limits the amount a person can read or learn about a certain topic. Banning books is a key component in the novel, Fahrenheit 451, as well as in society throughout history.

The American Library Association states that the most challenged and restricted reading material have been children books. However, challenges are not merely an expression of a point of view; on the contrary, It is an attempt to remove materials from public use, thus restricting the access to others. Even if the motivation to ban or challenge a book is well intended, the outcome is unfair for everyone else. Censorship denies our freedom as individuals to choose and think for ourselves. For children, decisions about what books to read should only be made by the people who know them best; their parents! (Letter to the Editor). I strongly disagree when people want books banned based on their own opinion of the