Censorship And Its Effect On Children

According to “Freedom of Speech” by Gerald Leinwand, Abraham Lincoln once asked, “Must a government, of necessity, be too strong for the liberties of its people, or too weak to maintain its own existence (7)?” This question is particularly appropriate when considering what is perhaps the most sacred of all our Constitutionally guaranteed rights, freedom of expression. Lincoln knew well the potential dangers of expression, having steered the Union through the bitterly divisive Civil War, but he held the Constitution dear enough to protect its promises whenever possible (8).

The word censorship is from the Latin word root of censere, which means to give an opinion or expression to be judged upon. Censorship is the restriction of certain material, and due to its expression it is seen offensive to someone else. The origin of expression of censorship can be tracked back to the Roman Empire when Roman officials assessed the conduct and attitudes of other Roman citizens. The Roman government viewed that in order to have a strong government, the behavior and conduct of the peopled had to be changed according to what they thought was correct. Censorship continued to be a controversy over time. It remained a controversy over time, through many empires, the age of Enlightenment, World War II, and even today. As censorship progressed through the ages it still continues today. Today, censorship occurs at schools. It occurs in libraries, classrooms, and even in student publications. Even though censorship can occur to a certain extent at schools, students’ First Amendment rights are still protected at school. The First Amendment protects freedom of expression, speech, press, religion, and assembly. Students are allowed to express themselves freely at school as long as they do not affect the education and as long as it is not an activity supported by the school system.

Euphemism, a form of indirect censorship, is often used to substitute certain phrases in order to soften their influence. The word “dead” becomes “passed away”, one who was once “disabled” is now “physically impaired”, and what used to be considered “firing a worker”, is called “employee termination”. These euphemisms are used to protect their audience from the reality, and although they sometimes serve to censor people from the truth, they ineffectively protect children from explicit content in many forms of literature. Despite the fact that And Tango Makes Three by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell, and Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White are excellent children novels that teach meaningful lessons,

Knowledge is power. Using knowledge, people can reshape society and the world as a whole, changing it for the better. However, gaining access to the necessary wealth of information requires a full education: people should be taught multiple ideologies and topics from an unbiased perspective. They must receive access to various viewpoints in their entirety. Teaching only one worldview strips students of their ability to truly analyze the world and its issues, because they cannot look beyond the one restrictive narrative they learned and therefore cannot develop their own perspective. Censorship hinders schools, institutions with the purpose of informing students and helping them develop their beliefs. Therefore, schools should not practice censorship when selecting literature for students because censorship obscures the purpose of literature, because censorship fails to expose students to a variety of ideas, and because censorship removes students’ ability to develop unique opinions and worldviews; education should provide an unbiased view of the world and many ideologies, so students can take their own stance on various issues rather than blindly following what they learn.

Censorship has been around for millions of years. Although censorship is still practised in some countries today, almost anyone would agree that censorship is never the right answer; as we have seen in the past, it has seldomly ever works out. Which is why it is so concerning that schools are starting to allow censorship in classrooms. As a result of this, the world is seeing an alarming amount of young millennials who are fresh into the workforce, expecting to always be catered to. More and more millennials are not being properly prepared for the real world due to censorship in schools; schools have been giving in and catering to students by allowing the censoring of books and microaggressions in the classroom, as a result the students are being taught that the world will cater to everyone, which is very inaccurate.

“The Diary of Anne Frank”, “The Catcher and the Rye” and “Gone With The Wind” are examples of some famous books that have been made unavailable to students in public schools. These books, along with many others have culturally shaped America. Future students will now grow up without the knowledge these books have given past generations. This is due to censorship. According to Vocabulary.com “To censor is to review something and to choose to remove or hide parts of it that are considered unacceptable.” In public schools censorship is a big problem. The schools district will take a book out of students education because the books themes does not fit in with their ideals. Other times, a parent will complain because a book is being taught that does not support their religious beliefs. Public Schools should not censor literature based on intolerance for other viewpoints, because it disadvantages students education by not exposing them to world issues.

Censorship keeps individuals from learning. Prabhakar Pillai, author of, “ Pros and Cons of Censorship “ remarks, “ children are prevented from learning things that

Children’s innocence must be protected by censorship. The debate on whether censorship is beneficial to society often compiles to a few main reasons. Subjects like freedom of speech, women’s rights, and children’s innocence is brought into question when discussing censorship. It is an important debate because what is censored influences societal beliefs of what is right and wrong. It decides what truths are revealed publicly. Some people think censorship is beneficial because it supposedly protects children, but it is actually useless because it underestimates children’s tolerance, witholds information, oversexualizes women, and sugarcoats the truth.

Should students in public high schools have the right to access uncensored internet on the campus computers or electronic devices? In an article by Occupytheory.org, Internet Censorship Pros and Cons List, they believe that controlling students' access to the internet will keep students safe from dangerous situations and unethical content. For example, filtering the internet in high schools can prevent many issues like cyber bullying, pornography and protect students from becoming a victim to predators. According to the Federal Communication Commission’s web page it explains that there is a law called (CIPA) Children’s Internet Protection Act, which requires public schools and public libraries to censor out certain websites or material that

Would you or someone you know like a school district to suspend you for something you said on the internet? If so, was it your thinking you would end up in trouble at school. Some schools want to pass new rules regarding the use of the internet at home or out of school. The schools who successfully pass these rules are unconstitutional and going against several amendments.

In the United States we tend to take our freedom of speech for granted. That is why it is important to have groups like the National Coalition Against Censorship. “NCAC's mission is to promote freedom of thought, inquiry and expression and oppose censorship in all its forms.”(About Us, 2016) It is only through free expression that we are able to maintain this fundamental right. Censorship can dangerously alter the views of the public by only showing one side of a controversial topic.

School authorities face a great complexities and invetible challenges when deciding to make or not to make censorship decisions in school. Schools have to take matters into hand has they have to consider age, acceptance from parents, and appropriateness in the school enviroment. Throughout the years censorship has been an important matter to both schools and parents as it continues to be a topic of debate and protests.

I believe parents shouldn't censor textbooks and other literature because it takes away from the child's learning experience. It restricts the child from having a opinion of some individual or group on moral, political, religious, ethnic, racial, or theoretical grounds. "We can safely make two statements about censorship: first, any work is potentially open to attack by someone, somewhere, sometime, for some reason; second, censorship is often arbitrary and irrational. Literature about ethnic or racial minorities remains "controversial" or "objectionable" to many adults. As long as groups such as African Americans, Pacific Islanders, American Indians, Asian Americans, and Latinos." ("Students' Right to Read").

For children, adult content can be seen as a “forbidden fruit.” Although they know that they are not supposed to be exposed to such matters, the temptation can become too much. “Children will inevitably find out about such matters, whether they do so from television or from somewhere else.” So, as adults we have to figure out whether this matter is something that should be address and if so how can it be addressed? Some adults have found that the answer to this question would be censorship. However, with the advancement of technology, children are still able to gain access to content that may not be meant for them.

In my opinion, censoring what I read should be allowed, by me. Censoring what an elementary school child reads, should be between the legal guardian, teacher and the student involved. As a child grows up, I think censorship shouldn’t be as monitored, as they are being exposed to worldly changes.