Censorship in Schools Today

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).

There is a book out there that talks about a topic that you do not agree with. While you may find the book offensive, others may find it inspiring or a reflection of their life. These varying points of view are what often lead to people calling for a ban of a certain book in a school or public library. This brings to light a topic that impacts all of us in one way or another, censorship in the form of book bans. This leads to a topic that can be the center of debate for many, whether or not we should allow the censorship of books, or other forms of media, in our libraries. And by censoring books, we are referring to taking them off of the shelves. Of course, many people have strong opinions on this. Coincidentally, I also have an opinion. My opinion is that we should not censor books, while making you understand why the idea of censorship in our school and public libraries goes against the fundamental values and freedoms that we hold dearly as citizens of the United States.

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 happened everywhere and happens everyday especially inside schools. In city schools there have been conflicts over what students should or should not learn. Censors decide that they should protect students from materials and activities that are upsetting and issue the wrong ideas. These ideas are said to "weaken parental authority, challenge students political moral, or religious views, or brainwash them into other ways of thinking (Sherrow10)." By protecting them they mean targeting academics. Courses that deal with drug prevention, sex education, development of character, or clarification of

Censorship dates all the way back to 443 BC in ancient Rome with the Office of Censor. In that time this was an office of great repute, the Office of Censor was charged with the shaping of the character of the people. Thus it was considered to be an honorable task, since then the connotation of the word and such an office has changed greatly. Today censorship is the practice of officially examining books, movies, etc. and suppressing “unacceptable parts” based on whoever is defining “unacceptable.” Unacceptable has been considered to be a wide range of concepts from ideas to sexually explicit content. Historically in the USSR most leaders used censorship in every form as a means of suppressing whatever or whoever was perceived as a

Young journalists in schools around America feel like they are being denied their first amendment. In Ocean Lake high school 2 out of 5 school papers aren't published. Censorship issues have been going on for years. The "Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier" Supreme Court case, in 1988, states that students cannot be censored by student officials if they have established the paper as a public forum(Innterobang/2007/3). Two of the articles were about teen pregnancy in, which he interviewed some, and Parent divorce. The articles were thrown out because there was no time to edit it, in which lead to the students claiming their first amendment was violated. If the paper receives any funding from the school, the school can have special guide lines the paper has to follow. Some of the rules are understandable like promoting drugs, hate articles, and much more shouldn't be in a school paper.

Censorship is the act of filtering or blocking any inappropriate content on the internet, movies, books, etc. It is a topic that has become very controversial. Parents, teachers, and the government are finding new reasons to censor what people can publicly see. They are also finding new ways to censor what people see in wartime, the arts, religion, and on the internet. The controversial part of censorship is the question as to who gets to decide what is censored. The government does not want to have any issues with people doing illegal things that they could have access to through the internet, but they do not draw the line at just illegal information. Educational censorships take this further and restrict access to anything educators feel

I don’t think the library needs censorship in its books. To me if the language is too violent then maybe they shouldn’t choose that book and choose something else instead of making a big deal about it. If they limited the books on censorship, we would have less books and a lot of them are probably good books that people want to read but wont get the chance to. There are many reason why people want to ban or challenge certain books from the school. There examples of racism, sexual content, bullying, swearing and many others. Just because these books have some explisive content doesn’t mean the rest of the book has it, most of these books have a good story to add to it.

Today's society is and always has been a struggle for freedom. America fought in the revolutionary war against Great Britain to enhance the freedom of Americans. Censorships in libraries are an invasion of a citizen's rights. Throughout history there are an extreme amount of examples of the rights of Americans being invaded and abolished. The first amendment, moral agency, and religious beliefs are all the ultimate reasons that censorships in libraries should not be aloud or legal.

Imagine: a student walks down the hall on her cell phone. She enters the classroom, and the teacher asks her to find the website about Shakespeare that they will be working on today. She tries to open the website on her phone and computer, but she receives the horrible message: page blocked. Twenty-five States in the U.S.A. have laws filtering the internet at school (“State Internet Filtering). Internet censoring is the, “Blocking of undesirable content on the internet” (“Internet Filtering”). Is it harmful or effective? Schools often censor the content on the Internet to protect minors from harmful websites or images.

Censorship is an act of blocking the access to view certain images, writing or even ideas. However, censorship can give us certainly multiple negative impacts. If a child was grown not exposed to any of the immoral sides of the culture, and suddenly he or she learned the brutal facts about the world, the child would be deeply shocked. Censorship should not be allowed due to its impact on people’s thought, freedom, and also should not be allowed, because of people’s unethical actions and thoughts.

How is censorship used? Is it good or was it bad? Censorship is a good thing because people do not want kids looking at bad pictures. Censorship stops them from seeing that because it makes it to where there are books being banned and movies being rated. Also, censorship allows the government to control and limit exposure to several different types of things. Censorship is well known and was even used in the past. Censorship should be allowed in schools to prevent kids from seeing things but it should be in some places because as people get older people should be able to handle it.

Censorship shouldn’t exist because we as mature teenagers and students choose how words influence us. Just because you’re playing black ops and see them shooting on the game does not mean you go outside and shoot at people, this is what I mean when I say we choose how words and the things we see influence us. Just because we see something in video games, music videos, facebook, or read about it in books does not mean anything because we lose the capability of self control. Also being young adults we should have that level of maturity where we shouldn’t need censorship, seeing it now will only benefit yourself in the long run because you learn about it at an early age.Therefore censorship is useless when it comes to teenagers and students because they have that level of maturity.

A lot of people said censorship is right, cause it keeps the young generation safe from the “words” that might ruin their mind, but some said censorship is unnecessary because of it just words and sooner or later all kids will hear and know what those words mean. In my opinion, some part of censorship is good but it depends on the limit that is taken and how extreme censorship goes. I do agree with one advantage that most people also agree about is that censorship helps protects the young, the innocent and the vulnerable. It is built on the premise that we don’t always know what is good for us, we

The curriculums used in schools have often been the cause of controversy; the materials that students are exposed to in schools are at the center of many debates. What some people may view as essential for students to be introduced to, others may view as detrimental for students and their values. Censorship in schools has serious consequences, as the materials used drastically change students’ views about the world and their morals. Schools should be expected to introduce their students harsh realities and expose them to a multitude of perspectives. They should generally not be expected to censor the content that it delivers to students, as this prevents students from discovering and learning from mistakes made in the past, dissuades them from exploring various perspectives, and gives them a false perception of society