Essay Books Should Be Banned

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

School boards and teachers have a responsibility for protecting the minds of their students and covering age appropriate material. However, does this responsibility cover the extreme act of banning books from school classrooms? Does not the teacher have a duty to introduce to their students world issues in order to better the students ability to cope with problems in the world? How does a school decide which books should be banned from the classroom, and should it be left up to the teacher to decide what is decided in his/her classroom. By banning books from the classroom, we prevent our students from learning about controversial topics in a safe environment, and we also encroach upon the student’s freedom of reading what they want in

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?

Mitigating measures, for school assignments a parent permission slip should be sent out for the parents consent. There should be a age restriction, maybe some censorship in the book. This way students could be given the opportunity to read the book with permission of their parents. Don Pueblos High School decided to band “Always Running”by Luis J. Rodriguez as mandatory reading for high school students. Parents criticized the book as “graphic sexual content and violence” The book is still available in the book in the school library to read if students pleased.

Literary works are the foundation for education and are crucial for multiple reasons, some of which include that literature obtains a large variety of information that is at times not accessible to students by computers and teachers alone. Another advantage is adults and children alike improve their understanding and knowledge of certain topics whilst improving their intelligence of the language itself. Banning literary pieces of work is unjustifiable and proves to students that if something is not agreeable within a book, shielding its contents is the next honorary thing to do in order to prevent disruption. High schools should not ban books due to their excessive profanity, violence, sexual content and unagreeable topics because this restriction prevents young readers from developing a better understanding of the society they live in, and could counter act a new change and lessons to be learned.

Every year at the end of september, (since 1982) the US has Banned Books Week. Which essentially means a week where stores and libraries display and discount books that have either been challenged or altogether banned in the school curriculum at some point in time. I actually didn’t know that this was a national tradition until this year, when I visited my local bookstore, (Scout and Morgan), and spoke to the person at the counter about it. There was a little display and everything and among the pile of unfit titles were: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, To Kill a Mockingbird, Fahrenheit 451, and 1984. I had actually visited with my mom, (age 51), and older brother, (age 35). When they saw the books that had been banned they couldn’t believe their eyes, and kept saying, “No that’s not true I read this in school.” It took me about 3 times to finally convince them that these books aren’t apart of the curriculum anymore. Though many high schoolers have heard of these titles before and have been told many times that they are classics, without being required of encouraged to read them in a classroom environment, we might never be able to experience them. Banning books in the classroom because of a parent or administers personal belief not only prevents children from reading epic classics in literature, but also creates a divide between generation in the information they learned about the world around them. When parents have a different definition of things such as censorship

Harry Potter, a beloved book bursting with enchantment, mystery, and imaginative writing, was seen as a book that promoted witchcraft and anti-Christian themes. The series is banned by some religious groups and schools. In Marcia Amidon Lusted’s Banned Books, she describes the prohibition of the book, writing, “Some religious groups feel that these books steer children away from God and the church.” Should books be banned and ostracized for themes that people can enjoy and learn from? Banned books should be shown to children to educate them about censorship and themes that are seen as inappropriate to certain demographics, but conversely, some may think these topics are unsuitable to be observed by young people. If these themes are explained to children, it could inform them about the viewpoint of groups who believe in censoring, and grant them an awareness of a story that may benefit them before they read. Therefore, books that are banned should be shown to students to increase their awareness of censorship; they can teach kids about literature, and why some themes in books are seen as inappropriate.

Many individuals are concerned with the banning of ideas to be the problem, the real issue is the freedom to read. As Helen Adams suggested at the opening of a banned books week; “School librarians can turn [banned books week] around, having the observance focus on the patriotic theme of the ‘freedom to read’ vs. just banned books and incorporate all types of books into a display or event”

Many books throughout the ages have been challenged, banned and even burned. Stories of worried parents challenging books to protect their kids are all over the internet. These worried parents argue that the vulgar material isn't

Because of the nature of "stealth censorship," it is difficult to document and impossible to quantify. These quiet book bannings affect every aspect of the book world. Librarians, who buy at least half of hardcover literary trade books published for children and young adults, have ever-tightening budgets and face a constricted job market. Under pressure from administrators not to land their schools in the midst of controversy, many librarians have become increasingly cautious about the kind of books they order (Weiss).

Books have made a monumental impact on our lives bigger than we realize. Throughout history, books have been used to write stories, history, parts of an individual’s life, and take us to places untouched by reality. Books have been used to challenge the thoughts and beliefs of others in the past and have helped change the future. If every book was challenged that didn’t agree with what society deemed as acceptable and inoffensive, we wouldn’t be where we are today. Understandably, there is two sides to this argument. Some individuals might argue that banning books can help our society by getting rid of toxic opinions in our literature. Both sides can have convincing points of view and logical arguments. Personally,

School boards, and the teachers that reside under them, find that pieces of literature contain topics that they find uncomfortable to teach to students. Most commonly, officials claim that the books contain sexually explicit scenes, violent encounters, and offensive language that should not be taught in schools (DiBlasio). Similarly, parents have approached the schools and requested that materials which introduce morals different from their own be taken out for all students. Topics and plots that include homosexuality, drug use, and suicide are most commonly targeted since they teach “anti-family” values (Bancroft)(Lopez). The problem of banning controversial books has been growing as long as education itself, accumulating with the increase in cross country communication. Now parents are able to share provincial thoughts, agreeing that some titles just are not appropriate for their perfect, innocent

Until recently, the trend of banning thousands of time-honored books was routinely taking place in public libraries and schools across the country. Presently, many censored books are prevailing on library shelves and remaining in the hands of students. Without a doubt, banning a book entirely deprives people of being able to think differently and learn about new topics. However, censoring books is an exceptional way to allow those who are easily offended to read a written work without raising an eyebrow. A person will still comprehend the idea of a censored text, while not becoming insulted by it. Written texts should not be banned because people should be able to choose for themselves what they wish to read, but written texts should be censored for people who are sensitive and feel a text is too provocative or offensive for them.

Although some see book banning as a strong attack against important history in literature, others, especially parents, see book banning as protection from the cruel history our country has had. These inappropriate books could also affect a child’s view on the world. The biggest culprit of this scenario is racism, which is the one reasoning for the banning of To Kill a Mockingbird and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Parents and schools are worried that if children read a book with such racial tension and prominence, than the children themselves will become racists. Stories like these could also confuse students into to

“Over the past couple of decades, nearly 120,000 books have been banned from libraries making the selection of books in libraries smaller. In addition, while we are banning book, we are also slowly erasing the literature world due to the uncomfortable topics,” (ala.org). This affects the future generations in the long term because they will be exposed to uncomfortable situations and topics and not know what to do because they have never been exposed to an uncomfortable experience. This shows that it is very important to see the opposing perspectives of books and keep from banning them because they could contain important life lessons and experiences that will help students in the future. Books have been banned in many libraries and schools for their inappropriate content and profanity, but people argue that these books contain valuable information that can teach their readers.