The Banning Of Books In American Schools

The Catcher in the Rye. The Scarlet Letter. Huckleberry Finn. Harry Potter. The Diary of Anne Frank. Animal Farm. To Kill a Mockingbird. The Da Vinci Code. The Grapes of Wrath. These literary classics have been vital to the education of many, especially children and adolescents (Banned Books). These great novels both teach important values and educate children about world affairs and classic themes. Unfortunately, each of these novels has been banned at one point in time. In a country where freedom is so adamantly advocated, it is a wonder that an issue like censorship would even come up, that such a controversy would sink its claws into the minds of states’ boards of education across the nation.

Brenyo, M. (2011). [Censored]: Book banning in the US education system. Journal of Law & Education, 40(3), 541–549.

The novel “To Kill a MockingBird“ is Challenged in the Waukegan, IL School District (1984) because the novel uses the word "nigger”. In 1961, “To Kill a Mockingbird” won the Pulitzer Prize, but More than 14 school districts have banned this book for the use of bad language and racism.Protecting people from the reality is not the correct thing to do .People have the right to read banned books! They shall not be restricted from them.

Next off, books shouldn’t be banned because it allows kids and adults to be able to escape reality. Some kids might now have a great life at home and books can be a way to be able to forget about the negative things for a while. This can also apply to school; let’s take someone that doesn’t have many friends for example. These kids are able to really get into a book and feel as if they are a part of something bigger than what’s going on around them. Another example is literature art, its they way authors express themselves. When you take that from a writer, it’s like taking away their ability to

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.

Many significant novels have unfortunately been challenged/ banned at a certain point in time. Most of these literary classics face this because some contain sexual references, religious intolerance, and inappropriate language. In some cases, books are being pulled off shelves because people believe that they were “tangibles of instruction” or the reason being was as a precaution towards a possible public attack which took effect in Tucson for the Mexican American Studies (source:8). Another case is the Mozert v. Hawkins County Board of Education; Christian sewed the board because they believed that the required textbooks hurt their beliefs (Source:8).

I believe that books play a key role in school so they shouldn’t be banned.

When being assigned this project, I immediately went to this issue of banning books in the classroom. I remember growing up reading some of these books on the banned list. But not remembering them for being racist or indecent, but rather them depicting a time period and a glips of society back them. I wanted to get down to the reason why and who has the power of banning books. I wanted to dig deeper into the reasons why books were becoming banned and reach out to the community of educators for their opinion on this topic.

The subject of censorship is a very controversial one, especially the banning of books. Many people believe they must protect themselves and others from the "evils" of many classic books and works of art because they can be deemed "indecent" in one way or another. Many believe that this is absurd and censorship in its current form is a violation of our First Amendment right to free speech. Personally, I align myself with the latter, however I do feel there are occasions where censorship is justifiable. The censorship of books is a division of censorship that, apart from Internet censorship, receives the most publicity. Banning books is the most popular form of such censorship. Many banned books are literary classics, such as The Catcher in

People read books about dystopians all the time, you know those books that have everything possible go wrong. Books like The Hunger games, or Fahrenheit 451, Ect. Some people look at them as just stories, just fictional books. Those books are all about censorship and having the government controlling and watching your every move. What most people don't realize is that there is censorship happening right now, every time you send a text or make a phone call, the government can see/hear it. There is censorship on books at schools and ratings on movies. There is censorship happening all around you and most of us don't even notice it. That's because they are minor, but, over time things can progressively get worse. Someday those

Throughout history many books have been banned, for many reasons. I believe that banning books is a dangerous power to give the government or people in authority. Banning book is not only morally unjust but also I believe that some of the reasons are also illegal. I will explain my opinion in the following.

Speak should be allowed to be read in all classrooms. It seems like public leaders don’t understand that students in High School are subject to experiences they don’t know about. By removing a chance to learn about sexual assault, a student is more vulnerable to others than they would be, knowing about a subject. Book censorship should absolutely never happen, because books are important sources of knowledge and education. Removing books is censorship and technically against the 1st amendment. Citizens have the right to any opinion and the right to view any opinion. Censorship of books has not been regulated since 1982, and included the banning of books that were anti-american. Banning books that include any sort of anti-country or government

In today’s talk with Ron Brown I learned about the reasons book are banned, the types of books that are censored, and the people who instigate the censorship. One of the things Brown discussed were the reasons books are banned by the Canadian government: child pornography and hate speech. I found this interesting because I always believed that banning books was a bad idea, and that there were no good enough reasons books for a book to be banned. I had agreed with the video we had watched earlier in the year; we shouldn’t say, “I don’t want children to read the book”, but rather “I don’t want my children to read the book.” This comment by Brown, however, made me realize that there were times that even I thought it was justified to ban books. His discussion on this topic showed me that there were more legitimate excuses for banning a book than “containing a reference to God” or “not containing a reference to God.”

Because book banning has such an enormous effect on society, it needs to be studied because “there is no time like the present to study censorship and no better place than the English classroom” (Rossuck 67). Some teachers have students work on the issue in their English classes “as students read, they record in journal entries, topics that are controversial and whether or not they serve a literary purpose” (Rossuck 68). Since the world is changing, the important things need to be taken into consideration and censorship is definitely one of them. While many books have been banned many people have become angered that timeless classics aren’t getting the love and respect they deserve, such as To Kill A Mockingbird. Some argue that the novel is “ degrading, profane and racist work” that causes many social problems. (“Banned Books That Shaped America”). Many might say that the racial slurs and repetitive profanity is obscene but the only reason it is used in the book is to highlight the importance of

Although some may consider these books controversial or inappropriate, many English classes have required us to read these books. Like the teachers that assigned us these books, I believe that even controversial books can ultimately boost, not deter, our educational wealth. I oppose book banning for three main reasons. First, I believe that education should be open to everyone. Everyone should have an opportunity to read any literature of their choosing and form his or her own opinions based on the reading. Micah Issitt lists "three basic rights covered under the freedom of the press: the right to publish, the right to confidentiality of sources, and the right of citizens to access the products of the press." My second reason specifically addresses the last right stating that citizens should have access to the press. The government should not restrict books from being published or interfere into personal affairs as this is an infringement of the First Amendment. Finally, I believe that parents should monitor what their own children read, but not have the authority to ban other children from reading these novels. For these reasons, I conclude that the government should play no role in the issue what citizens do and do not read, and that book restriction should remain a solely private matter.