The Importance Of Censorship In Schools

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.

Censorship can take different shapes depending on the public school system: Schools can give teachers a list of acceptable books to teach, just provide guidelines, or leave it up to the teachers to judge which books are appropriate (Agee, 1999). Teachers are often very nervous about including texts that are not traditional or specifically approved by the school, especially because of the highly publicized cases of teachers whose careers have been ruined because of censorship debates in courts and school systems (Agee, 1999).

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.

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

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.

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.

When youth grow up they need to know what is ok to read and what is bad to read. Sharon Coatney states, “ I remember my own daughter, who at the age of eight had already created several criteria to help her select recreational reading materials. She would not read any book in which the main character was older than she was at the time.” (Coatney) This shows how a parent/librarian who didn't censor books has caused her daughter to learn how to censor books for herself. If books weren't censored than more people could learn to censor what to read.

“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.

In the December of 1965, Beth Tinker was suspended from school because she wore a black armband to support a truce in the Vietnam War. This was an injustice and a violation to her Constitutional rights as an American citizen. As stated by Bradley Steffens, “The First Amendment means what it says: Congress shall make no law abridging freedom of speech. Censorship is unconstitutional.” This describes how students should have the freedom to say what they would like to say, as abridgement of speech by the government, or government backed groups, such as the school, is unconstitutional, and a violation of their rights. As citizens of the United States of America, the students are protected by the Constitution, their right to free speech, and are

It is my belief that since by the time the child is required to read such literature in school, they are at an age where they can distinguish between things that should and should not be said and it is the job of the parents to educate the child that just because they say it in a book does not mean he or she should.Another subject common to banned and censored books is sexuality.

What would you do if you went to your child's school and saw that they were looking at inappropriate material on the internet? Would you react the same way if they were in a public library? Who decides what is okay for your children to view? Who decides where they can view it? What can you do about them being able to view these things? Are there any laws that can prevent this from happening? What are some schools and libraries doing to help prevent children form looking at such material? These are all issues that will be discussed in the next few paragraphs, along with my opinions on the matter.

Monkey see, monkey do, a simple phrase relevant to today’s society. Those in society that simply do not know any better, such as children, are inclined to imitate what they see being done. Without censorship daily television shows are increasingly exhibiting more violence, foul language and sexuality to susceptible youth. Due to lack of censorship, explicit music lyrics and inappropriate images on music videos are being introduced to impressionable children. There is a lack of control on the internet leading to internet addiction and forces vulnerable adolescents to face cyber bullying. In a variety of mediums not enough censorship is used, which influences impressionable youth to think and behave negatively.

The United States, the land of the free, prides itself in the rights given to its people. Despite the acclaimed freedom of America, Americans, especially college students, are not as free as the founding fathers would have hoped. When the First Amendment was adopted on December 15, 1791, Americans were given the Freedom of Religion, Speech, the Press, Assembly, and Petition. While the Constitution clearly grants these rights to all U.S. citizens, individuals still fight for these freedoms. Specifically, the Freedom of Speech is an ongoing issue which people continue to pursue. This freedom is essential to student growth in higher education, yet college students are often limited by what they can say while on campus. The censorship of individual and group speech threatens the purpose of a liberal education. It also limits the freedoms of a free society.