In today’s society, teachers are being harassed on the fact that they are not allowed to teach certain books in English class. Much of the harassment comes from parents. These parents believe that the teachers have no right to make students read books that are “questionable” to their children's education. Many of the books do contain violence, sexual references, and crude language; however, these books are what shaped America for what it is today. Teachers should be allowed to teach “questionable” books because they allow the students to become cultured, know how to handle themselves in social situations, and conduct themselves in a professional manner. Many parents feel that teaching books with crude language, violence, and sexual references should be banned from schools. A book, for example, is The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. A vast majority feel that the book creates a racist setting for all students reading the book.
The presence of black students in the classrooms of white America the attendant tensions of a country attempting to come to terms with its racial tragedies, and the new empowerment of blacks to protest led to Huck Finn's greatest struggle with censorship and banning. Black protesters, offended by the
…show more content…
Students who read have a higher chance of having better social skills than a person that doesn’t read. “there's something about exposure to fiction -- the direct immersion in another person's mind and body -- that stimulates our empathic muscles”(Psychology Today). Children that are able to read about feelings and how people express themselves are able to apply those feelings towards real people. The characters inside those books, whether good or bad, play a part in a child's social experiences no matter the setting of language used. “Questionable” books not only help students in social settings but also keeps them out of
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
Because of offensive language and ideas that are represented in the book, To Kill A Mockingbird, it has been banned in many school libraries and lessons. One of the main reasons that it was banned in school is because of offensive words like the n-word and also because of the fact that the plot is centered around rape. One of the school board members, Kenny Holloway, said, “We can teach the same lessons with other books.” Many people agree with Holloway’s opinion, saying that the same ideas that are represented in To Kill A Mockingbird could be taught with a less controversial book. However, other people say that students are tough enough to handle the story. While many people don’t think that this book is appropriate for school, some people
The idea to ban certain books from schools and libraries is preposterous due to the manner in which the people trying to enforce these bans try to do so in. Banning books doesn’t help with the already present problem that our youth’s intelligence levels are already declining, and neither does allowing the freedom to all books. Banning certain books due to their constant use of inappropriate language, sexually explicit nature, and all around mature content has a respectfully reasonable reason to be inaccessible to younger audiences such as minors and teens; not young adults. The banning of books in libraries is outright inexcusable, unless the material is directly racist, subjective religious content, and all around hatred for a certain race or ethnicity; not if it’s used for fictional writing, in a softer manner mid you, to express the conflict in a story and/or to show real world problems, same go for non-fictional writing that expresses ideals in a manner of which isn’t disrespectful to other ideals and that do so in a manner of which isn’t so subjectively and deliberately showing hate for a certain race or ethnicity, especially
Books are some of the best teachers we have “they teach us vocabulary social skills and new ways of thinking”(leigh). It’s also true that textbooks could teach a child this, but not in the way they would learn from a story. When a child is really engaged in a story they will learn a lot more than they think. “Books teach us history ”(leigh). and many books are based on certain time periods or cover certain events. When a child reads these stories, they will retain the
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.
First of all, people think that they should ban books because of the wording. Some of the words that the books use now are bad but these books were meant for that timeline and back than these words meant something else. Some of these words can be offensive like say I am an indian and an american says that is it your culture that you do this. This stuff can be offensive but the teachers will have to show the children how come. Also these words can be racial meaning some of these words can be racest.
This is about banned books in schools across America and what they have in common. TKM is a classic novel about the 1950s and parents love to read it, but don’t like when their young children read it. Parents don’t like how many racial slurs and the sexually charged themes in it. “Many of these objections come from parents, school administrators or advocacy groups who contend that its racially and sexually-charged themes are inappropriate for young readers”(Downs). This quote shows that not just parents want it to be banned from schools. The school administrator themselves want it out of their school also. Another commonly banned book from schools is The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. A parent complained to the school about the use of inappropriate language in the book because she doesn’t like her child reading words like that. “a formal complaint was made by the mother of a biracial teenager. At the centre of the complaint was the use of the N-word, which appears frequently” (Kean). Another commonly banned book in schools is Uncle Tom’s Cabin. What all these books have in common is that they all have racial slurs in them. Some of them have sexually charged themes also which are the reasons why parents do not like their young kids to read them. A mother said, “My son struggled to read the racist language, telling the Accomack County public schools board: There’s so much racial slurs and defensive wording in there that you can’t get past that.” (Kean). This showing that it is also hard for the students to read also. If the kids have trouble reading the book also then they have an even stronger vote to get it
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?
By the time a child can read these books, I feel, they are old enough to know that it is just a story and the Goosebumps books are all about getting kids into the fun of reading.<br><br>As I have said before, there are certainly occasions where censorship is justified. For example, the Kenneth Starr report on President Clinton's affairs with Monica Lewinsky and the attempts to cover it up is certainly not for kids. Due to its graphic sexual content, I would not be surprised if it was censored extensively or even removed from the Internet sites it is currently on. I do believe when censorship is used, it must be used with common sense. Instead of banning classic literary works and educational from school libraries and classrooms, classes could possibly discuss why the authors use such language and content in their books. Why ban a good book because it has a few profanities? If censorship must be used to control inappropriate content, it should be used to prevent children from gaining access to materials such as pornography on the Internet rather than the sex-ed book in the school
Lately, other schools have banned “To Kill A Mockingbird” because of aggressive wording. There is aggressive wording just about everywhere in this world now and it’s never going to be any better. We need to be more mature about this. “There is some language in the book that makes people uncomfortable”(school board Vice President Holloway). It should be okay to take students out of their comfort zones. These schools are acting like these children haven’t
Is It A Good Thing To Ban Books? Banning books is great. Banning books is bad. Banning books can keep the negativity out of some people's lives.
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
but, the books that contain this language may be teaching the kid about a part of our past and by knowing about that past hopefully they will not repeat it. On another standpoint, by banning these books, it is possible we are setting a precedent for our children and others that it is okay to take away rights that we have head for centuries. It is possible that, “Permitting restraints on literature sets the stage for attacks on all expression that is artistically or politically controversial or that portrays unpleasant realities of life” (Text 3). This piece of evidence supports the idea that it is possible for the domino effect to come into play here suggesting the possibility of more of our rights may be in jeopardy after
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.
Many of the challenges to these books are due to their presence on middle school bookshelves (or even in class assignments); middle school students can be as young as eleven years old. And yet the ALA views parental challenges to these books as being somehow akin to book-burnings and government censorship, as if there were no legitimate reason why a group of parents might not want their children reading novels in which gratuitous and explicit sex, violence, drug use, and the like were major elements of the story. (Manning 10)