The Library Functions On The Concept Of Intellectual Freedom Essay

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

When parents realized thattheir children would be exposed to such things, some immediately publicized their outragethrough the press, complaining to Boards of Education, hoping to ban the book or have it simplyremoved from school districts and libraries.In Burlington, North Carolina,

For libraries to remain a place for a lively exchange of ideas, librarians should be armed with the right knowledge and strong conviction to preserve people’s rights.

The American Library Association, ALA, is an organization that, among other things, compiles a list every year of the most frequently challenged books. “The American Library Association actively defends the right of library users to read, seek information, and speak freely as guaranteed by the First Amendment.” (ALA) Many times, the books on this list are challenged by parents with the want to protect their children from things they don’t believe to be appropriate. “Only parents have the right and responsibility to restrict the access of their children” (ALA) Even with these good intentions, by challenging a book, they are trying to challenge the authors’ thoughts and words, their First Amendment rights. These books usually contain

According to the American Library Association, the most common group of people, challenging a book being read in schools, was the parents of the students. Parents have a right to be in charge of what is put into the minds of their students, however just because one parent objects does not mean that the whole school should ban the book from the list. A solution for this book would be to enforce parental consent for books to be read in the classroom. If a parent does not want a book to be read in the classroom, then there should be other options for the student to read. The school and teacher should not trespass on a parent’s rights of raising their child. I believe that if a parent has a concern, they should go and discuss the problem with the teacher so that the teacher will be able to defend their reasoning for choosing the book to be read in the classroom.

Why do certain people rule over what each child can and cannot read? Is that not the parents’ job to determine whether or not is it appropriate for their child? When a book is considered banned, parents, teachers, and librarians are discouraged from providing the book to their children. Many of these adults then disapprove of the book without even reading it. Junie B. Jones is thrown from the realm of possibility for many children just because the loveable character has some flaws.

According to the American Library Association (ALA), young adult novels are challenged with the best intentions. In most cases a parent will read a book that their child might be reading in class to find out if the book is hazardous to their child’s well-being. If the novel seems problematic, the parent then challenges the book. Even though the purpose of challenging a novel is to keep children from reading about issues that may not be seen as appropriate for their age group, censoring children from difficult subject matter is not always the solution. There is always controversy when difficult issues arise in adolescent geared novels. Even though there are many concerns with Lois Lowry’s The Giver,

The problems with banned books has been a controversial issue between parents as well as adults. The concerns that parents have are with the fact that these certain books are to be banned to keep their kids from being exposed to some of the ways of the world. Some of the concerns that these parents have are with usage of some derrogatory words or lanuguage not preferrred by some parents. The things that parents fail to realize is that by law, a librarian has the responsibility that they must uphold; including their responsibilty to the stocking of books on their shelves. I would take the side of the librarian because their position would be worthless because their rights would be useless, and their job would

Parents should have the right to decide what their child reads, but should not have the right to decide what is right for other children to read because not all parents have the same view on what is appropriate for their child to learn in school; as Jones stated, we must all respect each other’s differences. Educators should also be able to freely decide on what they feel is appropriate for their students to read. If a teacher chooses a book that has caused concerns in the past, they should alert the student’s parents of

From the very beginnings of literature, the act of banning books has long been a heated controversy. While almost everyone can say that there are definitely books that they do not want their children reading, the line between what is acceptable and what is not is much harder to define, especially in today’s world. In “How Banning Books Marginalizes Children” (2016), Paul Ringel argues that the current policy of banning books has had a negative impact on children because it has conveyed a message that rebuffs diversity and has contradicted the fact that the power to ban books should be used to “curate children’s choices with the goals of inspiring rather than obscuring new ideas.”

There are many great books nationwide, but some get banned or restricted on who can you read them. “Always Running: La Vida Loca: Gang Days in L.A.” happens to be one of the many books that get banned from many schools districts. A parent named ‘Martin Roger’ wants the book banned from San Diego County from the schools because it's “pornographic”. San Diego Superintendent understands where he’s coming from but the book “Always Running” is protected by the first amendment. The book is banned from elementary schools, because one parent opposes for their child not to read this particular book, doesn’t mean all the children in the district don’t have the right to read it.

Rebecca Hagelin in “Book Banning Protects Family Values,” asserts that without schools banning inappropriate books, teachers can assign students books that not all parents would be comfortable with them reading (44-46). Most of these parents are concerned with explicit sexual content, graphic language, and the religious views that are expressed in the writing. Whether it be the parent of a high or elementary school student, they have the right to know and state their opinion on what their children are reading. Although, one parent doesn’t have the right to decide whether or not a book is banned from the library. Every school library has a specific procedure to follow in which typically the school board will review and arbitrate a decision on whether or not the book should be allowed in the school library. Allowing parents to challenge books can help protect family values, and ensure that the material that students are reading in school is educational and age

Facts: In 2000, Shelly Evans-Marshall was hired by the Tipp City Exempted Village School District to teach high school English and advise the school’s literary magazine. During Evans-Marshall's second school year, she led an in-class discussion why certain books were considered "challenged books" and asked her class to write a book report from the list of “The 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books.” The majority of parents objected to the books chosen for the assignment and filed a formal complaint with the School District indicating that Evans-Marshall's curricular and pedagogical choices for the English classes were unacceptable. At a School District hearing, Evans-Marshall stated four of the objectionable books had previously been purchased

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

“It’s not just the books under fire now that worry me. It is the books that will never be written, the books that will never be read. And all due to the fear of censorship. As always, young readers will be the real losers” (Blume 1999). Judy Blume can not explain the problem of book censorship any clearer. The children are the real losers because they are the ones that are not able to read the classic works of literature which are the backbone of classroom discussions all across the United States.