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Should people be able to deny a students freedom to read any book they wish to in a school? Every time adults ban a book, kids lose the chance to gain knowledge from that work of literature. The students outlook on the world becomes narrower as they lose access to an insightful point of view. Book censors can only give unreasonable and unjustifiable motives for banning books to validate their cause.
In the end, the actions of the people who ban books create many negative effects on students. The history of book banning in schools began like an unnoticeable disease, which multiplied into a deadly cancer that affects nearly every public education system in the U. S. The number of book challenges per year has more than tripled from 152 in 1990 to 472 in 2000 (ALA).
More and more students have to bear the restrictions of a banned book list and if this rate continues, people will challenge an astounding 1, 416 books in 2010. Parents who create an increasing number of ludicrous reasons to ban books every year attribute to this statistic. Mothers and fathers ban books because they teach children to spy or it encourages children to break dishes so they wont have to dry them (Campbell 1). These reasons do not justify preventing a student from reading a great work of literature.
In many cases, the teachers who included the challenged book in their curriculum lose their jobs (Spindel 77). The United States was founded based on freedom to stand up for what one believes in; however, if a teacher stands up for a students right to read parents have them fired. In addition, librarians and school officials do not making enough money to deal with the problem of combating book challenges contributes to the sharp increase in book banning (Granberry 66). Book challenges have slowly changed from an actual challenge to an enforcement of parents will upon students in a public school system. Anyone can easily predict the monstrous future school censorship will undoubtedly have. Book banning limits student access to great works of literature.
Many professors of literature regard William Shakespeare as the, greatest English writer of all time; yet, people have banned almost all of his plays (Campbell 1). One of the greatest writers of the 20 th century, Ernest Hemingway, believes, Huck Finn is the best book weve had, (Censorship 2). Making it a rule that students cannot read these books in class deny them access to the best English writer and the best book that one can read. How could a censor ever justify this? Censors attack the American classic Catcher in the Rye every year with no thoughts about the loss the students face (Bertin 21). As the main character, Holden Caulfield, matures into an adult, an adolescent reading his story will as well.
Thanks to censors in school, many cannot. Students lose so much with every book that people ban Book censorship in schools limits the education of students. The more difficult the book the more students want to read it under the guidance of a teacher (Bertin 21). If people ban difficult books students cannot receive the full knowledge of them because teacher cannot teach them. In addition, a banned book list decries what people should not say and study (Campbell 1) Students will consider the events in banned books not worth learning.
This includes novels about important wars that are banned because they depict violence, such as My Brother Sam is Dead and Schindler's List. Finally, children learn to believe that security is better than freedom (Granberry 67). Instead of fighting for the gain of unabridged knowledge, students will grow up accepting obstructions in life because some one tells them to obey them. Censoring can have no positive outcome on todays students. Besides creating a limit on education, book banning also has a negative effect on how the students live. Author Chris Crutcher, American Library Associations (ALA) Margaret A.
Edwards Award winner for the year 2000, claims that the biggest negative effect [of book banning] is on the relationship of those who loudly challenge the books and the kids they try to ban them from (Flow). For instance, if a teenage girl has seen her parent campaign openly against a book because it contains a story about teenage pregnancy, the girl will never turn to her parent if she desires knowledge about having sex or pregnancy even it does not pertain to her. Banning a book requires so much hate that it scares the children. In order to ban a book, a parent must display such strong negative feelings and the student will think that they caused their parents to have so much anger. Aside from tainting relationships, banned booklists also change students perspectives on government for the worst.
Rudolf Anaya, author of the frequently challenged book Bless Me Ultima, believes that Freedom of democracy is learned in [the] school system, and that when parents tell other parents children what they can and cannot read the students learn to live an un-American, un-democratic and un-educational, life (ALA). Enforcing a banned booklist resembles a childs form of a dictatorship. A dictator tells people what to do and a banned booklist tell student what to read. Restricting books also criminalizes actions and thus promotes in tolerability (Censorship 2). If parents ban a book because it contains lesbians or gays, students will develop a negative outlook on homosexuals.
A banned booklist has dire consequences on every student it affects. The real controversy of book banning comes from the opinion of a books inappropriateness and how much censorship its inappropriateness justifies. People restrict Huckleberry Finn for promoting racism because it uses the term Nigger frequently, but any average reader of the book knows that it condemns bigotry and racism (Campbell 2). Parents also ban books because they think they encourage children to do the bad thing that they read (ALA).
Parents ban the poetry book, Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstien, because it Promotes cannibalism, but how can this be justified? Parents have no proof that a poem can do this. The news has never reported a story about man-eating children, Influenced by a poem. Parents should have a right to say what their children cannot read, but they do not have the freedom to say what other parents children cannot access (Sowell 71). A parent can easily request an alternate assignment instead of making the whole school suffer the loss of a piece of literature because they felt their child could not handle the contents of the book.
No single parent should have the right to restrict access to any book from any child for any reason. Experts who believe book bans do not occur make false claims. Just because a school library has a book on its shelf does not mean that school officials encourage or have not banned it (ALA). The schools may not oust the books from its campus totally, but students do not receive as good an opportunity to read and study the book.
Reserved sections in libraries make it difficult for student to check out those books (e. g. student may need teacher permission to check out those books) (Spindel). If a students needs permission from a teacher to check out a book they will probably never want to check the book and, much like banning a book, they are discouraged from reading that work of literature.
In Jacksonville, Florida, a student can read the book Snow White only with parental consent (Granberry 66). Any time a student needs to work harder than usual to check out a book or teachers cannot teach the book in a classroom for their curriculum school officials have banned it. Book banning in America does occur and takes many forms that have equal negative affects. No one can justify banning a book. It has too many negative outcomes and no positive ones. Parents can so easily ban a book nowadays because no one opposes them.
It only takes one or two people, adults or children, to rise up and defend their rights. The terrible act of book banning must end before its dreadful effects infect the bulk of the nations population. Book censors gain nothing through their actions and students lose everything. Works Cited American Library Association.
Challenged and Banned Books. American Library Association. 27, Oct. 2005 < web >. Bertin, Joan E. Dont Cave In To the Book Banners.
Newsday. 13 June, 1997. 21 - 22. Campbell, Sara. Banned Books Put a Limit on Literary Education. Gonzaga Bulletin. 22 Apr. 2005. 1 - 2. Censorship. (1 July 2005: 1 - 2) Source Watch. 25 Oct. 2005. < web >. Flow, Michelle.
Author Spotlight: Chris Crutcher. Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County. 28 Oct. 2005 < web >. Granberry, Michael. Books Are Being Banned.
Censorship: Opposing Viewpoints. Dr. Byron L. Stag. San Diego: Greenhaven Press Inc. , 1997. 64 - 69. Sowell, Thomas.
Books Are Not Being Banned. Censorship: Opposing Viewpoints. Ed. Dr. Byron L. Stag.
San Diego: Greenhaven Press Inc. , 1997. 70 - 73. Spindel, Barbara. The Right is Censoring Educational Material. Censorship: Opposing Viewpoints. Ed. Dr.
Byron L. Stag. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1997. 74 - 80.
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Research essay sample on Book Banning Is Bad For Students
