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Effects of censorship
Effects of censorship
Have schools gone to far on censorship
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Ask yourself; do you consider yourself a bookworm? If you do, what are your favorite books to read? Now imagine those books being banned from the education system. Actually there is no need to imagine, because as you are reading this more and more books are being forbidden for students to read. These books include not just books we enjoy to read but classic American stories. On the list we have The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck and even The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Banning these books is in my opinion one of the worst things this government has done. The board of education is constantly trying to promote literacy, but are they really doing so by taking away the privilege of reading these books? All they are really trying to do is protect small children from vigorous topics such as rape, murder, and homosexuality, but they need to understand that banning books won't protect them from anything. Also, our founding fathers created 10 amendments to give citizens protection, and by law they have to listen to those rights. However the government seems to have ignored the 1st amendment that was written into the Bill Of Rights. On top of all that the government is not helping children stay open minded, and snatching culture from their grasp. The government is constantly talking about how literacy is important and we need to keep on reading, but by banning our books they aren't doing a very well done job on encouraging it. Thurgood Marshall Elementary School in the Chula Vista School District is always trying to get students to read more and more. They have a system where they give students a certain level and they are able to read any book within that level. Then they are gi... ... middle of paper ... ... think that it’s a book about the color grey. This would help the government encourage literacy better, and fully protect children like they wanted in the first place. In order to avoid breaking the first amendment they would just have to overall not ban any religious books. Besides what good does banning books does for everyone? Nothing really, therefore the board of education needs to learn how to approve over taboo. Works Cited Gathambiri, Anthony. "The Dying Culture of Reading." Sanibonani: The Dying Culture of Reading. N.p., 13 Jan. 2011. Web. 22 May 2014. Madison, James. "The Bill Of Rights." The Constitution. Founding Fathers, 28 Sept. 1789. Web. 19 May 2014. Rosen, Michael. "The Government Should Do More to Encourage Reading for Pleasure." Tomiak, Julia. "Why Banning Books Is A Bad Idea." Diary of a Word Nerd. N.p., 27 Sept. 2013. Web. 19 May 2014.
The Constitution states: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances." Even though books may influence young minds with negative thinking, society shouldn’t ban books because it prohibits learning and it violates the First Amendment in the Constitution. Banning books takes away the author’s right, some books can be very educational, and it takes away the children’s choice of what they get to read.
For many years schools have banned books from being taught to their students because of parent complaints. These books have been shunned from the criteria, which may or may not affect the student’s understanding on a specific subject. People have been fighting to have these books banned because of excessive use of profanity, violence, sex, drugs and many other reasons. They do not look further in the books to see exactly what the author is trying to portray. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain, is banned in various places in the United States. This book should not be banned because, this book shows an important part in our history, it is not pro-racism, and it shows how far along we have come since then.
Trelease, Jim. "Book Banning Violates Children and Young Adult Freedoms." Book Banning. Ed. Ronnie D. Lankford. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2007. At Issue. Rpt. from "Censorship and Children's Books." Trelease-on-Reading.com. 2006.Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 31 Mar. 2014.
If you were to ask a teacher what they thought the most important source of knowledge was they would probably answer: reading. When I think back to every classroom I sat in at school, I remember at least one poster on the wall promoting reading. Throughout my school years, teachers have pounded into my head how important it is to read. In high school I had a list of books that I was required to read over my summer break so that I would continuously be educated. What I don’t understand is that if reading is so important to the learning process, then why ban a book? Doesn’t that defeat the whole purpose of reading? If you ask me, all censorship does is prevent a child from learning, it does not protect them from learning about sex, drugs, or violence.
...s of new media have been proclaiming the death of books, and the marketplace seems to back them up” (Zeller 2011). Zeller is telling use that media like movies and game system have taken over and that the contents that it contains is the same as what books have. Still books are continued to be ban and unlike movies and videogames there is much a fight about the adult content in them. There is a special called Banned Book Week, which is a week where some of banned books are allow to be read and view. It is the freedom of reading anything. People should have it for the rest of life. Banning books is a type of censorship which violates our First Amendment. We the people are about rights and freedom. People have the freedom to read and books should have the freedom of press. It up to people on whether the banning of books should continue. Let the books be free and live!
In schools around the nation, many books have been banned from the teaching curriculum. Some of them deserve to be banned due to the explicit content only suited for adults. Some books like the Harry Potter series, The Catcher in the Rye, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Hunger Games. Granted, there are language issues in Catcher and Huckleberry Finn, but that language exists everywhere. The censorship should not be as strict as it is because many great books are being banned that students should be reading in order to gain an understanding on who some great writers were. Some of the banned books should be reconsidered on whether they should be censored or not.
Some of the best literature, also happens to be some of the most controversial pieces. The books mentioned above, some were banned because of language, other because of racism and sexuality, but all of them were important pieces about life lessons people should read about. I believe that books like these actually enhance our learning abilities, and not daunt them. I believe that it should not be up to the government, or the FCC, to control what citizens do or do not read in school systems. They have taken away enough by taking The Bible out of schools, it is a right our founding fathers gave to us when this country was first established, t...
The first amendment of the U.S. Constitution states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances (Buchanan).” With the banning and the challenging of books all over the U.S. I believe that our first amendment is being jeopardized. We should be allowed to read whatever we want to read it is our right according to the first amendment in the U.S. Constitution with freedom of speech.
Andrew Solomon has some valid arguments in his article, and he tries to persuade the readers through logos, pathos, and ethos. Solomon wants the readers to understand the importance of reading, and how its decline can be harmful to the nation. To reinforce his arguments, Solomon shares a variety of examples, for instance, he mentions that reading helps improve memory and concentration, and the decline of reading is causing mental “atrophy.” He also calls upon the readers to take some sort of action to raise reading rates and help the society. This can grant the readers a form of power and control over the crisis that will lead to an em...
The idea of banning books are to protect our children from having their minds be poisoned of fictional ideas from fantasy books, safe from violence, protected from adult contents that are too early for them to know about.
Moreover, a society is not portrayed as a fair society unless ideas and opinions are flourished individually and equally through the society. According to the 1st Amendment of the United States, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion” which means that “prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech,” is unfair to us and violates the freedom of “the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.” (Source F). If students don’t have the right to be free and explore through different types of books then that is dehumanization against our society. According to student surveys, a substantial amount of teens were gathered to read books that were considerably banned in school and this was their response after the survey; “I really liked how it was written. Also I really liked...
When regulating the content that someone sees or hears, it is the sole responsibility of the individual to block harmful or offensive content from themselves or their children. In an article by Dan Gutman, a children’s book author, he states that if a piece of literature is banned from a school library, it is not only blocke...
Staff, Wire Reports. (2002 October 3). Book banning spans the globe. The Houston Chronicle, pp.C14. Retrieved December 2, 2002 from Lexis-Nexis/Academic database.
It is a book that my child may never be able to read. It seems that the only logical reasoning to aid in what offends people is to completely eliminate the book from the library. A better approach is to understand that this book may help them examine other beliefs, attitudes, values, and traditions and to accept, tolerate, or even reject these ideas without prejudices against people who hold particular views. In the democracy In which we live, where regularly all ideas are debatable. A wide range on all points of view should be available to the public.
Murphy, Gerald. "Bill of Rights." Legal Information Institute. 14 Mar. 1993. Cornell U. 12 Feb. 2005 .