Censorship: The Importance Of Banning Books In Schools

For nine years, from 2000 to 2009 the top challenged book included the entire Harry Potter series. Books have been banned by schools, governments, and libraries since the beginning of time in different places all around the world. Starting in 1982, Book Banning Week was created to try to bring up the importance of this form of censorship. Books are unjustly banned when in reality, students should self-censor their reading, the First Amendment should protect books against this, and these books are important teaching materials. Students should make their own choices and should be able to self-censor their reading. Older-aged students are exposed to most of the controversial topics discussed in these books that are commonly banned. The students

Books are written with the purpose of pushing the boundaries and common ways of thinking. In addition, classic books are banned frequently, because the reason they are made into classics is that they challenge the common thought of the time. Examples of these banned books include One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Ulysses, The Catcher in the Rye, and To Kill a Mockingbird --all wonderful teachers of valuable life lessons. More compelling evidence says that teachers have been fired for teaching about books that are banned in particular schools. According to the National Council of Teachers of English, teachers purposefully choose books by many factors including literary quality, appropriateness, usefulness, uniqueness, and breadth of coverage. Teachers are aware of what the books messages are, and help students see the different perspectives presented--it is the student's decision to accept or reject the ideas the book looks at. These important lessons and morals taught in books are still challenged and cause some truly brilliant books to be banned. Even with these reasons, some reasons to ban books still exist; for example, the books are inappropriate for young children, they can teach children bad habits, and they can go against religious groups. While these points may be true, the reasons for not banning books is stronger as they are educational tools that are beneficial to the learning experiences that students need. Also, these books do not necessarily teach children bad habits, because they can teach students of all ages to learn from mistakes others made and do not repeat