Censorship of Lois Lowry’s The Giver Every year Kansas students in grades three through eight vote on their favorite of a list of literary works nominated for the William Allen White Award. This award, founded in 1952 honors "one of the state's most distinguished citizens" and journalists (Bogan). A selection committee comprised of representatives of several Kansas educational organizations such as the Department of Education and Association of Teachers of English pool nominations and eventually narrow them to a "master list" of about twenty books. Nominations exemplify "originality . . . vitality . . . and spirit" (Bogun). Once compiled, the master list is sent to schools around the state. At the end of the school year, after students have had time to read the majority of the selections, they vote and select the winner. Despite the suggestion of the William Allen White committee that students need not read every nomination, the Meade Grade School system took the initiative to build a literary appreciation program by requiring students to read all such books. To vote, as prescribed by the White Committee, a student need only read two of the selections. For the Meade students this was also the case, but to have the opportunity to take the annual school-sponsored trip to the presentation of the award, it was necessary to read and pass a computerized test on all books of the Master List. In 1996, however, one selection proved to be one too many for Meade: The Giver. Controversy over the novel by Lois Lowry began early in the school year when a couple parents of fifth grade students approached the librarian and suggested removing The Giver from the list of required readings. With little dissent, the librarian agree... ... middle of paper ... ... say what the extent of exposure to "mature" themes should be for grade school students? By constricting the breadth of education, especially exposure to controversial literature, the Mennonite community hindered student's ability to address and understand real world issues. I have no doubt that this confusion was present as Meade students attended the banquet for the 1996 William Allen White Award winner. The winner? Lois Lowry. Works Cited "Blasphemy." OED 2d ed 1989. 2 Feb. 2002. Bogan, M.E., and T. Summey. William Allen White Children's Book Award. 1 Feb. 2002. Cresswell, Tim. In Place/Out of Place Geography, Ideology, and Transgression. Minneapolis: U of Minnesota P, 1996. Lowry, Lois. The Giver. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1993. "Spirit." OED 2d ed 1989. 2 Feb. 2002. "Upper." OED 2d ed 1989. 2 Feb. 2002.
In conclusion, critical evaluation of what makes a book good or bad depends on the selection criteria and agenda of those making the evaluation. The prizes have been criticised through the years and the selection committees have risen to this by changing the selection process, even if this change has been slow. Children’s Literature is in flux due to the ever-changing ideas and perceptions of childhood. Children’s books seen as prestigious today may become, like Blyton, unpalatable to the critics of tomorrow.
The issue of electoral reform has become more important than ever in Canada in recent years as the general public has come to realize that our current first-past-the-post, winner-take-all system, formally known as single-member plurality (SMP) has produced majority governments of questionable legitimacy. Of the major democracies in the world, Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom are the only countries that still have SMP systems in place. Interestingly enough, there has been enormous political tension and division in the last few years in these countries, culminating with the election results in Canada and the USA this year that polarized both countries. In the last year we have seen unprecedented progress towards electoral reform, with PEI establishing an electoral reform commissioner and New Brunswick appointing a nine-member Commission on Legislative Democracy in December 2003 to the groundbreaking decision by the British Columbia Citizen’s Assembly on October 24, 2004 that the province will have a referendum on May 17, 2005 to decide whether or not they will switch to a system of proportional representation. This kind of reform is only expected to continue, as Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty decided to take BC’s lead and form an independent Citizen’s Assembly with the power to determine whether or not Ontario will have a referendum regarding a change to a more proportional system. There is still much work to do however, and we will examine the inherent problems with Canada’s first-past-the-post system and why we should move into the 21st century and switch to a form of proportional representation.
Fairy tales are under attack in the United States from both right- and left-oriented pressure groups. (Ravitch, 62-96) From the left, the charges include sexism, stereotyping, distortion, and anti-humanism. (Ravitch, 84) From the right, the charges include immorality and objections to the portrayal of violence, death, and the supernatural. In addition, some critics claim that the tales terrify their children. (Ravitch, 76). In The Language Police, Diane Ravitch claims that both groups understand the importance of putting pressure on state textbook adoption committees, and that, as a result of such pressure, most major publishers are simply dropping the tales from the textbooks they sell to schools. (77-78) Thus parents who assume, or would prefer that, their children are reading traditional fairy tales in school may find themselves mistaken.
The Giver, a book written by Lois Lowry, questioned my ideas, thoughts and beliefs. The novel describes
Censorship influences our lives in a wide range of ways, it influences the music we listen to, the films we watch, the books we read, and numerous different parts of our lives. There has been open argumentation throughout the years whether censorship is influential and worth the contention between various points of views which pops up the question of should movies be censored? The answer of many people would be no. However, many standpoints diverge given that censorship improves our reality in the light of the making people more courteous.
In every civilization there exists a hierarchy that is accepted by the people that are a part of it. This hierarchy, which is present in all societies, is called a class system and usually includes an upper class, a middle class, and a lower class. The upper class consists of those who are the richest in a society, the middle class consists of the working people, and the lower class consists of the poorest people. There is one class system that consists of five tiers, including one that is below its lower class, and differs from any other system; the caste system of India. In a caste system, the class that is received is hereditary and cannot be changed like in other societies. The civilization of India has an extensive history with this longstanding and controversial caste system that has evolved over time and is still in place today.
Censorship has been a big part of the world’s history and especially America’s history. One of the most quoted amendments to the United States constitution is the first amendment; “Congress shall make no law…abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press ...” This amendment guaranteeing free speech, press, and religion is still heavily debated and contested today. Censorship, as a challenge to free speech and press has been allowed many times and has been heavily debated itself. Many people censor for many different reasons and in many different forms. Censorship itself is not always a bad thing and has in some cases been used for protection of the general population.
Censorship is becoming more and more common all over the world today. The online Encarta Encyclopedia defines censorship as, "supervision and control of the information and ideas that are circulated among the people within a society. In modern times, censorship refers to the examination of books...for the purpose of altering or suppressing parts thought to be objectionable or offensive." Henry Reichman from the Education World website defines it as, "the removal, suppression, or restricted circulation of literary, artistic, or educational materials . . . on the grounds that these are morally or otherwise objectionable in light of the standards applied by the censor" (Cromwell). Definitions aside, great literature is being banned by many people for a number of reasons and shouldn't be.
Growing up as a child, parent’s shelter their children as much as they cannot allowing them to take in negativity and vulgarity in the world, but what happens when they go to school and talking amongst other children? Some parents do not always shelter their children as much, letting them know what is happening in the world at a much younger age than others. Teachers, but mainly government, try to correct what they think is wrong by censoring what content children can and cannot read. Censoring books should not be allowed today because children are maturing at a younger age; they are exposed to more vulgar content now with cellphones than when reading a book such as The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, or a modern title like the Harry Potter series (American Library Association). Censoring books should not be allowed since children are maturing at a younger age; that is, children and teenagers should be able to choose whether or not they if they think books are too vulgar for their own preference.
Growing up in a place where free speech is strongly pressed, why is censorship no stranger? We live in a world where television, video games, music and even literary documents have all been censored. Literature can be defined as the body of written works of a language, period, or culture. This is everything from newspapers and magazines to textbooks and novels. Literary censorship has been around for a long time. These books are challenged and banned.
Norton, D. E., & Norton. S. (2011). Through The Eyes Of a Child. An Introduction To Children’s Literature. Boston, MA, 02116: Eight-Edition Pearson Education
Loehlin, John C., Lindzey Gardner, and J.N. Spuhler. Race Differences in Intelligence. San Francisco: W.H. Freeman and Company, 1975.
In Richard Aldington’s novel, Death of a Hero, Aldington is forced to censor his novel due to inappropriate content. Aldington responded to this forced censorship by addressing it, using replacement words and using asterisks to replace passages that were censored. By not removing the censored pieces Aldington forces the reader to think, imagine and put themselves into the scenes of George’s life and the war, creating a more intimate and alive piece.
J B Harley, 1989, Deconstructing The Map, Ann Arbor, Michigan: MPublishing, University of Michigan Library.
The dichotomy between the view that intelligence levels are affected by situational factors and the view that intelligence is genetically transmitted has dominated psychological debates on IQ throughout decades. The statements made by many commentators that intelligences depends on genetic factors has been ...