People always say that we have to learn history to learn from our mistakes, but we can't avoid those mistakes if they ban us from learning what really happened in America's past. For instance, both Huckleberry Fin and To Kill A Mockingbird use realistic events to demote racism in America, and yet both have been banned. What's even more aggravating is that the majority of challenges of those books come from African-American people. I don't know if they're ignorant of their true meanings, or they've just never read the books, but either way, they shouldn't be challenging either book.
We've also read a lot of the books that have been deemed as unsuited for our age group in other institutions, and we haven't been corrupted by them. None of us have started to brew toad stew since reading Harry Potter, and we haven't gone on a murdering rampage since reading Lord of the Rings. They're harmless. There are obviously some books that have no place in low-level schools. For instance, I don't think any first grader should be reading Sex by Madonna. Even banning books for young children has gone too far, though. Classic children's books like Winnie the Pooh and Charlotte's Web have been banned in some places. I don't see how such books could possibly corrupt America. They're harmless, and every kid loves them. If anyone said that Winnie the Pooh is corrupting our youth, I'd tell them to flip on the TV sometime. Perhaps it's not children's books that are corrupting our youth but the endless amounts of violence and sex they see on TV. There is plenty of other corrupting media they could be focusing on besides a hopping tiger and clumsy bear. There are some things that kids would be better off without, but some people are just ridiculous in what they choose to attack.
As teenagers, on the other hand, I think we can handle pretty much anything, and to deny us certain literature goes against the first amendment. Who besides us should be able to decide what ideas we're exposed to and what things we're interested in?
You make excellent points and I agree completely. It makes absolutely no sense to ban these books in schools in an attempt to "protect" their kids from the real world. Schools will only give students assigned books to read that they believe that they can handle. I understand that a parent may not want their child reading a book, but that doesn't mean they have the right to say that everyone else is not allowed to read the book because they believe it is wrong. If you do not like it, don't read it. If you don't want your kid reading a certain book for class, ask the teacher to give him or her another book to read, but you don't have to spoil it for the rest of the kids to come.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you. Challenging books is often an attempt to protect kids, but the books that are challenged are most often too advanced for little kids to read anyway, while they can turn on a TV and see so many things that they probably shouldn't be seeing. But as we get older, we need to read books that are relevant to our age group, and it just so happens that some of that is viewed as harmful by some people. That doesn't mean the book doesn't have value.
ReplyDeleteI agree that censoring reading material from children goes too far. It seems like a lot of the books on the banned books lists have a really important meaning that couldn't be expressed without including some of the things that people consider inappropriate. I don't really see how people think a book could corrupt children. Usually things like racism aren't encouraged in the books that are banned, such as To Kill a Mockingbird, so kids would be more likely to avoid racism after reading them.
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