Book Censorship: Argumentative Essay

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We wanted to shed light regarding on one of the most controversial and sensitive issues in education which is censorship of children’s books. Censorship in schools is a complex issue since there are so many elements that may influence how children learn and how schools educate them. We all know that a school is a place where you are taught, shaped, and prepared to become the person you were born to be. You will be exposed to different experiences and learn about a variety of topics. It’s where you’ll discover and develop your abilities, intelligence, and skills. It’s a place where you may let your imagination run wild. Some people, however, believe that schools should not have too much leeway in terms of what they teach kids. Certain subjects, literature, and instructional materials, they feel, should be restricted. This problem has been in schools for a long time, and there have been numerous instances where specific literary masterpieces or historical materials have been removed because they were deemed too ‘controversial.’ Some parents go to great lengths to shield their children from potentially dangerous information on the internet and on television at home. However, parents aren’t really in charge at school, therefore censorship will highly ensure that the materials and subjects their children study at school don’t include any hazardous content. Also, censorship enables teachers to make better-informed decisions about what to include in a curriculum. As certain books and materials are restricted, educators will have a guide to help them narrow down what they discuss and utilize in their lectures. Censorship enables parents to be more involved in their children’s education. It allows parents to express their concerns about the education their children are receiving. If students think that particular themes or materials in the lesson plan are hurtful, discriminatory, or insulting to their race, culture, religion, or values, they can request that they be withdrawn. This will allow them to plan their curriculum more quickly. In schools, censorship generally takes the form of removing or manipulating resources or learning processes. These materials might vary from teaching issues that some find offensive, such as evolution against creationism, to those that officials and parents have generally determined are unsuitable for our children, such as nudity. The majority of censorship in American schools focuses on social and religious concerns, with many contentious texts being challenged. According to Reichman (1988), it has already been established for millennia as a practice, it is the removal, suppression, or restricted circulation of literary, artistic, or educational material like images, ideas, and information on the grounds that they are morally or otherwise objectionable. Every justification under the sun has been provided to keep some books out of the hands of pupils, from the protection of youth to moral concerns with the author or the work itself. The reasons for censorship attempts range from differing political ideas to religious and cultural expression, this is according to Ally Bush of Reading Partners. Some books that are banned contain racist remarks that may encourage the readers to have a racial perspective. Not only that, reasons may also be due to religious affiliations which may be related to satanic or witchcraft themes or unpopular religious opinions that may cause confusion to readers. It can also be because of themes that are somehow encouraging damaging lifestyles where characters are depicting life choices that are considered dangerous and are not accepted by many which may cause negative perspective that may encourage the readers to actually do these acts. All of these cultures’ censors appear to believe that children’s minds may be changed by what they read and that children are innocent and should be protected. When a book is censored, the information contained inside it is restricted, and kids are not permitted to read it. When an individual or a group opposes a book, it is considered censorship of children’s literature. When an individual or a group believes that the content of a novel or book is improper for children, it may be disputed. When a book is taken from a booklist, a school, or a library, it is labeled banned.

Scholarly Discussion of the Issue

The notion that all speech is equal is very questionable, some people use certain phrases in an attempt to silence the right of others to speak. Because of the prevalence of hate speech, it took over a century for minorities and women to achieve a semblance of equal rights. It doesn’t matter if it’s dressed up in ideals like religious liberty, state rights, or patriotism; it’s still what it is to others. Censorship allows us to halt the spread of hatred before it ever begins. We are already constrained by education, family, entertainment, commerce, and other factors. As a result of this restricting process, additional chances for equality arise. Most importantly, Censorship has the potential to alleviate societal strife. The purpose of censorship isn’t to prevent people from accessing information that they might find objectionable. If it were the case, we wouldn’t be able to use books and the Internet. We may use this method to restrict access to material that may have a negative influence on the culture of our homes, towns, or countries for our own safety. West (2003) stated that the majority of discussions of the relationship between censorship and children’s literature center on attempts to prohibit contentious children’s books from libraries, although this is only one part of a much bigger story. There are numerous ways to filter a children’s book, a book might be subjected to censorship constraints even before it is published. Before approving the book for publication, a cautious editor may request that potentially contentious portions be removed. Once a book is published, it may be attempted to limit children’s access to it. These measures can include prohibiting it from being used in libraries, but there are also other limits that can be applied. A concerned librarian may refuse to let children check it out without parental consent if a parent organization pressures their local bookstore not to sell it. A school administrator might forbid teachers from utilizing it in the classroom, or a religious organization might prohibit parents from allowing their children to read it. In schools, censorship frequently takes the form of removing or manipulating resources or learning processes. These items could range from teaching subjects that some find objectionable, such as evolution against creationism, to materials that officials and parents have generally concluded are improper for our children, such as nudity. Censorship can protect children from unhealthy content. In today’s society, parents have a lot to do to protect their children from harmful influences on health. There is literature everywhere, including stories that escape parental controls and apps for children that could lead to malicious encounters in the future. Children are less concerned with talking to strangers online than adults, primarily due to the way children view the world. They are more innocent, more curious, and can even be shy and lonely. To the extent that literature is negatively defined, according to Moore (2016), censorship assumed a decisive place in its old constitution. Current scholars emphasize the dynamic interplay between literary expression and types of cultural regulation, recognizing its mockingly efficient potential to generate in addition to suppress that means. at the identical time, accounting for censorship’s position within the history of the arena’s literature means coming to grips with the often-brutal repression, prohibition, and persecution of writing, writers, performance, and cultural manufacturers by way of sovereign strength underwritten by means of violence. In 1988, Sue Curry Jansen described censorship as “the knot that binds power and expertise,” and this binding has remained, loosely or tightly, at the coronary heart of the dynamic between censorship and literature. Censorship has been a factor of social conversation for as long as societies have conceived of the latter as a public accuracy, and in the way that, thru Jansen’s knot, they had been collectively determining, censorship and literature were coeval. Censorship defines the literary by outlawing that which it isn’t allowed to be; literature shapes censorship with the aid of exploring and contesting its limits. As seen in the statistics reports for challenges by reason, initiator, and institution conducted by Butlers University for 1990-1999 and 2000-2009, expose the factors in each challenge. As for the reasons, out of 24 factors including unsuited for age group, offensive language, violence, homosexuality, cultural sensitivity, occult or satanism, anti-ethnic, racism, sexism, anti-family, nudity, other offensive items, abortion, drug alcohol smoking, gambling, gangs, suicide, sex education, political viewpoint, technical errors, and other objections, the highest factor is sexually explicit. The initiators are board members, administrators, teachers, pressure groups, religious organizations, politicians elected officials, government bodies, patrons, clergy, other initiators, other organizations, and its major initiator which is the parents. For the institution, there are 16 factors namely school library, public library, academic library, special library, prison library, museums or galleries, college or university, student group, community group, theater, newspaper publisher, other publisher, government facility, other business, other non-profit business, the highest is the school institution.

SideTake about the Issue

We agree on promoting censorship in Children’s literature. This aids children to grow into well-being and to live in a safer environment. Children’s literature is very significant in a child’s life. Books help him to explore the world he’s living in, yet we cannot deny that some of this literature may cause distraction and can poison children’s minds. Many people believed that children are brought to life as innocents thus they are not yet mentally ready to be exposed to harmful and sensitive information. It is indeed necessary to prohibit children from reading books that contain objectionable, harmful, and offensive words, images, or information. There are many factors that parents should consider in introducing literature to their children. Parents, together with society should protect their innocence. Censorship assists in removing the appearance of sexuality, extreme violence, swearing, and other inappropriate gestures. Literature would be unsuitable for our young readers if parents and society would allow them to read such books. This is one of the ways also that children will not engage in misdeed acts, think inappropriately, and just do everything they want because that is what they have read in a certain book. If books that contain inappropriate information are available in libraries that can be accessed by young readers, they can be exposed to these kinds of books, they might misinterpret some ideas and think of something very irrelevant to what knowledge they already have. Censorship is necessary because even if a certain child doesn’t read a book that needs to be censored, this idea will still not protect him. He is still enclosed to other children who are already vulnerable with these books. We all know there are different issues and genres of books which have themes that are only appropriate for adult readers thus children aren’t ready to experience or encounter. Issues such as LGBTQ, political affairs, sexually explicit, profanity and drug use, and other content for mature readers. Censorship would allow children to avoid reading such books and to get away from negative psychological effects. Again, their intellectual capacity to comprehend and appreciate these themes is not sufficient for them to be exposed to this literature. As we also observed children in this generation, put into action what they have seen on television, the same goes for what they have read in books. This has already a big impact on the part of the children by making them very conscious of their actions, they became aggressive especially if literature is exposed to violence and sensitive content. In censoring children’s literature, this is not just a matter of protecting kids, it is as well a matter of assisting them towards what is right and best.

Scholarly Discussion of Our Critical Stance

Childhood is a crucial time in a person’s growth. Values, principles, and habits formed during this time remain with a person for the rest of their lives. According to Socrates, “It’s at that time that it is most malleable and takes on any pattern one wishes to impress on it.” A child’s moral sense isn’t fully formed, and he or she can’t always tell what’s good from what’s harmful. And as he suggests, ‘Then we must, first of all, it seems, supervise the storytellers. We’ll select their stories whenever they are fine or beautiful and reject them when they aren’t.’ You don’t work with people who have already developed their values and beliefs to rid the world of evil; instead, you engage with children who are still building theirs. Every child would be educated in an environment that encourages justice and goodness, and the world would be a much better place. PABBIS (Parents Against Bad Books in Schools) is one of a number of parent organizations around the country that are questioning the use of children’s and young adult books in classrooms, as well as in school and public libraries. These parents aim to restrict access to certain books for other parents’ children in one of two ways: either by having one or more books removed from library shelves or by having access to the books restricted in some way. Lombardo (2016) stated that censorship limits children’s exposure to violent, sexual, and other harmful subjects. Some parents do their best to protect their children from harmful content on the Internet and on TV at home. However, they are not the ones in control of the school, so moderation helps ensure that the material and topics their children will learn in school are also free from harmful content. It also allows teachers to decide more quickly what to include in a curriculum. Since there are certain books and materials that are censored, teachers will have a guide for narrowing down what to discuss and use in their lessons. This can make their curriculum planning a quicker task. It allows parents to have a more active role in what their kids learn. Censorship gives parents a chance to express their concerns about what their children are being taught. They can request to have certain topics and materials removed from the lesson plan if they believe it can be harmful, discriminating, or offensive to their race, culture, religion, or values. Censoring children’s literature may additionally serve the cause of regulating what a child may be introduced to, however, it additionally diminishes a child’s intellectual, spiritual, and emotional connection to the book or its characters without proper reason. To elaborate, imagine a child who has suffered from a sexual attack and reveals intellectual and emotional solitude while reading one of his or her favorite books. The censorship banning of certain books helps protect children from the sensitive issues and situations of the world that they should only see at an older and more mature age. Books with cruel language and mature thoughts and circumstances should only be read by teens or young adults. As the ages mature, students are more likely to understand the content of the book. Also, students are less likely to be frightened by language and rough text activities than younger children. Young children can be influenced and these types of books can leave behind uncomfortable thoughts and influence children’s behavior today and in the future.

Conclusion

It is definitely a difficult decision to make because the life of the children depends on this doing. In reading books, you are able to explore various parts of life. But some books are just really inappropriate for them to read at a young age. It can affect their perspectives in life which they will bring with them until they grow old. With bad perspectives, they might hurt other people and also hurt themselves. In the scholarly discussion of the issue, it is stated that children’s books are subjected to censorship constraints even before it is published. This is to prevent spreading potentially contentious portions in the books, once these portions are spread it may cause misconceptions and misunderstanding about the important details in the book. The statistics are also shown in this part of the paper which states that censoring books have various challenges such as its reasons, initiators, and institution. All of these aspects are huge challenges that books are facing even before their publication. It was actually surprising for us that the most common reason is sexually explicit which only shows how important it really is to preserve the child’s purity against books that depicts sexual and inappropriate actions or dialogues. As stated in the clear statement of our stance, children’s innocence must be well-protected, as peers, we have the responsibility to assist and guide them away from books that contain violence, inappropriate gestures, harmful, offensive words, and sexual behavior. If they are exposed to these acts at a young age, they will be confused and curious as to what these acts really mean. So, it is much better to keep them away from books that are inappropriate for them. They should stick to books that have good moral lessons which will make them better citizens of our country. As the late Michael Jackson said, ‘In their innocence, very young children know themselves to be light and love. If we will allow them, they can teach us to see ourselves the same way.”

Citations

Bush, Ally. “The little-known history of banned books in the United States”. Published under Reading Partners on September 28, 2020, https: reading partners. orgbloghistory-banned-books-week
Butler University, “Banned Books: Reasons Books are Challenged” Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License in September 2017, https:libguides.butler.edubannedbooks?p=217686
Kennedy, Elizabeth. ‘Kids’ Book Censorship: The Who and Why.’ ThoughtCo, Aug. 27, 2020, https:www.thoughtco.comchildrens-book-censorship-overview-626315
https: oxford.comliteratureview10.1093acrefore9780190201098.001.0001acrefore-9780190201098-e-71?mediaType=Article
https:www.123helpme.comessayAdvantages-And-Disadvantages-Of-Censorship-Of-Childrens-528926

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Book Censorship: Argumentative Essay

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