Banning Books In Schools

741 Words3 Pages
Every person has opinions, whether it be as simple as having a favorite color, or as complex as whether there should be a death penalty. Society is built around opinions, and they can be found anywhere, so it makes sense that opinions also find a way into educational services. Censorship in the form of banning books in school, is an issue with many different opinions. Many feel it is necessary to protect children from certain types of material, but in the article, “The Role of Censorship in Schools” it states that, “One group approve[s] a book and then later another group disapproves the same book." This just shows how censorship is based on opinions that are far from permanent. Banning books should be based on something more substantial than…show more content…
For example, the article "Board bans book, county cries foul" explains a person who wrote to a local newspaper explained that it was unlikely that the board read the book before it was banned. The book that was banned was "Invisible Man", which explains what being an African American was like at the time. It contains many valuable lessons, and if many people on the board were aware of that, the book would not have been banned. Their information based on banning the book was limited and incorrect. Also, when people want things to be banned their "beliefs are not always grounded in fact; and some that are factually grounded do not justify censorship as a remedy."("The Role of Censorship in Schools"). This describes how many claims for censorship, are not based on what is actually a defining part of the material. Although the times that there are reasons based upon facts, getting rid of the material is not the proper way to handle the…show more content…
Specifically, Shakema Steele expresses in response to banning the book “Invisible Man”, “That book is timeless. How can they ban it based on one person’s complaint?”(“Board bans book, county cries foul”). This shows that it was only a single parent who thought that it was necessary to ban the book, and not every parent agreed with those opinions. Additionally, in the article “Pushing for the Last Word to Be Against Censorship”, Donald Parker says that censorship is just parents making choices for everyone's children. This displays how censorship is imposing the ideals of a certain group to everyone. The individual parents should decide what is right for their children, and not have to conform to what other adults think is

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