It is hard for literature teachers to give their students the best education that they can, while constantly having to worry about how the students, and their parents, will respond to the reading material that they choose. Each student comes from a home that may have different ideas on what is appropriate and what is inappropriate in regards to reading materials. There are many reasons that families and schools challenge, and even ban books. First of all, approximately 1/3 of the books challenged in the last decade were challenged on the basis of including sexulay inappropriate content. Several books that were challenged for sexual content include Alice Walker's "The Color Purple", Toni Morrison’s “Beloved”, John Steinbeck’s “Grapes Of Wrath” and Allen Ginsberg “Howl”. Another prominent reason for the banning and challenging of books includes violence. Over 1/4 of all book challenges include that the book being challenged was to violent for students to read. Books that have been challenged due to the appearance of violence include Lois Lowry’s “The Giver”, Truman Capote’s “In Cold Blood” and Richard Wright’s “Native Son”. A third reason for why people wish to ban books is because it is believed that the book that was read includes magic, sorcery or demonic aspects (usually argued as occultism). Surprisingly, the “Harry Potter Series” by J.K. Rowling was one of the most challenged books based off of this reason. “The Lord of The Rings Series” by J.R.R Tolkien was another that was attempted to be removed from both schools and libraries for its sorcery and ‘demonic aspects. There are many other reasons that people use to challenge and ban books, such as for Religious reasons, the appearance of homosexuality, and substance abuse. However, no matter what the reason for the challenging of a book, the main reason behind it is typically for the better good of student. Parents challenge books more than any other group of people. The reason behind this is that they are trying to protect students from ‘dangerous’ or ‘corrupting’ content. The American Library Association states that, “Often challenges are motivated by a desire to protect children from ‘inappropriate’ sexual content or ‘offensive’ language.’” . However, this brings up the question of, what benefits could there be for the student to read ‘racy’ or ‘edgy’ books while in school?
One of the largest driving points for being able to teach and read controversial material in the classroom is that of developing critical thinking skills. Procon.org sates that, “Learning and discussing controversial issues in school helps students become more informed and more active citizens”. The reading and discussing of controversial books enables students to grasp a better understanding of the world around them. No matter what time period the book was written in, students are able to understand how social and political problems come to be, as well as how conflicts grow (and how they can spiral out of control) through reading them. Aside from this, students who read controversial books become less ‘sheltered’. While this can be argued as both good and bad, these books can help to prepare them for what the world will look like after they leave the safety of home, and go off on their own. It is argued that the world is not a censored place, therefore neither should the books that students be allowed to read. The more they know and understand about the world, the better prepared they will be to live in it.
With little knowledge of people and issues going on around you, it is easy to develop stereotypes and bias. For example, we know the story of how European settlers conquered the Americas, and how they trampled all over the natives and reigned victorious in the end. It is easy to look at that and view the Europeans as the heroes, conquerors and perseveres that took what belonged to them. However, through reading the documents that have been found written by Native Americans at that time, one is introduced to the utter horrors that were inflicted upon them by the Europeans. These documents and stories may be looked at as inappropriate because they include sexual harassment, violence, paganism (native religions) and other aspects that can easily be deemed as inappropriate for students. However, by reading these, the bias that we built up is broken down and we gain a better understanding of history. Another example includes the stereotype that all Arabs/Middle Easterners are ‘terrorists”. If we are able to read primary sources of civilians that are caught up in the middle of the conflict that consumes that area of the world, we can see that the ‘terrorists’ make up a very small part of the population. Of course these stories too can also be seen as to violent or to inappropriate to be read by students. By banning reading materials, students are not given the opportunity to develop well thought out judgments of the world, and they are not given a strong chance to break down the stereotypes and bias they have created.
In conclusion, there are many reasons used to challenge and ban books, and many believe that they are doing it for the greater good of children and students. However, when a book is banned, the knowledge that a student is able to obtain through reading becomes more limited, and their knowledge when the time comes for them to go out on their own is lacking. Books, no matter what the content can be helpful to students by both helping them develop critical thinking and understanding. While the topic of reading content will continue to be an issue, students should be prepared to face deep issues (such as those presented in books) in life, and by reading uncensored books, they will be able to gain the information they need to be able to face this.
Citation:
http://www.bannedbooksweek.org/censorship/bannedbooksthatshapedamerica
http://www.ala.org/bbooks/
http://dsc.discovery.com/tv-shows/curiosity/topics/top-10-challenging-book.htm
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