If I Don’t Want to Read it, Neither Do They Isabella Voss I’ve always loved reading. From the way the pages felt to the enticing look of the printed letters, I was infatuated. I can’t remember a time when it wasn’t anything but enjoyable for me to escape for hours in a well-written book. Reading allows us to live vicariously, letting us experience things we otherwise would never have seen in our own lives. I admire the ability and talent of authors to communicate these experiences in a manner which enables us, the readers, to learn from them without ever needing to move from our seats. But nothing is more intriguing to me than exploring the motives for an author’s writing. From Harper Lee’s call for social reform in her novel To Kill a Mockingbird to Adolous Huxley’s warnings against the loss of morality in Brave New World, authors have made extensive and necessary statements concerning a plethora of issues and ideas. Nevertheless, these novels which have made the most substantial claims against the problems faced by humans are often notoriously banned for mentioning these very ideas. Because authors use their writing to bring attention to the pressing issues many face, certain people become uncomfortable by the clarification of the problems and find it ‘best’ to call for the ban of the book itself. These banned books are believed to be completely composed of inappropriate themes thought to negatively influence and corrupt the minds of readers. The desire of parents to protect the innocence of their children prevents educators from using literature that contains controversial topics to avoid potentially corrupting the impressionable minds of America’s youth. By withholding the controversial material, educators are committing a great disservice to students through the removal of opportunities to gain further empathy and understanding provided through the experiences articulated in literature. Moreover, the removal of these classic 2 pieces of literature deprives students of thought-provoking themes and ideas necessary to promote educational freedom. The excessive banning of any piece of literature deemed threatening to the innocence of students in secondary education only perpetuates needless ignorance towards the experiences of others while also inhibiting the educational rights of students. Before we begin the argument stated, it is important to first lay out some clear parameters to define both the students and content being discussed and defended. First, the community of students I’m referring to are at the high school level, meaning we will assume they are mature enough to discuss the proposed controversial topics under the guidance of a competent teacher. Moreover, we will also assume these students are capable of individual thought, allowing them to properly extrapolate the important information and themes from the given books. In terms of the expectations for the teachers, we will assume they are in no way teaching material with malicious intent or for purposes of perpetuating certain opinions to their respective students. Teachers are, under no circumstance, permitted to force their own thoughts upon their students, nor are they allowed to encourage students to follow the immoral or inappropriate themes found within the stated literature. Instead, teachers are expected to encourage thoughtful and contemplative discussion with their students as well as distinguish the purpose of the author from the content represented within the book. Lastly, it is understood that several of the books mentioned throughout this essay have been or still are being read in high schools across the nation. It is important to differentiate these instances from the arising number of bans on these books due to reasons we will explore later in the essay. With these parameters in mind, it's best to take a look at the book banning process and its subsequent causes. Oftentimes, people confuse the action of challenging a book with actually 3 banning it. According to the American Library Association book challenges and book bans are two separate events, with challenges leading directly to bans. When a book is challenged in the education system, this means a person or a group of people have found the content within the book to be particularly inappropriate or offensive for the level of education in which it is being taught. So, according to their own reasoning and opinions, they compose a book challenging and bring it to either the library or school board and present their case. Depending on the consensus of the organization’s board, the book may be banned, meaning removed from their curriculum and/or library, if seen fit. Despite the seriousness associated with banning books from schools, this process is not usually made into a big showcase. More often than not, a school board will silently call for the removal of certain books to avoid confrontation with parents or other institutions. Despite the discreet manner in which educational boards deal with book bans, this situation raises pertinent questions that must be answered. Who is ultimately responsible for the public education of high school students? Is it the system itself or the parents? Who has the most authority concerning the material students are given? In order to answer these questions, we must examine the public high school education system as a whole in America. We, as a country, love to boldly preach about the advantages of having a democratic school system, yet we still limit the educational freedom of our students through book censorship. Instead of reading and discussing the topics within these banned books and encouraging individual thought in our students, it is far easier for us to pretend these themes and ideas don’t exist. So, we ignore the racial tensions and injustice in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, we turn a blind eye to the warnings against power corruption 1984, and we refuse to acknowledge the cruel and twisted treatment of the poor working class in The Grapes of Wrath. If school boards are allowing their curriculums to be 4 modified by objections from overprotective parents or the fear of mentioning controversial topics, they are not taking their responsibility to provide students with a well-rounded education seriously. The American public education system has no right to claim they’re advocating for the best interests regarding the educational freedom of high school students when they are deliberately withholding intellectually stimulating literature though book censorship. In some instances, book censorship in schools stems from the cultural perspective of the area. We see this with the numerous book bannings in the south resulting from heavy church affiliations. For example, the American Library Association clarifies that most southern states discriminate against books with racial or anti-religious content as per strong connections to local religious institutions. Books like The Color Purple and The Handmaid’s Tale are but a few of many books that have been successfully removed from southern schools and libraries due to the depictions of southern racism and anti-organized religion in each respectively (Hair and Hurand). With these examples in mind, one can imagine the difficulties faced by teachers or professors who work at schools in unfamiliar regions. In a recent interview, Dr. Tony R. Magagna, an Associate Professor of English at Millikin University, divulged his experiences dealing with cultural censorship in the education field. After going to school to become an English teacher in western America, Magagna took a teaching job at Millikin University, located in the Midwest. While reading the novel Brokeback Mountain in his class, which includes heavy homosexual themes, Magagna had shown his students the movie in an effort to spur further discussion regarding the novel. However, a student’s parents had contacted the Dean and accused Magagna of ‘attempting to indoctrinate his students’ by discussing homosexuality in society within the classroom. Magagna’s liberal western influence led him into conflict with a student’s parent but this didn’t detract from the lessons he wished to display to his students. 5 From the perspective of a teacher, the use of these novels is not to encourage immoral thoughts and behaviors but discuss prevalent social themes that students are all interacting with in one form or another. Yet, Magagna experienced first-hand how some parents berate the educational system and call for censorship in favor of educational freedom. The word ‘censorship’ has many different connotations. As defined by Cynthia J. Miller in Culture Wars in America, censorship is “the regulation of speech and other forms of expression by an entrenched authority…censorship suppresses what is considered objectionable from a political, moral, or religious standpoint.” Some think of Hitler and the Gestapo burning books to prevent the exposure of ideas which threatened the Nazi movement. Others picture the Chinese government censoring its people’s internet searches. However, it is important to note censorship in education is far more distinct and delicate than these intense notions. High schools display censorship through the discreet removal of books from their curriculums and libraries, as well as specific teacher conferences which discuss how to avoid parental confrontation concerning controversial topics. School boards wish to keep any potential controversy from the public, especially when it concerns the welfare of the students, hence the discrete nature of banning literature. These actions only contradict the democratic liberties we love to brag about in the American education system. Daphne Muse, a Bay area writer, touches on the loss of these liberties in her article “Banned Book Week September 22-29, 2001: Look What They’ve Done to My Books, Mom!” when she makes the comment “Given the fear and terror advancing out of many churches, communities, and the halls of Congress, efforts to deny our young people the opportunity to form independent ideas and to think critically are bound to grow” (23).