Blood And Chocolate Argumentative Essay

IDS Op-Ed Review: Banning Books Harms Student The article “Banning Book Harms Student” was written by Maddy Kein, a student of Indiana University. In the article, the author stated his opinion on banning books with sensitive contents is in fact doing harms rather than being beneficial to the students. Author used an example of the mistreatment of a controversial and well-known book, “To Kill a Mocking bird” to demonstrate people will take action against a book if they find it can be offensive or cause emotional discomfort for some people. Then author offered his counterargument as respond to the statement made by the the public school district of Biloxi to elaborate that we should not sacrifice the accuracy of the content for comfort.

From the very beginnings of literature, the act of banning books has long been a heated controversy. While almost everyone can say that there are definitely books that they do not want their children reading, the line between what is acceptable and what is not is much harder to define, especially in today’s world. In “How Banning Books Marginalizes Children” (2016), Paul Ringel argues that the current policy of banning books has had a negative impact on children because it has conveyed a message that rebuffs diversity and has contradicted the fact that the power to ban books should be used to “curate children’s choices with the goals of inspiring rather than obscuring new ideas.”

Why do certain people rule over what each child can and cannot read? Is that not the parents’ job to determine whether or not is it appropriate for their child? When a book is considered banned, parents, teachers, and librarians are discouraged from providing the book to their children. Many of these adults then disapprove of the book without even reading it. Junie B. Jones is thrown from the realm of possibility for many children just because the loveable character has some flaws.

Courting controversy examines the implications that arise when teachers assign challenged books, and when parents challenge books. The author, Pat Scales, relates an experience of a teacher who added a challenged book to her reading list in support of a colleague in her district faced a challenged on the book Working by Studs Terkel. The author believes that teachers following curriculum policies should decide what is taught in the classroom, not parents. One solution put forth to squash book challenges is to offer the student an alternative novel. Yet another scenario the author relates occurred when a parent requested a recommendation for a website that labels content in books. The solution presented was twofold: encourage the parent to

There are many great books nationwide, but some get banned or restricted on who can you read them. “Always Running: La Vida Loca: Gang Days in L.A.” happens to be one of the many books that get banned from many schools districts. A parent named ‘Martin Roger’ wants the book banned from San Diego County from the schools because it's “pornographic”. San Diego Superintendent understands where he’s coming from but the book “Always Running” is protected by the first amendment. The book is banned from elementary schools, because one parent opposes for their child not to read this particular book, doesn’t mean all the children in the district don’t have the right to read it.

She does not understand why the older and well-known authors are not being read in high school. Prose uses a personal experience from her son’s sophomore English class. He had to read a “weeper and former bestseller by Judith Guest” (424), about a dysfunctional family dealing with a teenage son’s suicide attempt. “No instructor has ever asked my sons to read Alice Munro, who writes so lucidly and beautifully about the hypersensitivity that makes adolescence a hell,”(424). She again mentions books she approves of that should be read in English classes.

According to the American Library Association (ALA), young adult novels are challenged with the best intentions. In most cases a parent will read a book that their child might be reading in class to find out if the book is hazardous to their child’s well-being. If the novel seems problematic, the parent then challenges the book. Even though the purpose of challenging a novel is to keep children from reading about issues that may not be seen as appropriate for their age group, censoring children from difficult subject matter is not always the solution. There is always controversy when difficult issues arise in adolescent geared novels. Even though there are many concerns with Lois Lowry’s The Giver,

The American Library Association, ALA, is an organization that, among other things, compiles a list every year of the most frequently challenged books. “The American Library Association actively defends the right of library users to read, seek information, and speak freely as guaranteed by the First Amendment.” (ALA) Many times, the books on this list are challenged by parents with the want to protect their children from things they don’t believe to be appropriate. “Only parents have the right and responsibility to restrict the access of their children” (ALA) Even with these good intentions, by challenging a book, they are trying to challenge the authors’ thoughts and words, their First Amendment rights. These books usually contain

proper for our students to read” (Hollins). There is conflict between children and their elders

Parents should have the right to decide what their child reads, but should not have the right to decide what is right for other children to read because not all parents have the same view on what is appropriate for their child to learn in school; as Jones stated, we must all respect each other’s differences. Educators should also be able to freely decide on what they feel is appropriate for their students to read. If a teacher chooses a book that has caused concerns in the past, they should alert the student’s parents of

Once upon a time, in a world not far from here, there are students who are forced to miss their annual train ride to Hogwarts, lock the wardrobe to the magical land of Narnia, and walk through the English countryside themselves instead of upon the back of Black Beauty. Why are these students deprived of those occurrences? They live in America, the land of the free- except when it comes to the books they can read. In fact, many schools across America exercise the practice of banning books. Since 1982, libraries, parents, and schools have attempted to ban 11,300 novels, according to the American Library Association. The essentially innoxious books are challenged for an assortment of reasons, including use of malapropos language, graphic or explicit

They argue that their “requests” to remove, restrict or relocate a book they deem offensive reflects a “common sense” approach to protect the values of a community or to ensure the safety of children (Knox, p 3). The government in The Giver, challengers claim to want to make libraries “safe” for young adults. They support moving books they disapprove of to the adult section of the library, so that teens may not stumble upon mature topics. Challengers also endorse labeling what they consider “inappropriate” material for parents and children. This group does not believe that labeling or relocating troubling books as censorship, which they define as removal of such books entirely from the library.

Censors typically feel as though the subject material of controversial books in the high school English curriculum is too much for teenagers to handle (Shen, 2002).

Anyone who has worked with children will agree that they are very impressionable. Even young adults are influenced by the media, literature, peers, money, and paradigms which is why parents and guardians would also agree that any impressionable source their children come in contact with should include desirable, good-natured content, such as life lessons and morals. In the past two decades, Harry Potter, a famous work of J.K. Rowling, has become increasingly popular and well known, but sensations also come with reproaches from strong willed adults that claim simple fictional details are consuming and corrupting their children. Parents and guardians believe that Harry Potter should be banned from use in schools and libraries, but they don’t

Imagine, the most famous childhood novel of our life time, and the biggest money maker in Hollywood, being challenged in a court case? A beloved children 's hero was almost sent to book section for censored books. The Harry Potter Series almost did not make it to the children of Cedarville School District of Arkansas. In this court case, the school board of Cedarville, Arkansas voted to deny students access to the Harry Potter books. The grounds on why they wanted to ban the books were because the Harry Potter books were unfit for their students and could lead to rebellion. Many authors of other famous childhood series’ such as Judy Blume stood behind the Counts family (who sued the school district) and showed support with J.K. Rowling, as well the President for the American Booksellers Association for Free Expression, Chris Finan. In 2003, he stated that "It is incredible that school officials have censored books that are exciting a whole generation of kids about reading,"(Grogran) Many believed that the Cedarville School District was at fault, however, the argument for the censorship for the Harry Potter Books was keen to members of the school board. The court’s decision rested on what was good for the students. If this case in the end favored the school board, it could have possibly influenced other school districts around the nation to censor the Harry Potter Series. It was not only a clear violation of the students’ rights but a withholding