JAGS English 9

Tyler Flechtner

Censorship: How it Affects your Daily Life

November 26, 2019

Mrs. Mazur

Jags Pillar: Communicate ideas effectively with diverse audiences, bridging geographic, linguistic, ideological, and cultural barriers. 

Artifact:

Excerpt from Tyler Flechtner’s Censorship Argumentative Essay

“Tyler Flechtner 

Miss Brennan

Jags English 9. 1st Period

26 November 19

Censorship: How it Affects your Daily Life

This essay has been blocked in your region. Reason for block: Judging official power, or spreading false rumors about government officials. What would you do if you saw this anytime you wanted to inform yourself about an event happening in the world? The sad thing is that this is happening in countries run by monarchs and dictators. Getting rid of censorship altogether will allow children to explore previously censored topics. It would also keep the ideas of Enlightenment philosophes alive, and support beliefs such as religion and culture.

To start, outlawing censorship would allow children to explore and question certain topics that were previously censored. According to Khan Academy, the author states that children can use books to safely explore topics, “Censorship seems to be an answer to the growing problem of how to care for and watch over our children. But books are meant for exploration, for questioning. Within a book’s pages, children are safe to explore their feelings and reflect on their own situations. Putting the right book into the hands of the right child has great value and changes lives. It can be empowering, motivating, and inspiring.” (Caravette 2). If we keep censoring sensitive topics, how will children be able to learn about these topics? What if some of these topics are important for life later on?... ”

Reflection:

This was during our Argumentative Themes Unit in English Class. Each of us had to write an essay using the tools we learned about writing an argumentative paper. We each took a topic to write about, and I chose censorship. We had a partner that had the same topic, and they chose the other side of the argument.  After that we had a debate and the rest of the class would vote on which side was more persuasive.

This artifact helps me understand the pillar of Communicate Ideas. The topic of censorship is one that has a lot to do with communication, and this artifact fits right in. Being able to have a debate was a great way to express beliefs and communicate ideas.