Editorial
Banned Books: Should adults be allowed to dictate what students read in school?
By Kayla Cahill, Staff Writer
February 9, 2022
Short answer, no.
Over the past hundreds of years, book banning has been a huge issue but recently parents and school boards have been attempting to ban more and more books.
Recent controversial cases of banned books include “Maus” by Art Spiegelman, which was banned by the McMinn County School Board in early January, and “Melissa” (formerly published as George) by Alex Gino which was one of the most banned books three years in a row.
According to readingpartners.org banning books started in the 1640s when a book called “New England Canaan” got published. The book was seen as an attack on the Puritan lifestyle so after attacking the author and the book itself, they banned it. From then on many books have been banned but today it is a serious issue.
The shelves of the NHS library. Kayla Cahill/The Mustang Gazette
Parents like to believe that they are in control of everything that their child does in and out of school and as a high school student, I’m kind of over it.
My first encounter with banned books was in first grade. I was in library class when I found out that the book Where the Wild Things Are was a banned book. I loved that book. How could it be banned?
Well, according to readingpartners.org the book was banned because it was “psychologically damaging and traumatizing to young children due to Max’s inability to control his emotions and his punishment of being sent to bed without dinner.” Huh?
Books are being banned for reasons that aren’t even remotely logical. For example, the book Maus was just recently banned in Tennessee schools. The book was read to eighth-graders at school but was banned for swearing and a nude image. EIGHTH GRADERS. Eighth graders are mostly teenagers and shielding them from something as simple as a curse word is not remotely rational.
The book is educational and teaches students not only literature and craft but also about the Holocaust and the real experiences that people went through. Banning this book is frankly an insult to the author and Jewish people today who have been experiencing antisemitic acts. Books like this help students understand the Holocaust and how terrible it was.
The topic of school boards and parents banning books just makes me angry. Limiting what children can and can’t read at school is absurd and just shouldn’t be allowed. Reading books like “To Kill a Mockingbird”, “The Catcher in the Rye”, and “Of Mice and Men” are important for high schoolers to learn and understand literature, and taking this away from them is a crime.
Most books that are banned are banned for talking about issues that are real and these parents are suppressing them. They think that by shielding their child they can mold them into something that they are not. When in reality, shielding them will just make these issues worse.
Suppressing books written about things like depression, anxiety, the LGBTQ, etc. Causes so much more harm than school boards and parents think. Children undoubtedly become more sneaky and secretive when their parents are controlling like this. They aren’t going to mirror the bad ideas from books but instead learn what not to do. If these books are being taught correctly, none of them would have to be banned.
Books are meant to be read and have messages that children can learn from. If children are not exposed to this literature, they will have a hard time reading and understanding more difficult books as they become more mature.