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Bigger than you think....
Bigger than you think....
When a novel gets challenged or banned, it is rarely a concern of the students reading the material in class, but their parents. An organization has been created titled Parents Against Bad Books in Schools, advocating for the removal of books they deem offensive or that include material they believe their children should not be learning about. Why is this a problem? Censoring young adults from learning new information in a time where understanding and accepting the world around them is crucial, only shields them temporarily from experiences and ideas they will face later in life.
Banned books display for Banned Books Week in the Woodford County High School English hallway
How our school has dealt with book bans
How our school has dealt with book bans
In our English classes, teachers have made it a mission to teach their students about banned books. As shown above, the English department's student teachers, Ms. Witt and Ms. Strahan created a display showcasing various banned books, most of which are taught in a variety of our classes at WCHS.
Why should you care?
Why should you care?
Book bans affect students and young adults most of all, limiting their views and ideas because narrow-minded adults believe the subject of their reading is harmful to their minds. As a high school student in the year 2023, a time when advocacy for change and acceptance is prevalent in our society, I feel that we no longer need a reason to implement book bans. Books that have been banned in recent years, titles such as Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews and The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas only highlight real-world challenges people unfortunately face, if anything, young adults should be encouraged to read them, not denied of a right given to us by the First Amendment.
Our Purpose
Our Purpose
We want our project to act as a way to counter hate speech online. Recent and past challenges against books have been in subject to the novel's contents surrounding race, gender, and sexual orientation, classifying the advocation for book bans as hate speech. Dr. Saltman, senior researcher at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue in London stated, "Counterspeech is a way to counter hate speech with a campaign, protest, hashtag or initiative that seems to be more effective than censoring or filtering the views of others."
In an interview for CBS Saturday morning, Jason Reynolds, the 2020-2022 National Ambassador for Young People's Literature, gave a statement on banned books, saying “The adults are uncomfortable, and so they assume that the young people are uncomfortable. The real question is, why is discomfort a bad thing? Is being uncomfortable the same thing as being unsafe? The answer is no.” In the midst of post-COVID times, as a young adult in 2022, I can attest that we have experienced a lot of discussions and situations in the media that challenge ideas and beliefs. With the rise of laws attacking educators and their curriculum, it is most important now than at any other time to bring awareness to the phenomenon of banning books and teaching students their right to read what they want.
Click below to browse challenged and banned titles along with extra articles that give an insight to the effects of book bans on authors.
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