Books should never be banned
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Books should never be banned
The Diary of Anne Frank, to kill a Mockingbird, The Da Vinci Code, Animal Farm, The Scarlet Letter, and The Catcher in the Rye are the literary classics that have been crucial in education. They contain information that is helpful for children and adolescents. Unfortunately, each of these novels has been banned by governments citing that it convey detrimental information to society. Many other classic books have been banned from the governments, arguing that they promote unacceptable sexual behavior, racial discrimination, witchcraft, and religious intolerance. Many people may consider these books inappropriate, but many English and literature teachers have always asked students to read them. I believe that even the controversial books can promote education wealth.
I oppose the banning of books because education should be open to anybody. No one should be deterred from accessing information since such information may open opportunities to them. It is suitable for people to have the freedom to choose the literature they would like to read and develop their ideas from the themes discussed in those books. Micah Issits argued that the rights ingrained in the freedom of press act do not bar anyone from reading any literature (Hastie, 2018). He said that the freedom of the press gives rights to the citizens to access information, publish, and confidentiality of sources. So banning of some books is a breach of these rights and denial of vital information to the members of the society.
Members of society should have access to the press. Therefore, the government should not limit them in any way authors from publishing their books disrupt the attempts by citizens to add to their knowledge base by reading some books as this is an infringement to their rights. Although the concerns raised about the kind of information the banned books disseminated are valid, it is not the right decision to ban. Instead, the government should collaborate with some scholars so that they may establish a way in which such books are written in a manner that, in the end, the reader is discouraged from doing what is in the content of the story. This way, the reader will have gained literary and ethical benefits from the novel.
Parents have the authority to control what their children read. However, they do not have the authority to prevent other children from reading some literary texts. Due to this reason, the government should not ban any book but leave the reading of books a private matter. The issue of banning books has divided society into two, those that believe that they should be banned and those who argue that everybody should not be deterred from reading any material. Issitt stated that banning books is a violation of the rights of people to access any media and denial of people the freedom to read the content that deems fit for entertainment and education. Consumer limitation in any field is a form of authoritarianism that is highly opposed in society.
The understanding of a topic requires knowledge of both sides of an issue. So, banning some books is equivalent to ignorance of certain unpopular opinions. This, however, will lead to a partially educated society in the topic that is claimed to be well known. Healey argued that parents tend to restrict the reading of some books on the grounds of morality (Emert & Sheehan, 2016). Other novels have been condemned due to their perspective as far as civic values are concerned. However, this poses a significant danger in society. As the saying goes, ‘Children are the leaders of tomorrow’ if we continue banning books, the education system will produce leaders who cannot solve the challenges facing society as a whole.
Controversial books such as those that tackle difficult and social issues such as homosexuality are vital sources of information about the problems that society has long tried to eliminate. Parents feel that teachers should not teach children about such issues as homosexuality stating that it is their responsibility to handle the topic themselves. This may seem a valid argument for banning some books. However, this should not be the case, as these are the challenges that are in our societies, and children are under the threat of being lured to them. Additionally, parents will find it add to discuss with their children on such topics, and many will tend to assume that their children are innocent on such issues. Therefore, morality will continue deteriorating in society day by day.
It is worth noting that reading different books enlightens the people of various challenges facing them. Additionally, it promotes education and knowledge discovery. Therefore, the issue of banning books is detrimental to society as a whole. Parents have the responsibility to shape the behavior of their children. However, there are several issues that parents cannot discuss with their children. Some authors in their literary works have handled these issues. So, banning books will prevent eliminated some negative social problems which might have been avoided through the reading of books. The government should, therefore, leave the reading books as a personal matter and encourage the reading of the literature to promote a brighter future as far as morality is concerned.
References
Hastie, D. (2018). Should we ban books in schools? Arguments from the public history of Australian school text censorship. English in Australia, 53(3), 23.
Emert, P. R., & Sheehan, B. (2016). Banning gay books: Protecting kids or censorship. Respect: A newsletter about law and diversity, 5.