Our Freedom To Read
Many rights are guaranteed to us or implied within our constitutional tradition. The right to read is one of these, and like the other rights it can be used wisely or foolishly. To deny the freedom of choice in fear that it may be unwisely used is to destroy the freedom itself. Book censorship should not be allowed because the right to read freely enables many students to expand their imaginations and knowledge, freedom of inquiry is essential to education in a democracy and teachers are trained to teach controversial material to an age-appropriate audience.American schools have been pressured to confine or deny students access to books considered inappropriate by some individual or group based on moral, political, religious, ethnic, or racial grounds for many years. Recently classics and modern novels have both been attacked and considered controversial or inappropriate for students to read. Most would-be book banners act with what they consider to be the highest motives --protecting themselves, their families and communities from perceived injustices and evil and preserving the values and ideals they would have the entire society embrace (Miner 21). The result, however, is always the denial of anoth
The right of any individual not just to read, but to read whatever he or she wants to read is basic to a democratic society, and the freedom of inquiry is essential to education in such a society. Many schools have already removed from their libraries and English teachers have avoided using works which they fear may make the members of the community upset. Consequently, "many students are presently being educated in an The responsibility the school has to help students grow and mature in their knowledge should be their main concern. Community faith in their teachers to select, or censor, books to enhance this growth should be strong, especially considering the education backgrounds and training of English teachers. In society based on the basic rights and freedoms, denial of the freedom to read and the freedom of inquiry should not even be considered. As Wallace Stevens once wrote, "Literature is the better part of life. To this it seems inevitably necessary to add, provided that life is the better part of literature." "The community that entrusts students to the care of an English teacher should also trust that teacher to exercise professional judgment in selecting or recommending books" (Jenkins 8). With the help and instruction of a teacher, students can receive a better understanding of the meaning behind many of the passages considered controversial. "When selecting books for students many considerations are made by an English teacher, including the contributi
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Approximate Word count = 1012
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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