Should Censorship Be Allowed In Schools

“Censor” according to Webster's Dictionary means“ to examine in order to suppress or delete anything considered objectionable. Its central characteristic is the suppression of an idea or image because it offends or disturbs someone, or because they disagree with it.” Censoring textbooks and school literature isn't a correct way to prevent “inappropriate” content from falling into kids hands and it causes more harm to kids than it does good. Some of the books that were banned or censored according to (Allison Flood of the Guardian paragraph 3) consist of A Birthday Cake For George because it depicts an “Upbeat depiction of slaves lives”. Censorship is usually because of language, sexual content, religious reasons and cultural beliefs therefore parents should not censor their children's textbooks and literature unless it is very explicit or if it should be age restricted. The act of censorship is …show more content…
For example some books are banned for explicit sexual content. One example provided by (bannedbooksweek.org (#3) is Beloved by Toni Morrison), which banned because of “And again and again, parental complaints are lodged against the book because of its violence, sexual content.” Sure it might be good to not let elementary schoolers read this but most of these books had barely anything bad the people who banned them were too sensitive. A major influential book that was banned is Of Mice and Men by John Stienbeck, and according to (PBS #2) “Challenges have included complaints about ‘profanity,’ morbid and depressing themes”. This is a good book to teach and should not be banned because it has important messages and themes and should be part of highschool literature. The people that claim this would have a point on banning it if it was being taught to elementary school but its to high schoolers and is perfectly fine for their