Parental Censorship of School Literature Students in the graduating classes below Julia's may never get to read the Twilight series. Her parents thought that vampires and werewolves were unholy, satanic things to write about, not to mention that there were sexual themes, violence, and curse words present. Indignant, they called the school to complain when their daughter brought the series home to read. Her school chose to remove the books from its library, depriving the entire student body of Stephanie Meyers' literary phenomenon based on the religious beliefs, sexual repression, and overall conservative nature of one child's parents. Parents should not be able to censor textbooks and other literature in schools because they will make their
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Most people find these subjects embarrassing to talk about, and our society stigmatizes them and surrounds them with a cloud of shame. Parents feel obligated to "protect" their children from the cold truth about sex and puberty to preserve their childhood. But throwing out materials containing any mention of sex and taking sex-ed booklets away from teens isn't just overprotective, it's irresponsible. In Texas, sex education is banned. Incidentally, several Texas high schools are now experiencing an outbreak of Chlamydia. The fact is that sex and puberty are normal parts of life and shielding children from them as if they were contagious diseases will produce individuals with unhealthy self images, unhealthy sex lives, and unrealistic expectations and ideals based on what they can glean from conversations with friends and what is portrayed in the media. Students need to learn about these things and they should be learning them in school, not from TV, gossip magazines, and Wikipedia. Knowing the risks of contracting STD's such as HIV and AIDS, why should schools deprive their students of that knowledge just to save a little …show more content…
People don't want their children exposed to such material, they think it inappropriate and a negative influence on youth. However, most children witness violence and hear bad language regularly from friends, TV, video games, posters, commercials, ads, the news, and even from their parents. It's nothing that they haven't been exposed to already and pretending that it doesn't happen is not a solution. There is no reason that award winning books should be made unavailable because the main character let the D-word slip on page 29, especially when many children speak this way out of their parents' earshot anyway. Should that kind of behavior be condoned? Of course not, but cuss words are a part of American culture and though it may be vulgar, we cannot deny its presence. As for the rampant violence in our country, it can't be blamed on a shooting in a graphic novel or a car jacking on Grand Theft Auto. Parents must teach children self control and to take responsibility for their actions instead of placing the blame on video games, Television, and
Most people find these subjects embarrassing to talk about, and our society stigmatizes them and surrounds them with a cloud of shame. Parents feel obligated to "protect" their children from the cold truth about sex and puberty to preserve their childhood. But throwing out materials containing any mention of sex and taking sex-ed booklets away from teens isn't just overprotective, it's irresponsible. In Texas, sex education is banned. Incidentally, several Texas high schools are now experiencing an outbreak of Chlamydia. The fact is that sex and puberty are normal parts of life and shielding children from them as if they were contagious diseases will produce individuals with unhealthy self images, unhealthy sex lives, and unrealistic expectations and ideals based on what they can glean from conversations with friends and what is portrayed in the media. Students need to learn about these things and they should be learning them in school, not from TV, gossip magazines, and Wikipedia. Knowing the risks of contracting STD's such as HIV and AIDS, why should schools deprive their students of that knowledge just to save a little …show more content…
People don't want their children exposed to such material, they think it inappropriate and a negative influence on youth. However, most children witness violence and hear bad language regularly from friends, TV, video games, posters, commercials, ads, the news, and even from their parents. It's nothing that they haven't been exposed to already and pretending that it doesn't happen is not a solution. There is no reason that award winning books should be made unavailable because the main character let the D-word slip on page 29, especially when many children speak this way out of their parents' earshot anyway. Should that kind of behavior be condoned? Of course not, but cuss words are a part of American culture and though it may be vulgar, we cannot deny its presence. As for the rampant violence in our country, it can't be blamed on a shooting in a graphic novel or a car jacking on Grand Theft Auto. Parents must teach children self control and to take responsibility for their actions instead of placing the blame on video games, Television, and