Censorship and Schools Nowhere is the debate over censorship more heated than in schools and universities. Parents want to protect their kids, students want to be heard over others and schools want to avoid any disruptive problems. It’s a fine line that many people tread and are uncertain about what to do, but when you look deeper into the issue the answer becomes clearer. There shouldn’t be any censorship in schools because doing so undermines our rights to free speech, prevents productive conversation and disrupts higher learning; we need to encourage free speech before nobody is allowed to open their mouths anymore. The biggest argument for censoring schools is “age appropriate.” The phrase “age appropriate” is a term used to describe
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All across the nation universities are facing major difficulties under free speech rights. Any views other than the majority are being asked to no longer voice them. Topics like religion, racism and homophobia are avoided because they might be offensive or upsetting. Students fighting for equal rights now tread on the rights of others, “…student activists seem to think the solution to their having been silenced for far too long others is silencing others.” (Chhokra, When Is Censorship Okay?) The best way to face these tough issues is to discuss them but students have been taught its okay to silence voices that disagree. When Portland Community College announced Whiteness History month they were immediately hit with backlash. Most peoples’ first reaction was to think that this was inherently racist, why would white people need more recognition? When people realized this was not a celebration of white people but a chance to have an intelligent and tough conversation about how white people came to be the way they are and there relations to other races the backlash disappeared. We should encourage this behavior because you can’t fix problems by ignoring them. If you censor opposing voices you can never have the chance to discuss and even change those
All across the nation universities are facing major difficulties under free speech rights. Any views other than the majority are being asked to no longer voice them. Topics like religion, racism and homophobia are avoided because they might be offensive or upsetting. Students fighting for equal rights now tread on the rights of others, “…student activists seem to think the solution to their having been silenced for far too long others is silencing others.” (Chhokra, When Is Censorship Okay?) The best way to face these tough issues is to discuss them but students have been taught its okay to silence voices that disagree. When Portland Community College announced Whiteness History month they were immediately hit with backlash. Most peoples’ first reaction was to think that this was inherently racist, why would white people need more recognition? When people realized this was not a celebration of white people but a chance to have an intelligent and tough conversation about how white people came to be the way they are and there relations to other races the backlash disappeared. We should encourage this behavior because you can’t fix problems by ignoring them. If you censor opposing voices you can never have the chance to discuss and even change those