Holly Brunner
Comp Two
Carl Battaglia
8 May 2018
Censorship in High Schools Merriam-Webster defines censorship as “the system or practice of examining writings or movies and taking out things considered offensive or immoral” (“Censorship," def. 1a&b). In today’s society, anything can offend anyone. Who gets to decided what should/should not be censored? With growing political correctness, there has been a constant battle between parents and teachers on what books are school appropriate. Books should not be banned because students wouldn’t be able to experience them in full. Mette Newth, author of “The Long History of Censorship” states that censorship can be traced all the way back to 399BC, when the Greek state attempted to censor Socrates …show more content…
This book was written in the late 1800’s, where slavery and racism were vast topics; if Mark Twain had censored the book, people today wouldn’t be able to get a glimpse of what racism and slavery were like at the time. CBS Interactive Inc. explains that people are so opposed to the word, that it gets in the way of the message against slavery (CBS Interactive Inc). Isn’t that the whole point? Mark Twain is using the word because he was trying to raise awareness for how slaves were treated and using the N-word is one way of doing so. Another point brought up by CBS is that “Twain is simply capturing the way people talked back then”. Which again, helps people today get to see what life was like for people in the late 1800’s. Besides, most high school students don’t read Huck Finn until they are juniors or seniors. This is because teachers assume that they are mature enough to read and understand the novel’s language. This is not always supported by …show more content…
They are the main force behind why several scholarly books are either challenged or banned. Why? Because the parents feel as though the content within these literary texts are too inappropriate for their children. Cristen Conger, author of “How Book Banning Works” elaborates on this to say that “before a book becomes banned, someone must first challenge it. The American Library Association defines a challenge as ‘an attempt to remove or restrict materials, based upon the objections of a person or group.’" (Conger). It should also be noted that a successful challenge will result in a ban on that book. The problem I see with this, is that anyone can challenge any book and any challenge could be successful. How can we prevent books like Huck Finn from being
Comp Two
Carl Battaglia
8 May 2018
Censorship in High Schools Merriam-Webster defines censorship as “the system or practice of examining writings or movies and taking out things considered offensive or immoral” (“Censorship," def. 1a&b). In today’s society, anything can offend anyone. Who gets to decided what should/should not be censored? With growing political correctness, there has been a constant battle between parents and teachers on what books are school appropriate. Books should not be banned because students wouldn’t be able to experience them in full. Mette Newth, author of “The Long History of Censorship” states that censorship can be traced all the way back to 399BC, when the Greek state attempted to censor Socrates …show more content…
This book was written in the late 1800’s, where slavery and racism were vast topics; if Mark Twain had censored the book, people today wouldn’t be able to get a glimpse of what racism and slavery were like at the time. CBS Interactive Inc. explains that people are so opposed to the word, that it gets in the way of the message against slavery (CBS Interactive Inc). Isn’t that the whole point? Mark Twain is using the word because he was trying to raise awareness for how slaves were treated and using the N-word is one way of doing so. Another point brought up by CBS is that “Twain is simply capturing the way people talked back then”. Which again, helps people today get to see what life was like for people in the late 1800’s. Besides, most high school students don’t read Huck Finn until they are juniors or seniors. This is because teachers assume that they are mature enough to read and understand the novel’s language. This is not always supported by …show more content…
They are the main force behind why several scholarly books are either challenged or banned. Why? Because the parents feel as though the content within these literary texts are too inappropriate for their children. Cristen Conger, author of “How Book Banning Works” elaborates on this to say that “before a book becomes banned, someone must first challenge it. The American Library Association defines a challenge as ‘an attempt to remove or restrict materials, based upon the objections of a person or group.’" (Conger). It should also be noted that a successful challenge will result in a ban on that book. The problem I see with this, is that anyone can challenge any book and any challenge could be successful. How can we prevent books like Huck Finn from being