Throughout our history as a species, we have tried to suppress knowledge from each other, as an attempt to stay on top of the knowledge hierarchy.  This vicious process is known as censorship.  Censorship is the suppression of knowledge from the public that could be considered harmful in some way, as determined by some leadership group, like a government.  Recently, there have been some public schools that have been banning books which they deem inappropriate for their students.  Censoring books in schools should be stopped.

Sheltering students from certain books does more harm than good.  They miss out on valuable life lessons and priceless insight.

“Stories are an example of life,” said Amy VanDamme, an English teacher at Henry Sibley High School in Mendota Heights.  “The goal of reading a book is to question the way in which we do things.  It’s through stories that we learn about ourselves and all of humanity.”

Many times, the banning of a book in a school is a decision based off of some gross generalization that a book is bad because of one passage taken out of context.  For example, in this excerpt taken from Chapter 94 of Herman Melville’s Moby Dick, these words, when taken out of context, have been enough reason to censor the classic:

“Squeeze! squeeze! squeeze! all the morning long; I squeezed that sperm till I myself almost melted into it; I squeezed that sperm till a strange sort of insanity came over me; and I found myself unwittingly squeezing my co-laborers’ hands in it, mistaking their hands for the gentle globules.”

It is passages like this which cause a select group of parents to complain to their child’s English teacher and request the book be banned.

“There are always individuals who feel something should not be read,” said VanDamme.  “Usually, it is sexual content or sexual allusions that cause the most problems among parents.  However, books should not be judged on single passages that they contain.  You can’t make a blanket statement like that.  Instead, each book should be judged for its own purpose as an entire work of literature.”

Students feel strongly about the issue, as well.  Some feel that it is a violation of our basic rights as Americans.

“Censorship should not be allowed in any institution: private or public,” said senior Conor Murphy.  “Freedom of speech is exactly that.”

The banning of books takes away from students’ learning, making it a detriment to them, rather than bettering them.

“I’m sure not every parent agrees with the content in the book that are assigned to students,” said VanDamme, “but that is the point of education.  You learn to become an individual, different from your parents or anyone else.  You learn to think for yourself.”

Furthermore, by banning books, the school district runs the risk of extremely embarrassing themselves.

In David Zucchino’s article entitled ‘Invisible Man’ May Appear Again, Zucchino tells the story of a school board in North Carolina that banned the book Invisible Man, written by Ralph Ellison, and received harsh criticism for their decision:

“But confronted by an angry backlash and concerns that the ban had shamed the county, the board backed down and scheduled a special meeting Wednesday in order to reconsider the book’s status,” wrote Ellison.

Invisible Man focuses on the cruelty of racism in the 1950’s, which is an aspect of American history that is imperative for students’ learning.  However, due to the extensive complaints of one mother, the book was eventually banned.

We must not allow for this unfair and disgusting practice to continue.  It goes against our rights as American citizens, as well as detracts from our knowledge of the world, and even our own history.  If we strive to know ourselves as humans, then we must not censor any form of publication.