Censorship Against Common Knowledge

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Censorship Against Common Knowledge

Books are pieces of a puzzle that together write the world; they are meant to teach, stimulate the mind, and introduce topics for discussion in order for one to formulate an opinion of their own. Censorship is the restriction of the exchange of ideas through different mediums, such as books, which a government or other controlling body determines disagreeable or considers inconvenient as. Books are usually censored because they disagree with a majority of the people at the time. Bowdlerization is of no use to the child in a classroom. Every person brings his or her own history, biases, and interpretations into everything that is seen or read. Therefore, it is impossible to censor everything that creates controversy because every piece of information is disagreed with at one point. If censorship based on opinion continues to occur then surely all knowledge will soon become distorted. Expurgation reduces the entirety of a bit of information and can often lead to misconceptions. Censorship of previously mentioned puzzle pieces for children must in no way occur because it can eradicate advancement of coming generations, deny protection from controversial issues, and eliminate opportunities for a knowledgeable populace.

The eradication of advancement for the coming generations and the suppression of information are directly proportional. That is, they come hand in hand and you cannot have one without having the other. If adults are given the upmost crucial task of determining which information should be censored, their children will grow up knowing much less than did their parents. Later if these now-adults are given the task of censoring that of their own children and so on, eventually knowledge of any kind will be lost to the world. An immense debate is set on whether access of books should be allowed, especially when these works are found questionable by a relatively vociferous portion of the community. Today, this containment continues to deprive students of the fruits of their ancestors’ harvests- their rich knowledge gathered through experience and understanding, passed down through written text. In one school district found in Culver city, California, reading lists are void of an adaptation of The Little Red Riding hood simply because it depicts grandma as having a unfussy glass of wine (USA Today Editorial 159). Advocates of this incongruous restriction merely do not understand the youth. They fail to distinguish beyond the dirty language and appreciate the valuable messages many works can contribute to society. In any case, children, if raised correctly, have instilled in them their parents’ teachings and take them into consideration with every step the take. Children should ideally be eclectic and be given the opportunity to course through unbiased information and derive from it their own personal and unique perceptions. “Just as there are tragedies, there are happy endings. Just as there is darkness, there is light.” (Beasterfield 24). Education takes the boogeyman aspect of serious issues out of the equation and presents things as they are to be taken, in ones own interpretation. The good must be taken with the bad because, without knowing the bad, hope to overcome it is nothing but gone. While parents are at complete liberty to teach their children and restrict their own child’s ability to read certain books; they are not allowed to extinguish a source of information because they have an aversion to it. It is obvious to say if a person does not like a book that person is not obligated to read it and because of this simple truth most books have no business being banned from public school libraries.

One cannot provide children with protection from controversial issues by simply refusing to deal with them. The cutting out of information through the elimination of student textbooks and other educational materials is counterproductive. Just because one is not taught of a...
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