Censorship In Schools Essay

Alana Arroyo

Mrs. Rogers

English 2 Honors

18 April 2023

Censorship Is Taking Away Our Rights

As time progresses governments have become more and more involved with content shared on social media platforms, silencing those who oppose them and blasting those that conquer with their ideals. Over the years people's use of freedom and education has only gotten worse. The world today has come so far with greatly expanding people's rights but censorship is taking that away by not being able to speak out on certain issues or restricting citizens' access to the content they can see. Many social media platforms have been curtailing people's use of the freedom to speak. Censorship is detrimental to a democratic society because it can lead to a lack of

In many schools they “ attempt to keep children pure for as long as possible” but by doing this it is “leaving gaping holes in their education, if not academically, then about life” (“Censorship in schools”). Censorship is inadequate for children. Trying to keep them pure and genuine for as long as possible will only keep important details from them and not give them true aspects of life. Even though some may believe that censoring unsatisfactory or disrespectful language from their kids is a conventional or appropriate thing to do, they should not because they need to learn and develop their own opinion on certain subjects and how they feel about certain issues in the world. In the dystopian novel 1984 by George Orwell, the people of Oceania create a language called Newspeak which invents new words to “narrow down the range of thought” making “Every year fewer and fewer words, and the range of consciousness always a little smaller” (Orwell 10). Oceania is diminishing the English vocabulary making words they use more simple without having to use much thought. However, making the English language shorter limits the number of words available to people. This is inferior because doing this is making the government one step closer to having full control over the

In today's society we see censorship many times like when “ a biopsychology student maintained that the university’s speech code prevented him from freely discussing controversial ideas about biologically based differences between the sexes and races” the district court “ ruled that the university’s code prescribed too great a range of speech and, therefore, was an unconstitutional infringement on the plaintiff’s First Amendment rights.” (Censorship). Censorship is taking away our freedom of speech. A student was trying to give a controversial speech however the district thought it provided too much articulation. Nevertheless, schools teach that having a wide range of vocabulary is good and they encourage it, so why are they trying to take that back now? Again in the novel 1984, there is yet another occurrence of censorship. The main character in the book named Winston says "It was terribly dangerous to let your thoughts wander when you were in any public place or within range of a telescreen. The smallest thing could give you away.'' So being careful with the way they act is very important because anything that gives a “ suggestion of abnormality, of having something to hide. In any case, to wear an improper expression on your face... was itself a punishable offense." (Orwell). Showing suspicious emotion or action can bring attention to the individual causing a possible offense. In