Censorship Should Be Banned From Schools

In the 10 year period from 1990 to 2000, over 6,300 books were challenged within America, 71% of these challenges had to do with schools (Schools and Censorship). This is a serious problem that continues to grow worse every year. The people contesting the books either want them banned from schools or censored to the point that there is nothing inappropriate or offensive in them. Book censorship is wrong; it goes against the First Amendment in the United States Constitution, it discourages education in several different ways as well as creating unrealistic standards as to what children can expect within the real world. Censorship is a real problem in America and it progressively worsens because anyone can decide to be offended by something,

Without education, there would be no progress at all, when books are censored, feelings are being spared at the expense of education. For example, learning about controversial topics such as slavery are important because they may prevent such things from happening in the future. It is a common occurrence for textbooks to be censored or banned, textbooks that contain only knowledgeable information, no opinions or anything personal. In one case, a textbook was banned because it was deemed too violent by the parents of students at the school (Sherrow, 71). This is not taking away from the child’s education indirectly, this is literally removing the information from the children and not helping them at all. This is not just a recent problem either, in 1983, a textbook detail President Roosevelt’s New Deal was censored to the point of removing anything having to do with the topic (Book Censorship). Children missed out on the opportunity of learning about an important part of history because others did not agree with it. History is a necessity when dealing with education; without it we would not know about anything wrong in the past and how to stop it from happening again. After the author of a book dealing with homosexuality and the Holocaust had her book publicly burned she explained her views, “Yet, she tells us, she wrote about the horrors of the concentration camp at Chelmno so that others would remember. Remembering is important for preventing future Holocausts and other atrocities” (Censorship in Three Metaphors). Without these historical books, horrible things such as the Holocaust would inevitably happen again. These books are often targeted with little to no reason. Textbooks or other sources of knowledgeable information are often censored or restricted because of a single word, months of an author’s time and efforts never to be seen because of someone’s feelings. This is expressed appropriately in the