The Controversy Over The Benefits Of Banning Books

There is a famous quote by James Howe that goes “Banning books gives us silence when we need speech”. It closes our ears when we need to listen. It makes us blind when we need sight” (Howe). Who cares, though, about that? It's just an irrelevant quote that no one cares about. James Howe is an American writer who stands up for anti-book banning. The line “Banning books gives us silence when we need speech” means much more than it may sound. Banning books is wrong for many reasons. It’s limiting knowledge that our future generations should be aware of, and its limiting insights and different points of view (Ezell). Book banning is setting up our descendants for failure and limiting the information they should be aware of. Not only is this book

Book banning is the sole cause of human misunderstanding right now (Blakemore). History. History is one of the most controversial topics in the world since it is irreversible, and book banning is only causing more debate. Banning books is the action of banning a civilian’s thoughts. It restricts the general public from taking in different perspectives on different topics. Removing representative books from public and school libraries gives the increasingly diverse population fewer opportunities to engage with content that reflects their reality. Books like To Kill a Mockingbird are currently being banned from many public and school libraries in the U.S. A book like TKAM reflects and shows the racist actions of our nation. Taking away knowledge like that is limiting and restricting the information being shown to younger generations (Blakemore). As a civilian, I believe that we should be educating the youth so they can perceive life as what it is, and not live in a lie. Book banning, a form of censorship, occurs when individuals, government officials, or organizations remove books from libraries, school reading lists, or bookstore shelves because they object to their content, ideas, or themes

People should have the right to access different ideas and perspectives, even if those ideas are controversial or different. The First Amendment was put into place to help the people from censorship by the government, but the book ban just completely obliterates those rules. Therefore, book banning is a direct violation of the amendments put into place (Mendoza). You may believe that book banning isn't relative to students at all, and in fact, is not that big of a deal at all. If you do believe that, then you are wrong. Books are often banned in educational settings, slowly depriving students of valuable learning opportunities. Banning books restricts access to literature and information that could grow students' understanding of various subjects and issues (Columbia). A recent survey shows that 72 percent of students say that restricting book access decreases their engagement in reading. More than a third of teachers realized that book bans discourage students' critical thinking, and 78 percent reported that students are reading more when given the choice to read banned books (First Book