Banning Books In Elie Wiesel's Night

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Night written by Elie Wiesel is a memoir about Elie’s personal experience during the Holocaust. Yes, this book is very hard to read and has violent and upsetting content, but it is the truth about the Holocaust. Banning books is wrong and limits students to things that adults find “appropriate” for students. Some students can handle for mature material, so limiting them to certain books is unjust. Banning books in school libraries takes away academic freedom, shelters students from the outside world, and does not let students form an educated opinion. Banning books in school libraries takes away students academic freedom. “Academic freedom is the right and responsibility of educators and students to study, investigate, present, interpret …show more content…

When school libraries ban books students are left with books about only positive things and an unrealistic picture of the world. If a book like To Kill a Mockingbird is banned students lack the intelligence about such topics taught in the book. To Kill a Mockingbird teaches about bravery, the real world, treating others with respect, and many other things. If a student is never exposed to this he or she will not know about racism or other unfair and unjust things in the world. If students are “protected” from real world situations they will not succeed in life. If someone has an unrealistic expectation of the world they will not know how to handle hard situations that come their way. Schools should educate their students about the world not “protect” them from it. It is not only am educators job to teach academics it is also their job to prepare their students for their life ahead of them. In conclusion this shows that banning books shelters students from the outside …show more content…

Spring Lake High School’s librarian, Mrs. Draeger, says, “Spring Lake Schools has balanced material and a wide variety of information with true facts so that students can form their own educated opinion.” This statement is very important because if a student is only ever given one side of the story how are they going to form an opinion. Many school libraries ban books about religion, gender identity, politics, and other controversial topics because they are afraid student will then go and do the things that happen in the books. Spring Lake Public School stated on July Twenty-First, nineteen ninety seven that,“Media centers do not advocate the ideas found in their collections. The presence of a magazine or book in a media center does not indicate an endorsement of its content by the media center.”Most people love to read books that they can relate with. If a student is being abused and reads a book about abuse they know that they are not alone. “To provide materials which reflect the ideas and beliefs of religious, social, political, historical, and ethnic groups and their contribution to the American and world heritage and culture, thereby enabling students to develop an intellectual integrity in forming judgement”(Spring Lake Public Schools July 21, 1997). This shows that students at Spring Lake have the opportunity to read about both sides of the issue and form an opinion