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Ellery Signor
Mrs. Cramer
Composition pd6
20 January 2017
To Censor or To Not Censor

"School authorities face great complexities and inevitable challenges when deciding to make or

not to make censorship decisions in schools." ~ Ken Petress

Censorship is defined as the suppression or prohibition of literature that is considered

obscene or politically unacceptable. School boards across America face the issue of censorship.

To censor can mean to suppress; to not censor is to allow young readers to explore real world

topics but also to encounter subjects that could be considered age-inappropriate. Overall,

censorship can limit students' opportunities in education.

While censorship is controversial, it is necessary to discuss both sides of the issue to

come to a proper decision. One side of the issue argues censoring illicit topics leads students to

become engrossed in said topics (Petress). In fact, the author of SLJ's Scales on Censorship

column says, "students gravitate to what they view as forbidden" (Jacobson). However, illicit

topics do exist in the real world. How can one make a decision that limits students from learning

about subject matter that may be both factual and taboo? Such a weighty decision should not be

up to a few individuals who cannot possibly know how each student would be affected by

censorship. For instance, the high school I attend has phrases such as "drugs and sex" blocked

from student access on the internet. Health class teaches students about both drugs and sex and

may require additional research outside of class. Censoring these words may limit students'

ability to complete the assignments on the blocked topics, thus demonstrating how censorship
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can limit students’ educational opportunities in school. Censorship can lead to students'

ignorance in real world experiences involving censored topics.

Furthermore, a student whose learning was limited may never learn the risks involving

drugs, which would establish the dangers of censorship in the real world. On the other hand, if a

school were to go as far as taking suggested censored material out of the courses offered, a

student may never be exposed to illicit topics. On the condition that the student never hears of

illicit topics outside of school, censorship could be seen as an effective and proper measure to

protect students from "physical, social, emotional, or intellectual harm" (Petress). However, this

is unrealistic in today's world for several reasons, such as social media, news outlets, and brands.

Students are more likely than not to experience illicit topics with or without censorship in

schools.

On the contrary, another side of the issue is self-censorship and nonage appropriate

material (Jacobson). Some librarians argue that since the library is responsible for serving all

students, minority groups have the right to access material about themselves and their

experiences (Jacobson). For example, victims of sexual abuse and rape should be allowed to read

books with rape and sexual abuse topics. If schools censor these topics, victims of such horrible

acts may feel even more alone in their experiences. This idea can also be applied to LGBT

students (Jacobson). Linda Jacobson hinted at a solution to this problem in Unnatural Selection.

This solution involves shelving books based on age. This gives students the opportunity to read

and reject what they would like.

In addition to the previous point, there is another issue regarding censorship, brought up

by Linda Jacobson is challenges from parents. In response, she offered the solution of requiring a

parent's permission to check out certain reading material. Additionally, she described a situation
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in which a parent does attempt to limit what libraries can and cannot shelve. She proved that this

would not be an issue by referencing librarians’ survey responses; librarians reported that few

parents follow through with their challenges (Jacobson). "Good conversation with a parent, or

any challenger, usually ends with reason, and without further actions," Pat Scales responded on

the issue of parents and censorship. This quote demonstrates how the issue of censorship can be

solved without policy implementation and school board involvement. In one case where the

school board did get involved in censoring certain topics, as described by Ken Petress in The

Role of Censorship in Schools, resulted in a student's work being left out of the science fair,

despite the teacher's approval on the topic. Regardless of politics, literature is an essential piece

to any learning environment. The question is: does censorship hinder learning?

In general, reading is a part of every course commonly offered by high schools. Math

equations need to be read, science journals are analyzed, and literature is crucial to English

courses. School officials, teachers, and parents alike worry that censorship is banning crucial

parts of a child's education. One parent and teacher voiced his opinion in Don't Bribe My Kids to

Read (Spencer). He asked his students why dictators and other individuals would want to ban

books. A student responded that censorship is dumb because it is like asking people to not drive

safely (Spencer). The teacher responded with another statement, "If reading is a chore, the notion

of censorship makes no sense. If reading is not important, one would not need to censor books."

(Spencer). However, reading is important. The teacher realized this powerful discussion is

opening students' eyes to the importance of reading. The teacher also recognized hard topics such

as death which may be censored. He believes that talking about hard issues solves more

problems than ignoring them, which is what censorship accomplishes (Spencer). As a result, the

author of this source, Don't Bribe My Kids to Read, would agree that censorship hinders learning.
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As previously mentioned, school officials who make decisions to use censorship in schools do

not know students on an individual basis. The author of Don't Bribe My Kids to Read wants his

son to pursue learning without ties such as a point system, which makes reading similar to a

chore (Spencer). He wants students to self-censor. The author of The Role of Censorship in

School points out issues with self-censorship (Petress). One solution to this is involving both

self-censorship and parental censorship. Censorship is not an issue to be solved by a black or

white decision.

In summary, censorship is an issue that comes with challenges, which is demonstrated in

the quote from Ken Petress preceding this essay. One solution may lie in self and parental

censorship, which would vary from student to student. Censorship will likely remain a

controversial topic in schools, because censoring literature can limit students' educational

opportunities.
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Works Cited

Jacobson, Linda. "Unnatural Selection. (Cover Story)." School Library Journal 62.10 (2016): 20-

24 Teacher Reference Center. Web. 5 Jan. 2017

Petress, Ken. "The Role of Censorship In School." Journal of Instructional Psychology 32.3

(2005): 248-252. Teacher Reference Center. Web. 5. 2017

Spencer, John T. "Don't Bribe My Kids to Read." Kappan Magazine (November 2012). V94 N3