Book Banning Is Bad for Students

Should people be able to deny a student’s freedom to read any book they wish to in a school?   Every time adults ban a book, kids lose the chance to gain knowledge from that work of literature.   The students’ outlook on the world becomes narrower as they lose access to an insightful point of view.   Book censors can only give unreasonable and unjustifiable motives for banning books to validate their cause.   In the end, the actions of the people who ban books create many negative effects on students.

The history of book banning in schools began like an unnoticeable disease, which multiplied into a deadly cancer that affects nearly every public education system in the U.S.   The number of book challenges per year has more than tripled from 152 in 1990 to 472 in 2000 (ALA).   More and more students have to bear the restrictions of a banned book list and if this rate continues, people will challenge an astounding 1,416 books in 2010.   Parents who create an increasing number of ludicrous reasons to ban books every year attribute to this statistic.   Mothers and fathers ban books because “they teach children to spy” or “it encourages children to break dishes so they won’t have to dry them” (Campbell 1).   These reasons do not justify preventing a student from reading a great work of literature.   In many cases, the teachers who included the challenged book in their curriculum lose their jobs (Spindel 77).   The United States was founded based on freedom to stand up for what one believes in; however, if a teacher stands up for a student’s right to read parents have them fired.   In addition, librarians and school officials do not making enough money to deal with the problem of combating book challenges contributes to the sharp increase in book banning (Granberry 66).   Book challenges have slowly changed from an actual challenge to an enforcement of parents’ will upon students in a public school system.   Anyone can easily predict the monstrous future school censorship will...