OPINION

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By Emma de Witt

Across America, books that focus on racism, LGBTQ+ issues, or any concept about opposing political viewpoints have been recently banned from some schools and libraries by local school boards. Dating back as far as the 15th century, book banning was a concept used in bookstores, libraries, and schools to prevent readers from learning about targeted topics. Why is it coming back in the 21st century? The entire concept of book banning is based upon one group of people’s thoughts and opinions, when really schools and school boards should be taking into consideration everyone’s perspectives.

Particularly in southern states, such as Georgia, Tennessee, and Florida, book banning has become the main issue discussed at school board meetings and with parents. In Florida, books such as Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye and Judy Blume’s Forever have been banned in some school districts because they mention race and sexuality. In McMinn County, Tennessee, the Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel Maus was banned for talking about the Holocaust, and for depictions of nudity. Art Spiegelman, the author of Maus, was disappointed in the school board’s decision, and he stated that it seems as if the school board wanted to “teach a nicer holocaust,” as opposed to confronting the horrors of World War II directly.   

Some people believe that children should be taught everything with a greater perspective, in order to grow up with an open mind, while others believe that if they do not teach the kids these concepts, they will not become a problem. Some people who support banning books believe that removing books with controversial concepts will make these issues disappear, when that is not the case. Although school boards want children to be concealed from certain real-world situations, the children will eventually become aware and learn about them, even if in a different way. 

Other examples of books that are considered classics that have been banned or removed from curriculums and libraries in the past include Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, because of “violence,” “teen pregnancy,” and “topics about racism.” F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby has gotten flagged due to “explicit language” and “sexual references.” J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye was banned because it “sparked controversy.” Back in 1960, a few years after Catcher was published, a teacher in Oklahoma was actually fired for teaching this book to her 11th grade students because of the “controversy” portrayed in the novel. Books such as Angie Thomas’ The Hate You Give, and William Golding’s Lord of the Flies have been banned because of racial references and violence, along with the Harry Potter series for “inappropriate language” and “unfair treatment” to characters. Some of these classics have been taught in classrooms for generations and have been used to educate students for years. The reasons that these books were banned are the very reasons that the students need to be educated. If children do not learn about issues in the real world now, they will grow up narrow-minded and confused.

Education standards are constantly changing; some for better, some for worse. In this situation, people are failing to realize that these topics are crucial for human development, and not talking about them will not make them go away. The kids who are going to be hurt from these new rules are the ones who will not be educated on important concepts such as racism, anti-Semitism, and other cultural topics. 

When talking to my peers in my English class about this, I received similar responses. Taylor Domson (‘23) said, “it feels like we’re moving backwards, we talk about the history of banning books, and it’s weird that history is repeating itself once again.” Upper School English and journalism teacher and Match adviser Vlastik Svab said, “banning books makes no sense, and based on my 20-plus years of teaching experience, I think that students are very capable of handling mature content.”

As students grow older, they are able to handle more mature material. From elementary school to high school, the reading material that a student is given is based on age. As a child gets older, and as books get increasingly more mature, they require more focus while reading these novels. Georgia McManus (‘23) stated, “while some topics make people uncomfortable, issues around those topics are not going to disappear just because we don’t talk about them. They are still very real issues with society’s treatment of minorities that are not going to go away on [their] own.” Pushing these topics to the side and not talking about them will not make them magically go away. Walker Clemans (‘22) mentioned how his Connecticut “elementary school banned The Hunger Games, and it led to an underground Hunger Games black market between the 4th and 5th grade. People would smuggle the Hunger Games books in their backpacks to go to school,” emphasizing the point that taking the books away from the children automatically makes them want to read more. Even if the schools take certain books away, children will still find and read them. 

My grandmother, Sherry de Witt, was an English teacher for over fifty years at Tuckahoe Middle School and a learning specialist in the lower school at Collegiate. She recently explained to me how she “went to a meeting specifically about book banning.” She says that “I just don’t think that one parent should decide what should or should not be banned, because then that means that no one else can read it. Book banning should not come about because any one individual disagrees with the book.” She then further explained, “on behalf of the librarians that I met with, we don’t believe that the books should be banned because the one individual is deciding, it should be a consensus. If something is really thought-provoking, then it should be a group that decides if it is not a healthy concept for a child, depending on the age.” 

In a TED Talk, speaker and renowned author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, talked about the importance of being able to see yourself in the novels we read through childhood in “mirrors and windows.” If the book is a “window,” it is looking into someone else’s perspective in life, while reading a “mirror” book is looking at yourself through the eyes of the main characters. This is especially true for students of color and LGBTQ+ students, and books about issues of race, gender, and sexuality are specifically being targeted in this most recent wave of book banning. Adichie’s own book Purple Hibiscus has been banned from some schools. Being able to see parts of yourself in the characters in children’s literature is comforting. When adults are further making decisions about what or what not to teach, they should consider the mirrors and windows lessons, and put themselves in the kids’ positions.

A high school student in Florida protesting against a book ban. Photo credit: Todd Anderson via The New York Times.