When parents put their children in the educational world, they are hoping it will prepare them for the real world. Education is supposed to provide children with knowledge of diverse ideas and perspectives, yet book bans in US public schools have increased by 33% over the last school year, according to a study by Pen America, a non-profit that supports freedom of expression in literature.
The educational value of some of these banned books that address insights on different things limits the exposure of important knowledge that students will need if they want to understand the world around them. Banning any content that these books focus on can restrict the freedom of students to receive and express ideas. This creates a barrier for people to not be able to learn more about the world and themselves that these books provide information, especially for curious young people.
California book bans and textbook censorship, a law had been signed AB 1078 by Governor Gavin Newsom on September 25, 2023, this bill prohibits a school board from taking action to censor books. However, there are still states now that allow this ban number one being Texas but most recently it has been Florida now on the verge of passing Texas with the most banned books because recently the Florida school district pulled over 1,600 books for review to possibly be banned and including dictionaries on Jan 11, 2024. After this information had become public it had a major backlash and Florida lawmakers had allowed districts to charge people a hundred-dollar fine if they filed more than five challenges in library books or learning materials in a calendar year but dont have a child in the district.
Book Banning has been around for a long time. The first book banned in the United States was in 1637, which was a book by Thomas Mortan that was banned because of its use of harshness and heretical critique of Puritan customs and power structures.
It has been nothing new, yet it has been taken out of control with national and local groups launching projects to ban and restrict books and textbooks from school libraries because of the content inside that explores themes of gender identity, sexuality, and their focused issues on racism.
Books open a whole new world of knowledge to young people, but it can be very impressionable which is why there has been censorship towards what students should be allowed to read. However, there is a balance between trying to keep young people safe and completely closing the world to them.
There should be protection for students but also promoting a diverse and inclusive learning environment and the people who take control of this should be the parents of what they think their children should learn, not a school board. Though the concerns of the context in these books are reasonable. The act of banning these books is not because of its restriction on students’ intellectual freedom.
