Banning Books?
More recently than ever, many schools have deemed certain books as ‘inappropriate’ and have banned students from reading them.
More recently than ever, many schools have deemed certain books as ‘inappropriate’ and have banned students from reading them.
Unless we learn from history, we are destined to repeat it. This is no longer merely an academic exercise but may contain our world and our destiny.” – Alex Haley.
Recently, a Tennessee school district decided to pull the book ‘Maus’ out of their 8th-grade curriculum because of ‘slight profanity’ and ‘nudity’. However, everyone should know that this is not necessarily the true motivation/reason, this is just one of many attempts to ban books that include a history that others consider to be ‘uncomfortable’.
The idea of banning books is also very prominent in Iowa. Iowa state senator, Jake Chapman, angered teachers around the country by arguing that there is a ‘sinister agenda’ amongst schools to expose students to ‘sexually deviant’ behavior by teaching certain books in their curriculum. Chapman did not specify what types of books he was talking about, but it can be inferred that he was talking about books with LGBTQ+ themes, such as ‘George’ by Alex Gino, which has been taken out of many school libraries.
ICCSD superintendent, Matt Degner, thinks these comments about banning books are unproductive.
“I think it’s important at this point to raise up our public schools and the things they do for your community. Comments such as that one [Jake Chapman’s statement] don’t do that any justice. I don’t believe our educators approach their work with any kind of ‘sinister agenda’, we really approach our work with the effort to be there for all kids,” he said. I don’t believe our educators approach their work with any kind of ‘sinister agenda’, we really approach our work with the effort to be there for all kids. — Matt Degner
The bigger picture of this issue is that some legislators believe that schools don’t care about parents’ concerns. This is very valid, as in most cases parents should be the ultimate decision makers when it comes to their kid, not educators. Except, this isn’t really a big problem, considering that many schools actually encourage parents to get involved with them. Many schools have PTOs (parents and teachers organization) where parents and teachers work together to enhance the overall education experience. At ICCSD there are many ways for students, parents, and staff can express their concerns with administrators. Even with that, the ICCSD hasn’t had a conflicting problem with parents like legislators set it out to be.
“I really question the reason [for these concerns], because I’m not sure hear those as problems in our district or those types of concerns from parents… we’ve had a process in the district for a long time on how parents, students, and teachers can bring those concerns forward, so I don’t see anything broken there.” stated Degner.
On Liberty’s Martin Luther King Jr. learning day, teacher Kimberly Sleezer and librarian Jan Smith led a discussion about banning books. In the hour-long discussion, many students agreed that books shouldn’t be banned but rather read and learned from. Many times, banning books encourages people to read them. At Liberty, English 10 classes are starting to read the book ‘1984’ by George Orwell, which is one of the most challenged books from the 80’s for being ‘pro-communist’
There are also other sides to the book banning arguments such as racial and ethnical themes that aren’t appropriate. For example, the book ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ has been a book used by teachers to teach about the 60’s era and segregation for years. However, there are some problems that should be addressed about the book.
Liberty senior Tatum Calderwood shared her thoughts on the book.
“What I would consider a valid criticism [of the book] is that it is a ‘white savior’ book and despite it being written by a white author, it is one of the most popular black history books in the country.”
Iowa has been proven to lean conservative time and time again. The ICCSD district seems to disagree with the recent passing and ideas brought up by Republican Governor Kim Reynolds. Iowa City prides itself on their connection to writing, literature, and overall being a pretty progressive area of the state. There is no doubt that many people in the Iowa City area will be averse to the idea of banning any type of literature if it were ever to come up at a state level.
There are around 130 million books throughout the world. They’ve been around for centuries and have always been a part of the learning curriculum. Books provide a way to escape and also have many cognitive benefits for readers. They are meant to be read, not banned.
Megan is a senior at Liberty. This is her third year on staff and she is the editor-in-chief for the 2023-2024 school year. She is involved in theatre,...
Chloe is a senior at Liberty and this is her second year on staff. At Liberty, Chloe is involved in cheerleading and tennis. Outside of school, she enjoys...
