Growing up, I absolutely hated reading because I wasn’t good at it. I saw it as a chore and avoided it at all costs, so I never took into account going to the library and not finding every book I could ever want in there. I was completely unaware of libraries with holes in their expansive collection since some books were deemed “inappropriate” because of the sensitive topics they discussed.

Schools in Arkansas, Iowa, and Idaho are cutting out important AP curriculum in order to remove these topics. It is rare for these classes to be challenged and because of the restrictions on its content, some schools are considering removing these advanced classes as options for everyone.

In Florida, new activists are rising up against a fairly new organization called, “No Left Turn in Education.” The members of this organization argue that they are only against books with slightly sensual details. 

However, individuals in Orange County have proved them wrong by bringing up books with no sexual content that were on their banned list. Most of the books on that list pertain only to race.

These acts of censorship in schools remove works of literature that cover aspects of the world’s history that are most definitely dark and horrific. However without knowledge of these events, how can future generations be expected to avoid them? How can they learn important lessons in life?

Classics such as, “To Kill a Mockingbird,” by Harper Lee and John Steinbeck’s, “Of Mice and Men,” are being challenged and removed from high school curriculums nationwide because the topics they focus on are highly political.

Every school district questions whether these classics are essential to a student’s learning, whether they are ready to read them, and how they are going to react to their contents. Nevertheless, these books teach important life lessons and inform people of what past times were actually like. 

Books that focus on racism and its effects throughout history are often selected as major  topics of debate nationwide. Many books that were written in the 20th century are constantly under fire in public school districts for depicting content that isn’t suitable for every age group, and that the content isn’t acceptable because it wasn’t written for five-year-olds to read. These books were written with middle and high school students in mind, not young children.

Rather than taking away these books from everyone, they should only be taken away from elementary schools. Older kids can comprehend these hard topics and therefore should be able to read these books without restriction to learn the valuable lessons these books provide.

Racism has remained a relevant issue over the years in the United States. That is an undeniable fact and it still corrodes our unity today. It divides people and makes our nation weaker. It is impossible to erase that by just taking away a couple of books.

The first amendment in our constitution states that, “Congress shall make no law… abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press,” Removing books, movies, and tv shows from personal and public collections directly contradicts that right.

Many of these books that are being removed from school shelves also deal with the LGBTQ+ community and gender fluidity. Parents around Houston, Texas are demanding that schools remove books that deal with these topics because their kids are too “impressionable” and will make choices about how they want to identify too early on.

Our government is essentially breaking the laws that they promised to uphold when they give in to these outrageous requests. Many of these books were written by brave authors who sought to bring change around through their writing. They accomplished so much more in a couple hundred pages than our government does in years.

Silencing their voices does nothing good for the United States. Quite frankly, it does more harm than good. It looks like a complex coverup of a long, divided history that is chalk-full of poor choices.

Removing options from public places limits the amount of information someone can get. Students should have the opportunity to learn from these stories and make their own choices based on that.It is a mistake on the US’ part to take these novels away and it’s one that many other countries make as well.

Censorship is powerful and it causes ignorance in people. It is unbelievable to think that it still exists and is a prominent part of many cultures, but that’s the way it is. It won’t stop unless people start getting called out for doing it.