Book Banning

Dear Ms. Berner,

Over the past few years the talk of book banning has come up a lot.  It has also come to my attention that you are planning to ban some books in various 6^th grade classrooms.  Sixth graders at MS 51 shouldn’t have any books banned, by this age they have the maturity and mental ability to make informed choices about what they read.

First of all, books help children get through issues.  In Sherman Alexi’s essay, “Why The Best Kids Books are Written in Blood“ he says “ I don’t write to protect kids…I write…that will help them fight their monsters.”  Alexi has been through a lot in his life.  He is using his prior experiences to write because books used to help him.  Let him teach kids, he has been right where some of them are. Books can change who you are and potentially change your feelings.  This was discovered in a study that showed Harry Potter book readers thought like “wizards”, while Twilight readers thought like “vampires”.  This same theory could work the same way with young adult fiction. If you read something that could potentially alter the way you think, for some it could help change their views on issues. For example, if a child is getting bullied at school and they read a book about someone who got bullied and then stood up for themselves it could influence her to do the same. You shouldn’t ban books for the 6^th graders because kids are grown up and shouldn’t be shadowed and kept “safe” from real world problems that are written about in young adult books such as death, drugs, violence, and bullying.  The book The Absolute Diary of A Part Time Indian, by Sherman Alexi is an autobiography that recaps some issues that the author has had  in his life.  The book mentions drugs, which can be a major concern to some parents. These parents may not want their children to know about these issues, and some children are not comfortable reading about these issues.  We can’t just hide the issue and keep them all safe from real life issues.  These problems are all around, and the children should be able to learn about them by reading about them.   I’m sure that even a few children in our school have had some connection to drugs, and the 6^th graders should know what’s going on, and a good way to learn about them is through books. 

Some argue that books should be banned for various reasons.  I strongly disagree with this.  By banning books, you would be restricting everyone, which just isn’t fair. For example, in Montgomery County, Texas, Katy Creek High School attempted to ban the classic book Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, because one girl and her father were uncomfortable with the premise that in the book they burned the Bible.  That eliminates everyone else’s opportunity to enjoy and read that book. 

Ultimately, my point of view is that at some level, everyone may find some aspect of any given book to be at odds with their point of view and possibly their morals.  If we moved forward to ban all these books, there would potentially be nothing left that was acceptable for anyone to read.  Kids should decide what to read.  Some people think that they have found a way to categorize books.  They believe that books should have a certain age recommendation for readers; in the same way movies are rated.  This presents an issue in the literature world because of the numerous problems it creates.  Some kids may feel self-conscious if they weren’t at grade level and couldn’t comprehend books “recommended” for their age.  On the flip side, if children were reading at higher than their grade level, they could also feel self conscious about how others viewed them.  The bottom line here is you should control what you are reading because when bans are attempted or recommended ages it just always ends where somebody gets hurt or feels deprived of the banned something. If you don’t like it, you shouldn’t read it.

Books shouldn’t be banned, 6^th Graders can deal with difficult issues addressed in young adult books.  They shouldn’t have secrets kept from them or be told what they can/can’t read.  This should be up to them and their families to decide on a case-by-case basis.  There’s always an option to read something else, there’s no need to ruin it for others by attempting to ban something.  I urge you to think long and hard about this because what we read is important, it’s how we learn, and that is what school is about. 

Sincerely,

Jonah Shiffman

Class 811

MS 51