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Laney Smith
Standard Five: Application of Content
Censorship Essay
The topic of censored material is one many English teachers have become all to familiar
with. Books can be questioned and boycotted for a variety reasons. Many of the challenges will
seem small and insignificant compared to the academic gain the book can relay to the classroom.
Literature is often censored due to a lack of understanding of context for the work. However,
with proper education and preparation, teachers can create an extremely effective and memorable
curriculum using censored materials within the English classroom.
The issue of censorship has been prevalent for many years. Pro-censorship individuals
feel that the aim of education should be to raise the level of human conduct and speech, not
degrade it. Schools should teach a high level of honesty, integrity, ethics, consideration for other,
correct language, respect for God, and patriotism for country (Donelson 187). Introducing
literary texts that do not follow these guidelines can cause parents and community members to
request for titles to banned from school curriculum. Objectionable works have had themes
ranging from sex and politics to inappropriate adolescent behavior (Donelson 188). Any work
could be challenged for any reason, making an English teachers job extremely difficult.
The inability of many people to understand the purpose of education has led to censorship
incidents. Education is the free inquiry into humanity and humanitys search for truth, a
free inquiry that can lead the student anywhere, a free inquiry that becomes a life-long
search for his or her own personal view of truth or truths (Donelson 192).
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In a time of acceptance and searching, censorship should not be an issue nearly as prevalent as it
is. As Donelson mentions, the benefit of the questionable texts far outweighs the
shortcomings.
As an educator, selecting books that have been challenged can be a difficult task to
overcome. Norma Klein states, being a censored writer is cause for celebration because it
means that your books are having a social effect, are being taken seriously (Kidd 209). To
bring censored writing into the classroom can provide students a memorable reading experience
as well as open their eyes to subjects from which they had previously been sheltered from. Real
teaching is about growth, and that real growth (especially in a classroom) can be uncomfortable
(Brezicki 18). This material will teach students many more life lessons than could be gained
from a safe curriculum.
To effectively implement challenged books into the classroom, teachers will need to plan
their lessons carefully. In addition to following trends in censorship, teachers should also work
with the school board to implement a formal policy to handle challenged literature and should
inform parents and the public of the questionable titles (Donelson 193). It is also extremely
important to explain to parents why you have chosen a text for your class, and the description of
the benefits gained should offset the crude content of the book. Society and literature need to
embrace all aspects of human nature, dangerous or safe. Literature needs to balance out and
present the side of life we do not want to see (Brezicki 19). Real-world ideas introduced
through text will provide an eye-opening experience for students and will much more effective
than pretending unjust situations simply do not exist.
To tackle censorship head-on, a New York school began to implement a book-banning
unit in their English classrooms. The approaches used and curriculum taught would provide an
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excellent framework for any classroom across the country. The book-banning project seized
controversial texts as ideal pedagogical tools to foster debate, to guide the development of
logical thinking skills and cooperative learning, and to encourage an understanding of human
differences. Texts that teach students about ethnic, racial, and sexual diversity help all of us
grow and understand one another (Maxwell 93). In the unit, high school students read a
controversial novel and then take a pro- or anti-banning stance on the text to debate in front of a
panel of judges. During book discussions, the teachers bring in community resources to provide
a better concept of the hard issue. Psychologists, lawyers, and librarians become guest
speakers to help students grasp the content. Over the past five years the project has taken place,
students have passionately described this unit as one of their most memorable high school
educational experiences (Maxwell 96),
When introduced correctly and taught appropriately, censored materials can create an
inspiring and educational experience in the English classroom. By challenging students to
explore uncomfortable and unfamiliar topics they will become better prepared for their lives after
school. Censored literature reveals the crude underbelly of every beautiful thing in life that we
thought was safe Reality stands all around us, but flat literature shows us only a pretend life
that we already know and are content with, telling us that there is nothing more (Brezicki 19).


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Works Cited
Brezicki, C. (2012). The elephant in the classroom. Phi Deltat Kappan. 93(6). 16-19.
Donelson, K. (1975). Censorship: some issues and problems. Theory into Practice. 14(3). 186-
195.
Kidd, K. (2009). Not Censorship but Selection" Children's Literature in Education, 40(3), 197-
216.
Maxwell, M. Berman, M. (1997). To ban or no to ban: confronting the issue of censorship in the
English class. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy. 41(2). 92-97.