Does anyone believe in free speech for writers?

One would think that the practice of banning books ended a long time ago, but the practice remains strong until this day. Living in the liberal state of New York, I was not affected by this unjust and archaic practice. We read Catcher in the Rye in tenth grade and I wrote my senior thesis on the short stories of J.D. Salinger. The books that appear on the banned books list are the most interesting books that students will read because whatever it is about them that get them banned makes people think and stimulates certain emotions that are not touched by other writings.

What seems ridiculous to me is the types of books that are banned. I can understand banning books, which discuss mature themes that kids may not be ready for, but I can’t fathom why people would ban children’s books. Adults view children’s books from their own gaze, and they see the deeper meaning in them, but this is a mistake because young children are not reading their picture books with that level of scrutiny. For this reason, I find it incredibly shocking that the most contested book from 1990-2001 is the Scary Stories series by Alan Schwartz. These are completely innocuous ghost stories that children have enjoyed since they were released in the early ‘90s. I can not imagine what my life would have been like had I not had Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark; this was the first series that got my brother interested in reading, and that’s saying something. There were no tales of the occult, Satan did not exist in the pages of these books, there was no discussion of the deeper religious meaning about ghosts, and we just understood that they were fun stories to tell around a campfire or at a sleepover, or even just for fun.

Who gives the order to ban a book? What kind of process does it have to undergo to successfully ban a book? In many cases, the first order comes from the PTA or other religious groups, but this seems like an abuse of the small amount of power that they have. In my experience, these groups do not hold very much power, and merely act as a sponsorship organization, putting their names on flyers and working booths at the school carnivals. The power to ban books has to come from somewhere else, like the school board or state legislation. I understand the idea of not teaching certain books, or not buying certain books to feature in the library, but this does not require a ban, this puts it in the parents’ jurisdiction, which is where this decision should lie. While a group such as the PTA is made up of parents, they do not, and should not think that they represent the opinions of all parents.

What kind of world are we living in where teenagers can’t commiserate with the angst of Holden Caufield or can’t experience a great literary achievement such as To Kill a Mockingbird? By banning books, we rob children and teenagers the right to think for themselves and learn about experiences that they are unfamiliar with. What is the point of reading if you are only going to read about the things that you know? What is the point of education then? There is also a movement now to ban the teaching and reading of books that mention anything that has to do with terrorism. Given the circumstances of the times we are living in, we should be teaching children about terrorism so that if they are ever faced with it, which unfortunately is a likely scenario today, they will know what they are up against. Children need to learn about things outside of their comfort zone or they will never be able to be able to grow.

Most of the books on this list are not filth, and many are records of great work in the literary community and help expand the minds of children and encourage their creativity. If books like Harry Potter did not exist, children would not have such a great interest in reading as they do now. This voracity for reading has been absent in young people since the birth of television and video games, and now children have a character who they are heavily invested in, and now book publishers are putting a lot of their efforts toward making sure that children stay interested in reading after the last Potter book comes out. Parent groups complain all the time how children aren’t reading, but when they find something they like, they want to take it away from them, because it is a fantasy and has elements of witchcraft? It doesn’t make sense to me.