Rebecca
silver
808
Dear Ms.
Berner,
“Banning books gives us silence when
we need speech. It closes our ears when we need to listen. It makes us blind
when we need sight” – Stephan Chbosky, children’s book author. In a society of
violence video games, gruesome movies and terrible TV shows, many books have
become an outlet of knowledge to have freedom when choosing what you want. However,
“banned books” have become a concern in the lives of students and parents
everywhere, where no freedom exists. The act of banning books comes from the
concern of many parents and teachers who believe “sophisticated” more advanced
topics such as abuse; addiction and violence are topics that students shouldn’t
be allowed to read. However, the student body believes that children have the
right to read about the challenges the world faces on a daily basis, as to
better understand the world they live in.
Many students and children alike are
denied certain rights that actually benefit them such as to better understand
the horrible challenges each one of us faces such as depression, abuse and
violence. Ignoring these things is denying students the right to knowledge
while isolating them to a world of fantasy. For example in John Greens, The Fault in Our Stars a school in California banned this book because
of cancer and death, however this is something we deal with on a daily basis so
to just ban a book because of the horrible topics it has, doesn’t mean we still
don’t have to deal with them. A book featuring addiction, a topic some teens
can relate too, provides useful information but taking away that book doesn’t take
away that child’s issue it’s just hiding the fact that addictions do exist
Many other banned books include
topics of “damaging” lifestyles including drugs, abuse and sexual situations.
However some teens do face physical and mental abuse each day, they smoke or do
drugs daily, and may have been in some gruesome sexual situations. Books teach
about these things and how to deal with them. If you take away a book that has
to do with drugs from a child, that child that you were preventing for doing
drugs is now more likely to do them because no one was there to teach them the
consequences or the price and aftermath of doing it, such as smoking. Children may
not be able to turn to anyone for help, so books serve us as a guide to help
and inform us about the things everybody else also faces on a daily basis.
Many may believe that banning books
helps a child to become less aware of the world we live in. Even though they
may be happier the world we live in still exists while all the problems in it still
do too. Books dealing with topics that maybe are more advanced, still allows
the child to be aware of what certain people deal with every day and banning
books so children don’t see it doesn’t mean the problems don’t exercise. Even
though some children may not be ready for the harshness and topics in these
books, we the student body still believe that others should get the chance to
experience the world through the eyes of someone else and realize that these
are challenges real people face on a daily basis.
In conclusion, I believe banning
books prevents children from learning and experiencing certain difficulties and
challenges that some of us struggle with on a daily basis. We the student body
believes that taking away a banned book from a child lessens their
understanding of the world around them, while also taking away their right to
learn about certain difficulties. We believe that it is wrong to deny someone
their right to knowledge, while allowing us to better understand the world
around us, concluding that books in MS 51 should no be banned as well as
anywhere else.
Sincerely,
The
student body
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