Tuesday, March 23, 2010

The Moral Majority

So I've been assigned a issues paper in my English 150 class about something to do with religions in America.

Woohoo.

So I did some research on book banning in public schools. Especially back around 1999, there was a big push by a bunch of religious fundamentalists to ban textbooks or literature in public schools that was offensive to their religious beliefs. Catcher in the Rye was one mentioned often, which made me laugh.

I was thinking about it and I propose that we allow whatever books to be available, maybe even in school libraries. As to which literature is used for public school curriculum, I say the public votes on it. If they don't think the books are appropriate for their children to read, and the majority is with them, then why not? Put it on the shelf but not on the syllabus. I think this would help parents have more control over their childrens education and exposure, while not favoring any one loud minority.

2 comments:

  1. The main argument against that is the freedom of speech, as protected by the Bill of Rights and of which written word is considered, is for the rights of the minority. The Bill of Rights was put forth to fight against any potential "tyranny of the majority."
    For me, the real solution lies in education. It's like when people say that TV, movies, music, and books can tear up the moral foundations of society and the family. When the real problem is actually parents need to teach their children what is right and what is wrong, and what is appropriate for their child to watch/listen to/read. If you have a problem with your kid reading certain materials, talk with your kid. But history tells us that any time we let bureaucracy dictate what is accessible to us, bad things happen.

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  2. This is true. Hitler censored books and so has ever tyrant since the world began.
    It is a tough debate because many children are taught what is good to read and what is not, but then they go to school and learn something different.
    Right now, we are kind of riding on a public consensus (administrators and counselors coordinating with parents) of what is ok to teach in schools but it is still a very volatile issue.

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