I have had quite a bit of experience with banned books, both professionally and personally. Even though I am not a Librarian, I have had my fair share of disgruntled parents complaining about a couple of the readers and novels that the school sent home. We were studying Pirates, and therefore, many of the complaints were around some books being ‘too violent’ and ‘graphic’ for my Grade 4s. I personally do not have children so I feel I am not in a position to comment, however I was intrigued to dive deeper into this topic and see if the emotional reactions were warranted. My personal experience is a bit more confronting. Not to say that many of the parents really put their foot down and caused a scene, but I literally had my magazine taken off me and yelled at in Saudi Arabia. You see, my parents live in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and little did I know, the Women's Health magazine I was reading on the plane and brought from Johannesburg airport to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia was banned due to the amount of ‘female skin’ shown throughout the book. I consider myself rather silly now that I think about it and my parents definitely were shocked that I didn’t think about throwing the magazine away before I arrived, but one thing is for sure, it was an eye opener into the world of banned books. The banning of books all began in 259-210 BC with the Chinese emperor Shih Huang Ti who buried alive 460 Confucian scholars who wrote about history in his time. In 212 BC he burned all books in his kingdom due to the reasoning that he said history should and can now begin with him (Freedom to read, 2013). Since then, there have been many books banned and burnt on many occasions based on ideas such as political statements, religion, inappropriate themes, science, copycat suicides, war and offensive language. One of the most iconic book burnings was May 10 1933 during the Nazi regime when 25, 000 volumes of books that were considered 'un-German' were burned by German students who were demonstrating for a more unified country and described the 'action' as a response to a worldwide Jewish 'smear campaign' against Germany and an affirmation of traditional German values (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum). The below image shows the book burning memorial which can be found in Bebelpltz, Germany. Book Burning Memorial in Germany image from Flickr. Creative Commons Even though we don’t technically burn books anymore, they are being banned frequently across the world and not surprisingly, based on cultures, religions and adult themes. In America, they have a ‘Banned Book Week’ which puts on display books that have recently been banned in schools around America to promote the feedom to read; however, there was one interesting fact I found out… there are books that have been ‘challenged’ and books that have been ‘banned’ and there is a massive difference. Harry Potter is the most challenged book in schools since 2000, based on the complaint that Harry Potter is Satanic and portrays themes of witchcraft, even Captain Underpants has been challenged quite a few times (Conger, 2015) Anyone can challenge a book, any parent can put in a challenge to the local library, but it needs to be successful and jump through many hoops before it is banned from schools and libraries for good. The American Library Association (ALA) outlines that the main causes for contesting books are:
Furthermore, according to the ALA, parents challenge materials more than any other group. In America, the top 5 books challenged in 2015 were:
The book display below came from a school in America. These books were all challenged in 2014 and this display was erected during 'Banned Books Week' Banned Book Display from Flickr. Creative Commons Even though I am not a librarian, as a classroom teacher I find that I grapple with the ideas of banning books vs advocating against censorship. Personally, I think it is ultimately up to children's parents to be able to control what their children do and do not read; however, if parents are unaware of what they are reading, perhaps it is our duty as educators to protect them from harmful content that may be too advanced for them to comprehend. Brunner (2007) points out and supports teachers and parents by stating that often books are banned in schools with the best intentions at heart – to protect others, frequently children, from difficult ideas and information.
One thing I do feel strongly about is not letting our biases and opinions get in the way. We might have our own ideas about whether of not a book is inappropriate, or appropriate however we need to put these aside when resourcing the school library. What are your thoughts? References American Library Association. (2016). Frequently Challenged Books Brunner, B. (2007). Banned Books Conger, C. (2015). How book banning works Freedom to read. (2013). Banning and Burnings In History United States Memorial Museum. (2016). Holocaust Encyclopedia - Book Burning
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Miss Megan Elizabeth
Australian living in Johannesburg, Primary School Teacher, IT Teacher, World traveller Header Image Used with permission from: Weebly Quick Links Home About Me Blog Roll Digital Curation Feedback Reflection Blogs Dystopian Literature Banning Books Pokemon iPads Shakespeare Minecraft |