Dear Ms.Berner,
As many parents
have been asking you to remove books, you seem to be considering the banning of
certain books in the 6th grade libraries. Although they may seem to be younger, these
books are an important part of their education. By reading YA books, 6th
graders start to be aware of tragic issues that they need to know about. Also, you never know what’s happening in
someone’s life, a YA book could really help him or her through something. “Censorship is the enemy of truth. Even more then a lie. A lie can be exposed, censorship can prevent
us from knowing the difference.” (Bill Moyers)For all of these reasons, no
books should be banned from the 6th grade classrooms, because these
books could be helping some students and in actuality you can’t protect them.
Many children start dealing with heavy subject
in their lives at young ages. So by the
time they’re in middle school, they turn to YA books and reading the endings
gives them hope. “There are millions of
teens who read because they are sad and lonely and enraged. They read because they live in often-terrible
worlds. They read because they believe…
that books- especially the dark and dangerous ones- will save them.” (Why
The Best Kids Books Are Written In Blood).
Reading young adult books can shelter kids in vulnerable positions. You never know what’s happening in someone’s
life, including the 6th graders in MS51. If you can’t believe me when I say young
adult fiction can help these students, Ellen Hopkins, among many other young
adult authors, says that she has met thousands of fans saying how her books
saved her. “She [a girl Hopkins met]
started getting high in middle school, mostly as a way to deal with her
alcoholic mothers absence… But one day, she found my book. She saw herself in those pages, and suddenly
knew she didn’t want to be there… Today she’s been sober two years, is
graduation high school… this wasn’t a rare encounter.” (Banned Books Week 2010: Anti Censorship
Manifesto). Without these YA books
in her class libraries, who knows where she and so many others would be. In young adult fiction, yes-dark subjects are
brought up, but at the end there is always a happy ending where the person struggling
survives. So when the students are
reading about someone in the same situation as them who ends up all right, they
are filled with the thought that there will be a brighter time.
The parents who
are demanding books to be banned think they’re doing it to protect the young
middle school students. But really,
there’s nothing to protect them of. As
stated in, ‘Sick-Lit’? Evidently Young Adult Fiction is too complex For the
Daily Mail, “Illness, depression, sexuality- these are all issues that
teens are going to bump up against in their lives, whether directly or at one
remove, through family members, friends or representations in other media such
as TV, films, and the internet.” I think
that perfectly describes how in practice, taking away these helpful books
really won’t protect anyone. In most
cases, the children in 51 (and most middle schools) either already know about
these issues through media, or have experienced them first hand. Once again there are many people who say how
silly it is, from things that have happened to them. “They wanted to protect me from sex when I
had already been raped. They wanted to
protect me from evil though a future serial killer had already abused me… they
aren’t trying to protect the poor from poverty.
Or victims from rapists. No, they
are simply to protect their privileged notions, of what literature is and
should be. They are trying to protect
privileged children. Or the seemingly
privileged.” (Why The Best Kids Books Are Written In Blood). Kids everywhere (including this school) are
abused. Whether it be physically,
sexually, verbally, it all hurts. Now
when these children say that YA books help them, and for someone to want to
take that away isn’t right. In the United
States alone, everyday around 4 to 7 children die from child abuse. Many terrible things happen all the time and
these issues are taught in YA books. So
by “protecting” them (which isn’t really helpful in the first place) you are
also creating ignorance on important subjects-which is the opposite of
education.
Meghan Cox Gurdon
makes a lot of claims against young adult fiction in her article Darkness
Too Visible. One being that
everything in YA section was incredibly dark.
To this I agree with Maureen Johnson who said, “the idea that ‘darkness’
doesn’t belong in stories makes me wonder if the author of this article
[Gurdon] has ever read any Poe, Dickens, Shakespeare, Hemingway, Tolstoy… or
even the bible.” (Yes, Teen Fiction Can Be Dark- But it Shows Teenagers They
Aren’t Alone). The authors here are
some of the most famous, that have written the most beautiful pieces of
literature ever made. And all of those
books are full of rape, murder and some of the darkest and chilling moments
written. Saying young adult books should
be disregarded because they are dark, is an ignorant point. Another thing that Gurdon said is that these
young adult books should be banned in big measures, not just for a couple
students, but also in entire states. That
is a ridiculous way to think. For a
parent not to want their child to read a book, is completely fine; they are
entitled to choose what they think is best for their own children. But they have no right to decide what is good
or bad for other people. It’s selfish
and unethical. Why would it be up to one
or two people to tell others exactly what they aren’t able to do? If people let others control their books, a
smaller issue like this one could turn into bigger issues. Then we would all be under a type of
dictatorship. It may seem far-fetched
and exaggerated, but so are Meghan Cox Gurdon’s accusations.
To sum up, I feel that there are
many valid points as to why you shouldn’t consider banning books. If a parent is uncomfortable with a book then
all they have to do should be not to allow their son or daughter to read
it. Out of the 1,000 plus students in
51, a handful of parents shouldn’t have the power to restrict powerful
books. The fact that the books they want
to ban are the same that have literally saved lives should be enough. Not only that, but young adult books are
educational and addresses important life topics. Everyone should have the option to read what
they want; even the 6th graders for project R.E.A.L. “Believe
nothing no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said
it, unless it agrees with your own reason and common sense.” (Buddha).
In the cigarette ads from
the 1950’s, most said things that were later proved to be completely
untrue. Presently, these advertisements
would be categorized as “politically incorrect”. The ads said things such as, “Chesterfield is
best for you” and “more doctors smoke camels than any other cigarette.” Both implying that they are good for you, or
that doctors promote smoking- which they always tell people not to do. By saying this, the advertisers wanted
consumers and other people seeing these, to think they wouldn’t harm your
health. Given that these ads were a
little older then when people started going into detail about what smoking
could cause, it still was a lie most advertisers new the truth about. Then there were other advertisements that
would say “blow in her face and she’ll follow you anywhere.” For this, the advertisers were trying to say
that by smoking (around girls), it would make girls more into them. All in all, to sell their cigarettes,
advertisers lied and tried to please different groups.
