Books with artistic and cultural value are still challenged every day by those who want to control what others read. These people that put all their effort to censor books and free expression are unacceptable and unconditional. By censoring school books in libraries, our basic freedoms that are guaranteed in the First Amendment are violated. In other words, to be told what is were allowed to read and what is not is a direct defilement of the First Amendment, which states: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances”(Asato, 287). The quote clearly states that the congress will not take away our freedom of speech.
Perfection! David Wolman, in his article “The Critics Need a Reboot. The Internet Hasn't Led Us Into a New Dark Age.” Mentions “The explosion of knowledge represented by the Internet and abetted by all sorts of digital technologies makes us more productive and gives us the opportunity to become smarter, not dumber.” In today’s world everybody wants to work smarter not harder. Google gives us the ability to save a trip to the local library or by purchasing that textbook on World War II by giving us easy access. Let’s
Whereas reading the local newspaper or reading a classic novel like “The Great Gatsby” by F Scott Fitzgerald would provide a more intellectual purpose. Goldwasser believes that teenagers look up websites that are educational, that is not the case. A lot of time that is spent on the internet is used on social networking sites. Goldwasser also mentions that parents often go to their teenager for help when it comes to modern technology. I would have to agree with her statement but argue that perhaps parents should ask for help on how to use the technology itself.
What’s the point of using books when you have technology to teach children the things that need to be learned? What’s the point of turning a page in a book when you can easily slide your finger across the screen and there the page goes? In this society there are plasma screen televisions that take up the entire wall, if that doesn’t scream high-technology then I don’t know what does. Then there is Captain Beatty who doesn’t believe that books are “good” in this community because they do more harm than help and they don’t even teach you anything except random, useless knowledge. Without books there is no reason for people to question the world that they live in because there is no kind of knowledge that anyone would know about, and nobody could be more knowledgeable than another.
Education is the key to success and through the 1900s children younger than six years of age learned to read which helps you write and understand proper grammar even with the Great Depression going on, children still gave their all in learning. Looking between era’s life has completely changed; children would not be out and about but would stay home and read novels which gave them understanding and knowledge. Now in our society the internet is basically our knowledge, many youngsters do not care for but if they need a source of information they just need to click on their computers and find the answer instead of retrieving information from a book. Why Lee would hold these views of literacy in the 21st century is because humanity has evolved in such a quick time, but as people we have not grown as we are supposed to. “[We live] in an abundant society where people have laptops, cell phones iPods and minds like empty rooms” by far this quote really does describe our society because we get everything we want yet we cannot grasp how to use proper literacy.
Why or why not? 2. Public schools would be targets of censorship for playing the racist lyrics of Eminem or religious music of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir in the cafeteria. Should books be any different? Explain.
Websites such as Wiki, Google, and YouTube have made it very easy to obtain knowledge on just about any subject in seconds. For instance, the other day I need to learn how to fix drywall, so I watched a video on YouTube and saved myself $300. A popular argument is that people with smartphones don’t remember important facts because we rely on these websites to give us the answers. However, according to a study conducted by Edgar Dale we tend to remember 10% of what we read, 20% of what we hear, 30% of what we see, 50% of what we hear and see, 70% of what we say, and 90% of what we say and do. This says that by watching a video on a subject and discussing it with others will increase the amount of information we retain.
He continues his claim that the works of well-known authors such as Shakespeare and Hemingway should be banned from American Culture. Tony Alamo’s belief to use censorship as a shield and tool to protect young minds from disintegrating exhibits narrow-mindedness. The first reason Tony Alamo exhibits narrow-mindedness because he states, “Children and young adults in their innocence, often cannot distinguish between good, morally upright concepts and morally unjustified, wrong perverted ideas” (Alamo). What Mr. Alamo is implying is that children and young individuals are not intelligent and can’t make a distinction between good and bad choices. Mr. Alamo needs to understand that children’s brains are like sponges soaking up water.
Censorship is strictly review by an authority of any material before publication or dissemination, with legal right to prevent, alter, or delay its appearance. Censorship for authors is that they have to face what people believe that certain of their books contains material that is objectionable on political, moral, or religious grounds and should be banned from classrooms in order to protect their children from exposures to allegedly harmful ideas. Most school boards have responded by physically removing books that are written by some author from school library shelves (“Censorship”). J.K. Rowling is well-known for her book, Harry Potter, which has been censor and banned by school libraries. As a child, Rowling enjoyed reading and writing about fantasy stories to her little sister.
No books should ever be banned because for each book that is banned, there possibly could be one life lesson that will not be learned by the next generation. Censorship of books in schools and libraries is wrong for it limits what students can potentially learn. Books such as To Kill a Mocking Bird, Of Mice and Men, and others teach valuable life lessons, which is why they are considered classics. Books such as these are being banned for they have questionable material. In the same book introduction as the opening quote, Judy Blume wrote, “Those who were most active in trying to ban books cam from the ‘religious right’ but the impulse to censor spread like a contagious disease.