Title: Banned Books - Top 3 Pros and Cons - ProCon.org
Headings: Banned Books – Top 3 Pros and Cons
Banned Books – Top 3 Pros and Cons
Should parents or other adults be able to ban books from schools and libraries?
Pro 1
Parents have the right to decide what material their children are exposed to and when.
Pro 2
Children should not be exposed to sex, violence, drug use, or other inappropriate topics in school or public libraries.
Pro 3
Keeping books with inappropriate content out of libraries protects kids, but doesn't stop people from reading those books or prevent authors from writing them.
Con 1
Parents may control what their own children read, but don't have a right to restrict what books are available to other people.
Con 2
Many frequently challenged books help people get a better idea of the world and their place in it.
Con 3
Books are a portal to different life experiences and reading encourages empathy and social-emotional development.
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Content: For better or for worse, these books are still widely available. Your local community has simply decided that finite public resources are not going to be spent disseminating them,” Weekly Standard writer and school board member Mark Hemingway stated. [ 18]
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Con 1
Parents may control what their own children read, but don't have a right to restrict what books are available to other people. Parents who don’t like specific books can have their kids “opt out” of an assignment without infringing on the rights of others. The National Coalition against Censorship explained that “Even books or materials that many find ‘objectionable’ may have educational value, and the decision about what to use in the classroom should be based on professional judgments and standards, not individual preferences.” [ 6] In the 1982 Supreme Court ruling on Board of Education v. Pico, Justice Brennan wrote that taking books off of library shelves could violate students’ First Amendment rights, adding that “Local school boards may not remove books from school libraries simply because they dislike the ideas contained in those books.” [ 21]
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Con 2
Many frequently challenged books help people get a better idea of the world and their place in it. Robie H. Harris, author of frequently challenged children’s books including It’s Perfectly Normal: Changing Bodies, Growing up, Sex, and Sexual Health, stated, “I think these books look at the topics, the concerns, the worry, the fascination that kids have today… It’s the world in which they’re living.” [ 8] Many books that have long been considered to be required reading to become educated about literature and American history are frequently challenged, such as: