Censorship in public schools

Submitted by: Theo

The following essays, term papers and book reports should be viewed only as examples. You can't use them as material for school and university works!

In almost every case, the effort to ban books is said to be "justified by fear of the harmful effects that the books may have on young children" (Berger 59)The result of these censorship attempts has been two opposing sides: one side believes that "more suitable materials can usually be found from among the wealth of materials available on most subjects (Woods 1), and the other side believes that students' "intellectual freedom" can be upheld only if students are allowed to examine "any available relevant materials in order to gain the insights needed to reach their own conclusions" (Woods 1)In the simplest terms, the debate is between censorship and the freedom to read. The most important question when discussing censorship deals with its constitutionality; does censorship violate the First Amendment's guarantee of free speech? Censorship advocates actually use the words of the First Amendment to make their point; "the amendment reads, 'Congress shall make no law...", it does not say, "There shall be no law...'" (Berger 69)They believe that, although the federal government is forbidden to censor, it is not unconstitutional for states and local communities to pass censorship laws (Berger 69)Also, since the US Supreme Court does not believe the First Amendment protects all forms of expression (child pornography, etc.), then proponents of censorship believe that censorship laws are constitutional (Berger 69)Anti-censorship has the upper-hand, constitutionally, at least, since "judges, from local courts to the Supreme Court, seem firmly on the anti-censorship side" (Berger 61)