Course

N/A

Document Type

Student Paper

Publication Date

Spring 2022

Disciplines

American Politics | Constitutional Law | English Language and Literature | First Amendment | Law and Society

Description, Abstract, or Artist's Statement

Literature, specifically in the form of novels, has been a vital organ of the public education system within the United States. Not only does reading such works transform us into better close readers and strengthen our vocabulary, but the texts at hand can be very essential to analyze specific contexts or issues that might have existed either throughout history or even in the present day. In today’s country, the issue of banning certain books from school curricula has become as prevalent as ever, where mostly Southern Republican officials are calling for lists of books to be restricted from teaching due to controversies in their language, violence, and sexuality. This essay aims to reject such actions of banning and suppression on ethical political grounds while emphasizing the immense educational value controversial texts have in facilitating students’ developments during their adolescence. Through historical legal precedent, the importance of literature on the identity of certain sects of individuals, and previous research data on the relationship between challenged books and citizenship, this paper opposes the ongoing suppression of texts in school curricula.