The United States Department of Education is trying to hide information from you. They are trying to censor your learning and limit your capacity for free thoughts. How are they doing this? By banning books.

The concept of banning books in the U.S. is not new. For over 50 years, there have been arguments to restrict content and remove literature from schools and libraries. This concept is extremely dangerous to both our democracy and the future of our society.

Officials who urge you that there is a need to ban books say, “we need to protect our children from vulgar and violent speech.” What they fail to mention is that oftentimes censorship is driven by political agendas and hate.

When looking at data from the American Library Association (ALA) and PEN America, I found that books are challenged on the premise of a few specific topics: racial themes, religious objections, sexual orientation, and explicit language.

In the 70s, they banned books like The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger due to obscene language, defamatory statements to God, and accusations of being “anti-white”. Today, they banned e The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas, stating it promotes anti-police rhetoric, then blame  it on explicit sexual content.
            While these books undoubtedly deal with sensitive topics, to ban them is to limit generations from learning. Within the subject matter, there are themes and ideas to be explored. Reading these books helps students grow as people in a world where they inevitably face information which is sometimes difficult to process.

According to PEN America, the end of 2023 was met with a “surge” of book bans, especially in Florida and Texas. Their report details there were “4,349 instances of book bans across 23 states and 52 public school districts.”

This issue plagues each and every one of our lives. We cannot allow censorship of ideas in a country where our First Amendment rights give us the freedom of expression. It is a fundamental human right.

If school boards let their own ideologists limit students from learning about topics they see as unfit, they are doing a great injustice to the youth of our nation. We must allow our children to read about possibly unfavorable information and learn to make their own judgements.

In the United States court system exists a precedent– the Marketplace of Ideas. This  theory describes the free exchange of ideas and beliefs in society. In a democracy, the Marketplace of Ideas is essential. Everyone has the right to express their thoughts and opinions, even if harmful or untrue. The truth will always prevail when people are able to express their thoughts without censorship.

By banning books, we take away this right. We take away the ability for individuals, even school children, to think on their own; to come to their own conclusions.  If representatives in our country want to control the minds of the people, the best way to do so is by picking and choosing the content that they learn in school.

I say this as a citizen, as a student, and as a human being. Banning literature is only harmful to our society. You must let people learn with no limitations. You must let them explore the difficult topics and come out a more realized person.

Stop banning our books and give our democracy a chance.