According to an article from Education Week, by the end of 2022 the number of banned books will have surpassed the record set in 2021. This crack down on literature that considers topics of race, gender, and sexuality echoes other political trends banning the teaching of Critical Race Theory and Florida's “Don't Say Gay” bill. The recent increase in book bans begs the question of why conservative politicians are pushing for banning books and what the ramifications of politicizing schools will be. “Parents, activists, school board officials and lawmakers around the country are challenging books at a pace not seen in decades,” reports the New York Times.
Book banning is currently the most widespread form of censorship in the United States. About 1,648 unique books were banned from public schools between June of 2021 and June of 2022. Of these books, 40% dealt with people of color, 41% dealt with LGBTQ+ themes, 21% dealt with issues of racism and race, 10% dealt with themes of activism and human rights, and 22% included sexual content. Books containing stories of religious minorities were also banned. Parents tend to think they are protecting their kids from unsavory content, but rather than teaching children to reason through controversial topics and aspects of life objectively, this may be teaching them not to talk or think about them at all. Is this the kind of rationale education systems want to foster in their students?
The push behind banning Critical Race Theory (CRT) books seems to be rooted in the misconception that it cultivates a feeling or perception of hate toward white people, which is neither the goal nor intent of the theory. Rather, it serves to denote the racism embedded in governmental, educational, and judicial systems, not necessarily the people, and to provide an accurate and holistic portrait of history that is not the biased, idealized version. Sadly, some citizens cannot separate their person from the system, and this leads them to take personal offense and see this as an attack on patriotism.
Recently, I took a Legal Studies course and we had an attorney as our guest speaker. He mentioned how he was the chair of the school board in St. Joseph County. A petition to ban 12 books, including classics like “The Kite Runner” and “Slaughterhouse-Five,” due to explicit sexual content. The school board members were accused of being porn pushers. He mentioned a great point: that students all have smart phones with access to a lot worse content at the click of a button than what can be found in these books. If pornographic content is what the kids are looking for, they aren’t going to read through 172 pages to do it. Expelling important true stories and biographies doesn’t protect students from the negative but prevalent aspects of life.
While I do believe school is an institution that should primarily focus on academics, I believe education should extend beyond math and science. Authentic stories of people's personal experiences, the nitty gritty of history, and current societal issues are topics that should be discussed in school so that students can foster a diverse and holistic perspective of life and what it means to be educated. However, I think there should be a difference between what I as a college student should be allowed to learn (being that I am an adult), and what children should be allowed to consume in terms of explicit, non-academic material without parental consent. Striking a balance between ensuring parents feel safe sending their children to school but ensuring students are getting the fullness of what education ought to be is tough—but checking personal biases and making sure they are not the driving force behind our advocacy for or against book bans is a great way to start.
The Student Movement is the official student newspaper of Andrews University. Opinions expressed in the Student Movement are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors, Andrews University or the Seventh-day Adventist church.