Emily's presentation- book banning

The presentations on Thursday addressed topics that I hadn’t thought about before. Hopefully, one day I will be an English teacher, so the presentation on banned books was of particular interest to me. (Though I came in late, sorry Emily!, I did catch most of it!) To see all messages about burning books was interesting. There are two sides of the issue, therefore, two extremes, but I personally think there needs to be some middle ground here. Like Emily pointed out, somebody will always be offended by everything we give our students to read. If it’s not a racial issue, it’s a stereotype issue. If it’s not swear words, it’s sexual or violent content. I think, depending on the age of the students, there are certain things in books that can be overlooked if there is a more important message to be learned by reading it. The timing, kairos, of when students read controversial books can be incredibly important. For example, if the student body of a school is exhibiting extremely racist or violent behaviors, what better time to introduce a book that promotes tolerance and cooperation? If there happens to be cussing in it, well, at least the students will be paying attention…. While parents may throw a fit because their baby is being exposed to the “s-word”, there are certain ways to defend a book’s merit. By pointing out an author’s past awards or showing messages that are repeated in their previous books, teachers can highlight an author’s ethos and at least attempt to convince the parents that the students will be reading something with value in it. While not all books should be used in the classroom, those that are mildly offensive but have an important valuable ideology underneath the surface should remain on the shelves. As for the burning of books, what message is this sending our children? What purpose is there in destroying property. Instead, couldn’t these book burners adopt a deliberative rhetorical stance and propose something better to read? To criticize something but not show us how to move forward will lead to nothing but a lot of smoke being let off.