A story appeared in The Guardian earlier this week about a rise in the censorship of books available in schools in the US state of Florida.
According to the article, the state’s Education Department has issued a list of in excess of 700 books that were “removed or discontinued” from schools across the state, after changes to a state law last year allowed parents and residents to challenge the content of library books and object to anything they considered to be pornographic or inappropriate.
American classics such as Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain have all been pulled, as well as more contemporary novels by authors such as Margaret Atwood and Stephen King.
Members of the Florida Freedom to Read Project, a group of parents that objects to this level of censorship, said the measures had led to an unprecedented rise in censorship, mostly driven by conservative interest groups, and had limited students’ access to a diverse range of literature. “We believe in a fair, thorough, and public objection process”, they said, “that ensures decisions reflect the needs of each school community – not the broad, district-wide censorship we see today”.
What do we think about this? Is this a necessary and helpful censorship, to ensure our children have an innocent and joyful childhood, or is it an unwelcomed even politically driven restriction that impairs their ability to grow up as rounded individuals?
Read the full article here.