Monday, October 3, 2011

Banned Books Week

Last week was Banned Books Week, an opportunity for students and adults to practice intellectual freedom.  Here at Jefferson we practiced this by having a bookfair. (Thank you to everyone who made a purchase!)  This week I want to spend a little time thinking about, or actually having you think about, what intellectual freedom means.  Why is it important?  Why have a week dedicated to celebrating the freedom to read?  What does it mean to ban a book?  Who decides?  How does this impact you, the student?  Last week Huffington Post published a few interesting articles.  The first, "Who Decides What Books Teens Read?" discusses the controversies around some titles published for Young Adults.  The other two articles articles are specific lists of banned book, The 11 Most Surprising Banned Books and The Top Ten Banned Books of 2010.  Please take a moment and read these articles. What are your thoughts?  Who should decide which books are right for teens?  Is there a line?  Is there ever a situation in which books should be banned from a school library?  Why or why not?  Are there any books on either of the lists that you would read or have read already?  Consider these questions and post a 5 sentence response on this blog.  Happy Reading!

33 comments:

donut said...

i think you should decide what to read because if you don't like something you won't want to read it because its not what fits you

Anonymous said...

I dont think its fair to tell us what we can and cant read. Some of the books that they've banned isn't right.

Anonymous said...

No they shoud'nt band books because kids who are reading the serries would throw a fuss. If they did band books I would let the kids decide witch books to band.

Anonymous said...

I don't think that any type of books should be banned from the library, cause students should be able to get to read any and all types of books.

Anonymous said...

I don't think anybody should be able to ban books, if they get banned, why were they published? People should take concern about books before they are published. If people decide to read a certain book, they should be able too. I understand banning books from schools for Adult Content, but not ban it from the public.

Anonymous said...

i think its cool and my parents should deside and they should not band book because its fine to have these types of ks in our libraiy

Anonymous said...

i think i should decide which book i read but they should banned the books because reading is stupid.i also think reading can be good because people learn from it

Anonymous said...

Some books should be banned if they are innapropriate. The school board should let in suggestions but never pick the books themselfs.Kids take the word "Banned" as bad or innapropriate to school.Though i think banned books are a good thing .

Anonymous said...

I think parents should decide what is aproprit. They should rate books like movies. Then parents set alimit on what books they can read.

Anonymous said...

i dont thinks books have to be banned form the library.
kids of all grades as in 6th throug 8th should read what ever they feel like reading.
but the library have some intersting books that would you keep you in the book so sure its good.

Anonymous said...

i think people and government should not band books from librarys because its not fair to children and certain parents who enjoy theses certain books because its just not fair
-Romeo

Anonymous said...

No, they shouldn't band any books, because there are many people that love many books and they would wanna keep reading the books... But they won't be able to read those books because they are band... But it all depends on the types of book you are trying to read... !!! '''

Anonymous said...

I think that the libaries should keep all books. Because if one person thinks the book isnt good they dont have to read it. Sometimes people read these kind of books to learn more about the subject. There is reasons why people write those type of books. And people sshould be more mature about things.

Anonymous said...

i think the government should not band books. i think they should not band books because when people read it helps them learn more about different types of things. so thats why i think they should not band books.

Anonymous said...

I think all kids have the right to read books approprate to their ages, but if a book is too old for a kid in a way, then I do believe that that sort of book they should hold off to read, but as for older students, then , yes, they should have the right to read what they want.Only the parents should stop them.

Anonymous said...

I think they should have evry right to read whatever they want as long as they have parent approval or as long as they don't care. As long as it is a library where students are close in age then it's acceptable to read whatever there is in the library. It's not a hard decision.

Anonymous said...

why would people banned a dictionray it every word in the world.all defintions about everything.what r they going to use now!

Anonymous said...

there should never be books banned.

Tyaira :) (its mee) said...

I think people should read what they wont . Why do peple write book , to get other people to read it duhh !!! :)

Anonymous said...

i think people should get to choose what the read it is not right if other peoplpe can tell us what we can and cannot read

Anonymous said...

i think everybody should chose what they read

Anonymous said...

well i think that we should read our own books. i think we should read what ever book we want to read

Anonymous said...

I think that people should be able to read books. If they don't read they won't learn as much as we did when we read the book. If some books are banned there banned but you just had them lose out on so much.

Anonymous said...

i think teens should NOT read banned books because they are banned and its wrong if a teen cannot read banned books also elementry people should not read banned books and finaly high schoolers should read banned books becuz they are mature.

Fish Crackers said...

I believe you shouldn't ban books because people don't have the right to tell me or anyone else what they can and can not read.

Anonymous said...

i think that you should decide what you read. because i mean if you like a book but its not good and its banned then it dosnt leave much to read.

Anonymous said...

I think that books should'nt be banned because maybe some people liked that book.

Anonymous said...

I thing teens should read what they want because if the like it then why cant they read it. They should read what they want and not what other people want then to. People should not tell people what to read they can read anything they want.

Anonymous said...

Don't banned books its not right for the people that want to read them. I mean they can go to the public libary but maybe they might not have a ride to it.

Anonymous said...

i think i should chose what book i read not others

Anonymous said...

I think that its un fair for people to choose. and its not like we dont know about all the stuff..

Anonymous said...

no, i dont think people should band books because, there are interesting storys in some books and its fun to learn about it

Anonymous said...

I think itsunfair the reasons they are banningbooks. Why should it matter what we are children are learning now? We have to be able to know things now for later in life.