Does wing forbid books?
not. The Wing’s Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) receives reports from libraries, schools, and the media about attempts to ban books in communities across the country. We compile lists of challenged books to inform the public about censorship efforts affecting libraries and schools. the wing condemns censorship and works to ensure free access to information. To learn more about wing’s efforts to raise awareness of censorship and promote reading freedom, explore Banned Books Week.
You are reading: Difference between banned and challenged books
what is the difference between a challenge and a ban?
a challenge is an attempt to remove or restrict materials, based on the objections of an individual or group. a ban is the removal of those materials. challenges do not simply involve one person expressing a point of view; rather, they are an attempt to remove material from the curriculum or the library, thereby restricting access by others. Due to the commitment of librarians, teachers, parents, students, and other concerned citizens, most challenges are unsuccessful, and most materials remain in the school curriculum or library collection.
why are books being questioned?
Books are often questioned with the best of intentions: to protect others, often children, from difficult ideas and information. See featured cases of the first amendment.
Censorship can be subtle, almost imperceptible, as well as blatant and overt, but harmful nonetheless. as john stuart mill wrote about liberty:
If all but one of humanity were of one opinion, and only one person was of the opposite opinion, humanity would be no more justified in silencing that person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing humanity. an opinion was a personal possession of no value except to the owner; if the obstruction in the enjoyment of it were simply a private harm, it would make some difference whether the harm was inflicted only on a few people or on many. but the peculiar evil of silencing the expression of an opinion is that mankind is being robbed; posterity as well as the existing generation; those who dissent from the opinion, even more than those who hold it. if the opinion is correct, they are deprived of the opportunity to exchange the error for the truth; if it is incorrect, they lose what is almost as great a benefit, the clearest perception and the most vivid impression of the truth, produced by their collision with error.
See Also: Be careful about reading health books. You may die of a misprint
— on liberty, john stuart mill
Challenges are often motivated by a desire to protect children from “inappropriate” sexual content or “offensive” language. the following were the top three reasons cited for challenging the materials as reported to the office of intellectual freedom:
- the material was deemed “sexually explicit”
- the material contained “offensive language”
- the material was “not suitable for any age group”
Although this is a laudable motivation, free access to libraries for minors, one interpretation of the library’s bill of rights (the wing’s basic policy on access to information) states that, “librarians and Governing bodies should uphold that parents, and parents alone, have the right and responsibility to restrict their children’s—and only their children’s—access to library resources.” Librarians’ Censorship of Speech constitutionally protected, whether for protection or for any other reason, violates the first amendment.
As Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan, Jr., in Texas v. johnson said most eloquently:
If there is a fundamental principle underlying the First Amendment, it is that the government cannot prohibit the expression of an idea simply because society finds the idea itself offensive or distasteful.
if we are going to continue to protect our first amendment, we would do well to heed these words from noam chomsky:
See Also: 13 Best Communication Books for Stronger Social Skills & Relationships – Lifehack
If we don’t believe in the freedom of expression of people we despise, we don’t believe in it at all.
or these words from supreme court justice william o. douglas (“the one un-american act.” nieman reports, vol. 7, no. 1, January 1953, p. 20):
the restriction of free thought and freedom of expression is the most dangerous of all subversions. it is the un-American act that could most easily defeat us.
who defies the books?
Throughout history, more and different types of people and groups of all faiths than you might at first suppose, who, for all sorts of reasons, have tried, and continue to try, to suppress anything that conflict with or anyone who disagrees with your own beliefs.
In his book Freedom of Speech for Me, But Not for You: How America’s Left and Right Relentlessly Censor Each Other, Nat Hentoff writes that “the desire to suppress can come from any direction.” He quotes Phil Kerby, former editor of the Los Angeles Times, as saying: “Censorship is the strongest impulse of human nature; sex is a weak second.”
Based on challenges by initiator, institution, type, and year, parents question materials more often than any other group.
See Also: Imposter Syndrome: 10 Best Psychology Books to Overcome Self-Doubt