by | Gianna DiPasquale
Editor-in-Chief
As books are increasingly challenged and banned in school libraries across the country and the state, more people are starting to see the effects of these motions. Teachers and students alike are noticing the shift in how these bans are changing classrooms.
“I don’t know if it’s directly affected us yet, but what we have to do now more than ever is make parents aware of what we’ll be teaching throughout the year,” English teacher Steven Davidson said.
According to the Houston Chronicle school districts in Texas have banned 625 books across the state. Many of the book bans are coming from parents and organizations, such as Moms for Liberty, who feel that some books that are introduced in schools contain content that is inappropriate.
“The irony for me is this; we’re worrying about banning books but we’re not worried about the fact that students can’t read anymore,” Davidson said.
Teachers are not the only ones recognizing how banning books is having an impact on the way courses are taught. Students are also developing their own opinions on pieces of literature increasingly being removed from schools.
“I think it’s a way to try and control what information is getting out to people, which is kind of against what books are all about,” senior Olivia De Luna said.
With conversations occurring at different levels of government, there is some speculation of how the future will look with limited collections of literary resources for students and teachers to use in different learning environments.
“I think it’s going to force a one-track mindset, and people are going to be less open to new ideas because they’ve been trained to only see things one way,” De Luna said.
As times change the cultural sources change with it, with writing and books being at the core of how new and old ideas are expressed and used to create an image of the world. Many see this as the reason why books should not be prohibited from being in schools.
“It’s important to have diversity in literature because the world’s diverse,” Davidson said. “You just can’t have one viewpoint on anything. You have to have multiple viewpoints.”
