You can't say that

Censorship from the Right and Censorship from the Left both introduced me to ideas that I really didn't know that much about. I didn't really understand what people hoped to achieve by censoring certain material and not allowing students to be exposed to different ideas that were deemed dangerous. The Right believes that, "children will be shaped by what they read and will model their behavior on what they read" while the Left believes that they can create a Utopian society by limiting what children read. My main problem with these views is that where did the first idea of violence come from? Many original ideas come from a person's mind and aren't always influenced by what they read or see. Sometimes it's just their own imagination and how can you censor some one's imagination?
These readings reminded me of a book I read in high school titled "Fahrenheit 451" which described a world where the firefighters set fires instead of putting them out. The main idea in this book was a certain group of people deemed what books were acceptable to be read and all other books were to be burnt but no one knew why these books were deemed dangerous. Everyone just followed the directions they were given with out questions until the protagonist becomes curious and begins to read one of the books that were labeled dangerous. I don't remember most of the details but the point is that the books that were seen as dangerous were books that expressed ideas that the people in power did not agree with and this was the only reason they were burnt. This way of life doesn't leave room for someone to think for them self and creates a population with only one way of thinking that are controllable.

The solution that I can suggest to deal with the type of information students are being exposed to and censorship is to allow teachers to teach what they view as important to their class. Allow open class discussions by ensuring a safe and accepting atmosphere. Fully explain the topic and allow students to question or argue with the ideals. By banning books and not allowing certain material to be taught this only makes the students want to seek out this information even more. There is no guarantee that the student will understand what they are reading if someone isn't there to help them. For example, on page 81 in Censorship from the Left it says, "Twain's use of the word nigger will ensure that Huckleberry Finn remains controversial long into the future." If we attempt to erase this word in a few decades we will forget it ever existed and with it will go the history of slavery. When we try to erase or forget things it increases the possibility of repeating the same mistakes but if we explain these events and show why they should never occur again it helps our future.

This link breaks down censorship, the First Amendment, and how it effects teachers, their teaching styles, and the students. It defines things such as age appropriate, roles, and responsibilities. It ties into my suggestion of what we can do about censorship and how we can ensure that students are appropriately exposed to different ideas.
http://www.ncac.org/education/schools/