Censorship in American Education and American Culture

[10sthai]

www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/06/teen-slam-poetry_n_6422878.html?ncid=edlinkushpmg00000030


This powerful slam poem has a lot of important messages weaved into it; it was difficult not to want to comment on everything that was said. However I think the most important message that these girls touched upon was the prevalence of censorship in American education. “Censorship” has taken many forms over the years. Throughout our educational history, states have literally banned a plethora of books and lesson plans from being taught, simply because individual authorities disagreed with the content. Inversely, some states get away with teaching certain content through a purely subjective filter, denying students of valuable and objective information they might need to form their own personal opinions about the world.


However the most notable form of censorship, as the poem shows, is not what is or isn’t taught in school, but rather the universal denial to address the indignities, the pain, the struggles, the stigmas, the humanity that our country was founded on, and still thrives in. In school and out of school, there is no denying that America is skilled at keeping quiet about it’s issues. Expressing oneself in this country sometimes feels like walking on eggshells. It is taboo to drink or do drugs, it is taboo to engage in or even talk about sex (no matter what age you are), it is taboo to admit to any type of emotional struggle, let alone mental illness (in case you didn’t know, 1 in 5 Americans suffer from mental illness). It is taboo to make accusatory comments about the patriarchy AND feminism, and it is even taboo to comment on socio-economic divides, and religious differences. Most disturbing is our inability to address the issue of race—something that affects us now, and will indelibly affect America until it’s extinction. One of the most obvious moments of this was in the week during the Mike Brown/Eric Garner cases were announced. The night that the Mike Brown non-indictment was broadcasted, my Facebook feed blew up with passionate posts about students’ extreme outrage at the jury’s decision. Kids were up until 3 in the morning, watching the tv to hear more news and to communicate with people about their feelings. But the next day, and the next few weeks, I was disgusted to see that barely any of my teachers diverted from the lesson plan to discuss what had happened. Some teachers mentioned it off hand and went back to their work. Others pretended like it didn’t even happen.


What I see in this, is that we are living in an epidemic of fear of our own failures. We are raising our children to care about consumerism, popularity, and success instead of educating students about the serious issues that they deserve to understand and to have opinions about. How can we try to be good citizens of the country if our budding generations don’t even understand the country to begin with? Education is meant to offer students the world—and then let them interpret it however they choose. Instead, education has always given us the abridged version, cutting out the pieces that America is too ashamed to admit to. The more we silence our generations of students, the more we are silencing our generations of adults; if we continue to keep students ignorant, we are only sentencing our country to ignorance. I believe that everyone should be able to assert their minds regardless of how it makes them, or the country, seem. Next time that you feel you are being silenced, ask yourself, “WHY am I being shamed for being comfortable with my sexuality?” “WHY am I being shamed for admitting that I have emotional struggles?” “WHY am I being shamed for making important assertions about white supremacy?” “WHY am I being shamed for admitting the truth?” Ask yourself this, and then keeping on talking anyway.

[10kolivia]

I agree wholeheartedly with your argument and the sentiments of the girls in the video. Presently, there seems to be some sort of selective amnesia regarding our nation's history. We like to emphasize our more admirable qualities: Our Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, the right to free speech. Yes, it is true that we are currently a "free country", but we also kept an entire race of people in bondage for 245 years. Yes, we were industrial and capitalistic pioneers, but we also wiped out nearly all of the indigenous Native American population, just for the sake of economic expansion. These occurrences are unfortunate aspects of our history that people don't want to discuss. It's easier to forget than it is to remember, so we sweep racism and sexism under the rug for fear that talking about might damage our reputation and illuminate our flaws. Better to call America the “land of the free and the home of the brave” than “the land built on slavery and war” right? Telling our kids the truth might lead them to be free thinkers, and that would really be dangerous!

The reality is, if we don’t talk about these issues, they’ll never go away. If we don’t deal with the fact that women make 70 cents for every dollar a man makes, women will continued to be paid less than men for the same exact job. If we don’t stop treating mental illnesses like a “phase” rather than an actual condition, those suffering will never receive the care and empathy that they need. In my opinion our nation needs to wake up. Stop spending your afternoons at the mall, pick up a book instead and educate yourself about the past, about the mistakes we’ve made. It should never be considered inappropriate to talk about oppression and injustice in our country. We have to take responsibility for our past and see how those mistakes continue to impact our decisions and as a people. 

[10cjisoo]

I definitely agree with the idea of censorship bringing us more harm than good. I never understood how parents and teachers believe that by not allowing students to look at certain material, it is protecting us. We are exposed to things far worse than books like "Catcher in the Rye". Apparently this book was banned because Holden, the protagonist, uses God’s name in vain and uses foul language. He also says statements against minorities, women, and the disabled. Do we not see constant acts of discrimination and violence on TV? Or disputes over topics feminism and racism on social media constantly? Hiding problems such as these can result in students not knowing problems like these ever existed. If we don't know about these problems, how will we ever fix them? Censorship has become a way to hide the imperfections of America, rather than protecting kids. Did you know that some southern states used to avoid the topic of slavery all together in their history textbooks? Children are growing up with a false idea of how America was formed, and are oblivious to the fact that millions of people were tortured and worked to death to get them where they are. It is unbelievable how angry it makes me to know this.

The public education system doesn't seem to teach us any of the important lessons in our classrooms. Real life problems such as rape, violence, and discrimination, We can find the area of a triangle, but can't express our fears and issues. We know how to find the acceleration of a boy pushing block, but don't know how to defend ourselves when we are being bullied because of our physical appearance. We learn of countless wars that happened all around the world 300 years ago, but don't learn about the ISIS terrorist attacks happening right now. Students are growing up fearing failure, and learning to keep their mouths shut if something is wrong. Because we don't know of the serious issues going on in the world, we don't know how to fix them. We need to educate our kids to express themselves and find solutions to problems around them. We need to learn that fearing failure and living in silence will not do anything to benefit ourselves, or society. To me, it seems obvious that we must learn how to deal with the issues going on, so we know how to fix them and avoid causing more in the future. We need to limit censorship, and focus on embracing our mistakes and learning to fix them.