Banned books essay

             Have you ever wanted to read a book or watch a movie that was being banned by your school or community? This type of banning goes on quite often, more often than you might think. The book The Perks Of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky is a challenged and commonly banned book. Some people believe that is should be banned and others feel the opposite.  This novel features actions and topics that some people may consider inappropriate, but overall there are big overlapping lessons in this novel that are valuable to all of its readers and may be used for the remainder of their lives.

            There are many positive outcomes to reading banned or challenged books independently or in school.  Banned books often feature questionable or explicit content.  For example, in the novel The Perks of Being a Wallflower there are many examples of drug use, sex, and gay bashing. This content can be seen by some as provoking younger audiences to experiment with inappropriate activities, but many people are taking a different perspective on the substance in the novel and think that this exposure can teach readers valuable life lessons.  In her article “Darkness to Visible”, Amanda Harper states, “Books with questionable content provide teachable moments for readers and their families.” Not only can this book teach lessons to teenagers, it can provide cause and effect to the characters actions.  For example, the main character Charlie in the book takes LSD, a powerful hallucinogenic drug.  The book doesn’t glorify using drugs, but rather provides insight into the terrible effect these drugs can have on people who take them. So by reading this novel teenagers are provided with important lessons about growing up, a much better use of these so called questionable novels than keeping them on the do not read list.

            On the other hand, many people may not want their teenage children to be reading novels like The Perks of a Wallflower because they feel the content could convince developing and curious minds to practice certain inappropriate things.  For example, they see the main character doing drugs such as smoking, and will want to test it out for themselves.  The strong and mature themes that are presented in novels such as these can be seen as providing negative models and examples to teenagers who are easily influenced and possible willing participants.   This is reflected in the article “Can Book Censorship Save Children and Their Innocence” by Jake Rich who states, “Some people may not be comfortable with the idea of a book containing such subject matter being readily available to middle schoolers.” The content may bring up touchy subjects that the readers’ parents might not want their kids to yet explore.  They feel that their child will emulate the actions of the characters in the book.

            Even though some parents may not want kids to be reading banned books, there is a much greater benefit to letting teens read novels like Perks of Being a Wallflower.  These novels provide teens a great example of a person of similar age going through problems that many young people face in that period of their life.  These problems can be anything from bullying to friendship. Reading books with topics that are prevalent in their lives and those around them can be a great learning experience for kids growing up.  A novel such as this can also teach teens how to deal with social problems in their lives and help other kids manage these problems.  For example, a novel that describes bullying and the experiences of the victims will provide the reader insight on how it feels to have this happen to you.  This will discourage the reader to participate in such negative activities.

            The benefits to reading banned books far outweighs the negatives of reading them.  There are many lessons that kids can learn from a novel like The Perks of Being a Wallflower like how to deal with social issues in their lives.  If a teen is prevented from reading this type of content they may never learn how to better handle the social problems mentioned when it occurs to them or to their friends.

Works Cited

-Chbosky, Stephen.  The Perks of Being a Wallflower. New York. Gallery Books, 1999

-Gurdon, Meghan Cox. "Darkness Too Visible." WSJ. Wall Street Journal, 4 June 2011. Web. 17 Dec. 2014.

-Rich, Jake. "Can Book Censorship save Our Children and Their Innocence?" Highlander RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Dec. 2014.

Interview:

1: “Why did you decide to become a teacher of the deaf?”

            I decided to become a teacher of the deaf because I have always been fascinated with sign language and spent lots of time as a child with a deaf friend.  This later sparked an interest in teaching deaf kids as a career.

2: “What kind of education did you need to get to become a teacher of the deaf?”

           

            I have a Masters of Arts degree in education, specifically related to deafness from Teachers College, Columbia University.

3: “Do you enjoy your job as a teacher of the deaf?”

            Yes, even with some of the stress related, it is always a very fulfilling experience.

4: “If there were one thing to change about this job what would it be?”

            I enjoy my job very much, but one thing that I would change would be to have more time available during work hours to fulfill all my responsibilities.

5: “How do you change the world, even in a small way?”

            I work with deaf and hard of hearing children regularly, providing them assistance in mainstream hearing classrooms.  In doing so, the children that I work with are able to hopefully grow as learners and be successful in the classroom and in their future.  I am also fortunate enough to work with the same children for many years, so I can track their growth over a number of years.  It’s always very fulfilling to witness the development of the children I have worked with.

Independent reading book response:

           

            In my independent reading book, Hostage 3, the focus and issue is on Somali pirates, and tells a story of a luxury yacht being hijacked by a group of money hungry pirates.  These kinds of attacks happen very often and are a pretty big issue

that is constantly happening everywhere off the Somali coast.

            The pirates often pillage a large boat in search for any valuables and money that they may be able to bring back to their town or villages where money is greatly needed.  They also take the passengers and crew of the boat hostage in hopes that they will receive a large chunk of ransom money from anyone willing to pay it.  The pirates could get anywhere from $1,000,000 to $10,000,000 dollars depending on how many hostages they are keeping.  If the money is not received in a certain period of time the pirates will often kill or threaten to kill the hostages in front of anyone trying to capture them, such as the U.S Navy, which patrols the water east of Somalia.

            This book however sheds some light on the pirates and what they are facing back at home.  The pirates and their family are usually poor and famine struck people that cannot use or accomplish the things anyone in a western country could.  They usually have almost no food to feed their family and have no means o getting medicine to treat and care for their loved ones.  Piracy is the only way lots of these Somali people can be able to get what they need.  They often target ships or yachts that are big and luxury to be able to maximize on their stolen items.  This book defiantly tells the reader a different side of Somali piracy that other more closed minded people wouldn’t have thought before

           

Something flawed about our society:           

            I think that there are many huge flaws in high school application process in New York City and that the whole process puts unnecessary stress on parent and kids that are applying to high schools.

                    I think one of the huge flaws in the process is that there are certain high

schools that only kids in a certain district in Manhattan can apply to and have a good chance of acceptance. For example Eleanor Roosevelt high school is zoned specifically to district 2, which almost guarantees that if you live anywhere else you will not get accepted.  This pretty much means all of the rich kids who live in the upper east side of the city have better and more schools to apply to then kids in any other part of the city, even if those kids are smarter then the kids in district 2. This is one of the biggest flaws in the high school application process.

            Another flaw in the system is that you can’t get accepted into all of the schools that you apply to and that you are eligible to be accepted to.  For example why cant I get into Beacon and Bard and then choose between the two of them instead of just being able to get into one school on your list.  This would relieve the stress off many kids and parents because you could apply to as many schools as you want and get into as many of them accept you, similarly to how a college application works.  This would be the greatest fix to a generally flawed application process in New York City.