Censorship: From Children's Libraries to Hitler?

by Hanna Buehrer

 

          Censorship is a loaded word and indeed a complex issue in our society today. After Christina's explorations project about banned books, the idea wouldn't leave me alone. In addition, my initial reading of The Boy Who Dared by Susan Campbell Bartoletti surprised me in that my mind kept wandering back to that same idea of censorship. While Christina's project focused on children's books that have been banned recently in the United States, and The Boy Who Dared is set in Nazi Germany under Hitler's rule, it seems to me that the connection between the two is something to be studied further.



          I had already been looking forward to Christina's exploration project, as it was a subject I had thought about researching myself. I've always been interested in why and how books are banned. She did a wonderful job showing that even some extremely beloved books have been banned over time. One thing that really surprised me was during the discussion portion of her presentation, she said that she never had and would never “ban” her children from reading any particular book. She feels that books are meant to teach children and that it isn't right to stop them from reading them, as that is a safer form of learning about something than, say, a movie. As someone who is going to be a new parent in the near future, I could not imagine understanding this viewpoint. Children are meant to be protected from things beyond them by their parents. Isn't it the parents' job, then, to screen what their children read and decide whether or not something is appropriate for their age and maturity level? Upon further reflection, I think my idea of protecting my children from inappropriate subject matter and the “censorship” that Christina was talking about are actually two different things. She said she wouldn't outright ban her children from reading something, which is probably a wise approach.



          At the WWU Children's Literature Conference, Susan Campbell Bartoletti mentioned that the fastest way to get a kid to not only read something but to remember it was to ban it. So perhaps a gentler approach is necessary with children- maybe it is a simple matter of steering them towards a book that is more appropriate for their age or maturity level. Once I started thinking about it, I realized that I had flipped through, if not actually read in their entirety, every adult book on my parents' bookshelf that my mom had expressly forbid me from reading. On a very related note, many people in our class mentioned that a book being banned would only want to make them read it more, including Christina. Banning a book only increases our fascination with it. Censorship on this small scale doesn't seem to be very effective.

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          Now let's look at censorship on a larger scale. In our recent reading of The Boy Who Dared, by Susan Campbell Bartoletti. I learned that when Hitler rose to power as the fuhrer of Germany, he began controlling the hearts and minds of the German people seemingly before most of them noticed it was happening. It started with a law making it illegal to criticize Hitler, the Nazis, and the war. Soon, however, Germans weren't even allowed to read books not written by Germans, and what they read had to line up with the beliefs of Hitler and the Nazi party. Books that did not meet this standard were burned, or, as we learn later later in the book, hidden away from the people. In addition, citizens were only allowed to listen to German radio stations, which we find out is feeding them lies. To us, in America decades later, this seems crazy and completely unfair. We have become so used to the idea of freedom and our rights, we can't imagine someone (especially in the government) limiting those rights and freedoms. To burn all books that don't directly line up with the government's agenda? Unthinkable. If censorship at this level occurred, you can be sure that the American people would respond with anger and indignity. Yet Hitler pulled it off without much opposition. How? By working his way to the top and slowly convincing the German people that he was saving their country. He didn't strip their freedoms all at once, he eased into it, starting at schools. His agenda didn't seem so insidious at first glance. He found an opening and he took it.



          So how do these ideas connect? In my opinion, the idea of censoring books here in America is a slippery slope. For example, the picture book “And Tango Makes Three,” which tells the story of two male penguins that adopt a baby penguin, has been banned in many schools and libraries across the country since it was published in 2005. This doesn't seem like a big deal at first glance, but what are the implications? Clearly someone doesn't want children to be exposed to the idea that homosexuality is okay. This is a raging political debate in our country right now. Of course, it wasn't the government directly that passed a law against reading this book in public schools, but it seems to me that it isn't improbable that lawmakers might get involved. In Christina's slide about who requested certain books be banned, politicians made up a small percent compared to parents and teachers. But is it okay that they are part of the discussion at all? It seems to me that it could be easy for politicians to use their power and influence in a negative way here.

          I think the road to being controlled by the government is a gradual one. We need to be careful that we don't let these small things turn into big problems. Can something as simple as banning an “inappropriate” book from schools turn into mass government oppression and control? Maybe not. But on the other hand, where else does it start?



          Censorship in any form, from banning books for kids to burning books that don't directly support a certain agenda, is a dangerous thing. Books, whether we agree with them or not, serve an important purpose in our society. We learn from them, we argue with them, we allow them to seep into our beings and shape our opinions. When I have children, I fully intend to raise intelligent, critical-thinking, discerning human beings who are able to read books that they struggle with in order to learn and grow as individuals. It is important to me, then, that my children have access to every book that they may have interest in, not just ones the government or even some parent group deem worthy and appropriate. Of course I will guide them and steer them away from content they shouldn't be seeing, especially when they are younger, but I will carefully consider what opportunities for discussion and what knowledge could be gained from those books. Let us never forget that we must protect our right to learn and argue and that banning books will surely only lead to ignorance.









Author's note: I relied heavily on your feedback in my edit of this essay. I worked mostly on the introduction and conclusion. In the intro, I tried to fix awkward wording as well as more clearly introduce my purpose. The conclusion took a little more work- I revisited the idea of me as a parent and how I hope to raise my own children, tying it to the subject of censorship and reading as learning. I also worked a bit on the pacing and paragraphing of the body of the essay. I'm please with how it turned out.