Practicing and preaching free speech

The world without Holden Caulfield, Atticus Finch or Frodo would be an empty place indeed. For those of us who grew up with Harriet the Spy as a partner in crime or Harry Potter as our nightly bedside read, a life of reading without these companions is almost unimaginable.

Banned Books Week, held annually during the last week of September, raises awareness about the ongoing suppression of readers' First Amendment rights because unfortunately, advocates of censorship, especially for children and young adults, are still prevalent.

Advocates of banning books from schools and public libraries say that removing such books from public outlets "protects" students. Their main contention is rooted in the idea that fantasies or offbeat information may contain contaminating falsehoods and sacrilege of classic ideas. If schools and librarians listen to these unfounded fears, libraries will end up providing a limited range of reading material that represents the views of the select few adults running it and fail to adhere to the standards of what a library is: an open forum for the dissemination of any and all information. The view that students should read a limited range of "approved" material runs counter to the fundamental concept of learning. After all, a global education is part of a complete learning experience. Better that students are first exposed to controversial viewpoints through a book found in their library, rather than through rough situations of misunderstanding in the real world.

Local governments that allow public schools and libraries to remove books from their shelves in accordance with their officials' personal sense of morality are not only obstructing the education of their students and readers, but they are also infringing on the authors' and public's First Amendment rights. Freedom of expression, regardless of current societal mores, has been upheld numerous times, most notably in the 1989 case Texas v. Johnson. The basic value of freedom of speech starts in our libraries.

Librarians and teachers should help open their readers' minds, especially those of young student readers in schools. Upholding free speech starts in the place where students learn about the very concept.