The Real Cost of Censorship: Book Bans Plague Children’s Curriculums
Opinion
Tyler Public Library's Junior reading section. Photo courtesy of Daisy Escatel
By DAISY ESCATEL/ Staff Writer
According to the American Library Association’s 2022 report, the requests for book censorship have reached an all time high. Last year alone, there were a reported 1,269 attempts made to censor books in libraries, which is a 38% increase.
Of those attempts, 2,571 unique titles were targeted, with a vast majority of them written by or about members in the LGBTQIA+ community and people of color. Of those challenged, 41% were focused on public library material and 58% were in school libraries.
This comes at a time when the Texas Senate passed SB 1601, which would defund libraries that allow drag queens read to kids. They also passed SB 12, which bars children from viewing drag shows that were deemed too obscene.
Earlier this month, in Llano County, Texas, a public library debated closing down after a federal judge mandated it to reinstate a dozen books that had previously been banned. Among those books were “They Called Themselves the KKK” and “Caste The Origins of Our Discontents.”
These trends bring up the question of how children’s education will look in the future.
Krystal Montes, from Fort Worth, Texas, shares her experience growing up in the public school system.
“There were of course bans beginning when I was younger; however, many teachers encouraged us to read the banned books to understand what exactly the system was censoring students from, and, most importantly, to try to figure out why,” she said.
As a mother of two, Montes says book bans are bad for the future of children’s education, saying children should be exposed to the full extent of history and learn what it means to be inclusive.
“Without having this broader perspective, children are being forced to move backwards in time to an even more difficult time period — the time period where many people worldwide were being told what to do and how to do it with no rhyme or reason other than because they said so,” Montes said.
Governor Greg Abbott has publicly supported these efforts to ban books. He has said that state education officials must create a statewide standard of prohibiting any books containing pornography and “other obscene content” in Texas public schools.
But according to Montes, children need these books to avoid repeating history.
“I don’t see censorship as protection; I see it as failure to provide necessary resources to build a better future. It perpetuates prejudice and discrimination, limits freedom of intellectual exploration and deprives people the opportunity to learn about different perspectives in the U.S. and worldwide.”