Paper #3

            An intelligent society is a successful society. It is well known that educated nation states have thrived more than uneducated ones. This being proven by Japan, China, the UK, and the United States. Kids are encouraged to go to school, if they go to school and are taught censored material; they are then encouraged to be ignorant of things around them. We live in a democratic country, not an authoritarian regime. Therefore no one is fit to decide what students should not be “allowed” to learn about. History has been known to repeat itself, and when societies have hid information, they have been considered dictatorial. Curtis Acosta from the “Arizona Bans Mexican American Studies Program” article was quoted saying “[These actions show] students that lack of evidence, am ideological agenda, and political motivation supersede students’ academic growth, identity, hope, and belief in a whole world.” This is what will happen if curriculums are censored. It is understandable that some parents may not want their students learning about certain subjects, and they have the option to let their students opt out, but they should be given the opportunity to learn. Schools must not be allowed to censor content. If we hide information from our kids, we encourage ignorance, and to encourage ignorance is to damn our society into the ground.

            Ignorance is not known as a respected trait. Undoubtedly as a whole, our society does not wish to be ignorant. In history, a society who fears intelligence has not turned out well to say in the least. Intelligence cannot be feared. Even if desired, it would never work, for the few intelligent beings out there would recognize this travesty of denying a right to intelligence and overthrow those who wish to keep it down. Why would a society want their future offspring to be uninformed? If students are sheltered and censored from topics, they will be like a dear in headlights when thrown into an intense, real-world situation, and will be unable to thrive in a difficult or uncomfortable situation due to a lack of experience. A true intelligence is not what a society deems appropriate and necessary for one to learn, a true intelligence takes on questions such as: “Is there a God? Why? What else is out there? Are these people truly correct in ruling me?” Without these questions being asked, scholars are no longer scholars, they are then mindless zombies. If censorship is encouraged, these questions will not be asked; these thoughts will not be thought; and our society as a whole will condemn into a mass of unintelligent, uninformed, unaware cave people.

            Hypothetically, if a society chose to conserve ideas from people, who would decide what is fit to be taught? No one would be fit to due to the fact that society, culture, science, beliefs, religion etc., are always changing. It is a key fundamental flaw in the issue of conserving knowledge. No one is fit to choose the things that someone is allowed or not allowed to learn. In addition to this, conservation of knowledge at all is seen as morally wrong. Secrecy is not the way to educate children. How can they be expected to want to know answers when they are told that there are certain answers that they should not know, and certain questions that they should not ask simply because their teacher says so. W. Bernard Lukenbill is quoted saying:

“Censorship of school library collections has risen significantly in the last few decades, and such attacks are increasing.”

It is no coincidence that he uses the word ‘attack’. It is an attack; an attack on intelligence, and an attack on the youth. There are no subjects that are defined as “correct” and therefore there is no place to decide what should not be taught. It is contradictory against everything that the public education system stands for, and when systems begin to contradict themselves, they will eventually, inevitably collapse.

The goal of education is simple: intelligence. In Dead Poet’s Society, Mr. John Keating says to his dean, “I always thought the goal of education was to learn to think for yourself?” His dean laughed and said, “At their age?” This is a prime example of the necessity to allow students, from an early age on to study all subjects they want, whether they are considered by the general public to be undesirable or not. Letting students learn about these things at an earlier age will only increase the overall maturity of society. They will be exposed to situations outside the every-day-norm and will have more time to develop more on their thoughts about them. In the past, countries have called for book burning, and look what has happened. Over controlled education, lack of an informed public and so on. No one wants this for their children, and along with censorship, it should therefore be outlawed. Albert Einstein was once quoted saying “We’re all geniuses. But if you judge a fish on its ability to climb a tree, it will spend it’s whole life believing that it is stupid.” Students must be allowed to study what they are interested in. If intelligence is desired, it must first be accepted.

            History is bound to repeat itself. Everyone knows this. Yet some forget to recognize it. If history repeats itself then why succumb to any tactics derived from authoritarian regimes? Mao did not want his people educated. Kim Jong Il did not allow his people to be educated, and neither is Kim Jong Un. In censoring topics, people are not allowed to be educated. Allowing censorship is taking a dictatorial role in education. What if topics like the Holocaust were ignored? They would eventually be forgotten, and if forgotten, these terrible acts are likely to be repeated from shear, preventable ignorance. Books have been banned then repealed and studied. Take out the middleman. The right to free speech and the right to the press entail print, and it is therefore unlawful for books to be burned or banned. Aside from unlawful, it is unjust. Where is it written that it is okay to hide knowledge because of fear? Fear leads to anger, and anger to hate. Couple that with the ignorance developed from censoring topics and the outcome will be a scared, angry, hateful, ignorant society, and that is what censored education leads to.

            Ignorance is discouraged, yet kids are discouraged from seeking certain answers. Decisions are made with the students in mind, yet the students are not consulted. Intelligence is encouraged, yet it is feared at the same time. It is said that history repeats itself, yet it is ignored when happening. Johnny Depp once said in an interview, “The problem is; everyone treats teenagers like they’re stupid.” Students cannot be treated this way, if they are, they will not be trusted with knowledge and therefore will not learn. If they do not learn, this attempt at education is pointless. “When truth is replaced by silence, silence is a lie.” These are the words of Yevgeny Yevtushenko. If things are forgotten, students are lied to by omission. They have the right to know, and the right to explore the topics in which they are interested. We cannot keep our children in the dark. We cannot hold them away from the fire of burning knowledge and tease them with the sparks of the truth. Censorship should not be allowed in schools. We cannot condemn our future to ignorance because of fear, spite, or any reason nonetheless.