We are at the end of this project/course and I am really excited about all the work we have done. The sites look amazing and this class has made me think critically about how censorship works currently and throughout history.
I returned to the text, The Reader Speaks Out: Adolescent Reflections about Controversial Young Adult Literature by Grace Enriquez and thought about how the ideas in this essay intertwined with the case that Karina and I investigated. In the article, Enriquez talks about how there is a lack of young adult voices in the arguments about these texts that are highly debated. She explains how there is a ton of educator and parental arguments, but no one really asks what the students or young adults think about the text. She went to students and asked them about what their definitions of controversy were. What makes a book controversial and what makes a book worth reading? She found that they think a book is worth reading if the plot seems interesting despite the use of profanity, violence, sexual content, and/or discriminatory remarks. She found that students “appreciated the importance of context.” It made a big difference if they had to read the book.
In our case, we were lucky to get in touch with a student who did speak up against the removal of the novels To Kill a Mockingbird and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from Accomack County, VA schools. I think her perspective about the books and whether or not they should be removed really added so much context about what happened in late 2016. She created a petition and joined the protest that was created by Charles Knitter. Because of her voice and the voices of other students through the petition they were able to give their thoughts to the committee that the school board created to decide if the books should be officially removed or not. Even though this started out as an argument made by a parent, the students were the ones that the committee listened to. I think that is a huge step for students voices to be heard when censorship of reading materials pops up in different places.
Students voices need to be included in the discussion about removal of texts from classrooms and libraries. A lot of students like to talk about the controversy in the novel and by doing so in a safe academic environment I think that students can learn a lot about the reasons why something, such as derogatory language, in a controversial scene is used. I think communication and discussion can always help students push past just what are the themes in this text, but also how it can relate to students lives and the community of the school or library.
Enriquez, Grace. “The Reader Speaks Out:
Adolescent Reflections about Controversial Young Adult Literature.” The ALAN Review. Winter, 2006. pp 16-23. Print.