There has been a 33% increase in books being banned across the nation over the last school year,
according to an article called “Eating away at democracy” from The Guardian. Although the vast majority of books are being banned outside of California, many teachers find it important to understand why some books are so controversial. Pen America, an organization advocating for free speech, reports that 48% of banned books delve into themes of violence or abuse, while 42% focus on covering students’ health and well-being. Additionally, 33% touch upon sexual experiences, 30% address issues related to racism, and
another 30% explore LGBTQ+ characters. Furthermore, 29% of these books touch upon instances of grief and death. These statistics have been taken from the start of the 2022 school year.
The English department has implemented a new system in the past few years where a teacher can
present a book they want to teach and “the department considers the literary merit and weighs that against potential concerns with the book,” English teacher and co-lead of the English de-
partment Carlos Lorenzana said.
“Then, as a department, we vote to either approve or reject it.” There is required material
that needs to be taught for each grade level that the English department agrees on, Lorenzana said. Still, each teacher has the freedom to pursue topics as they see fit, approaching difficult conversations and topics based on the level and maturity of a class, English teacher Sanjana Barr said. History teacher and co-lead of the History department, Paul Harrison, believes that disagreement on controversial topics by itself isn’t inherently a bad thing. “I believe we need to have a competition of ideas and a public
debate,” Harrison said. “I think all ideas need to be publicly debated, and it makes your ideas stronger because if you have a public debate, it exposes the weaknesses within your arguments,” he added.
Media often uses a certain narrative to portray various events and statistics to appeal to a certain
tain audience, which leads to
hose people being stuck in a feedback loop and unable to grow their ideas, Harrison said. People
must break out of that feedback loop, as it leads to radicalization and makes finding common
ground and compromises difficult to achieve, he added.
Lorenzana has an issue with tokenism, the idea that “we’re gonna throw this book in [the curriculum] because we want to make sure that every community is addressed,” he said. “If we’re going to do it, it needs to be done thoughtfully and respectfully.”
Barr also believes that the lack of a librarian at MHS’s library is another form of censorship and that it prevents students from finding books that may spark a love of learning and expose them to new perspectives, xe said. “Your life will have things that are difficult and uncomfortable,” Barr said. “If we do not practice talking about it when we are in a safe space, then when something uncomfortable happens, we do not have the words for it, and we do not have a way to express ourselves safely.”