Topic: Censorship.

One-minute review: What is the essential issue in censorship? Do students imitate behavior described in books?

Quote: “While literature may not eliminate homophobia, nor alleviate the risks stemming from it, well-written books may help subvert the culture of silence still current in many school environments and offer a supportive framework for self-understanding by gay and lesbian teens. Moreover, books such as the ones discussed here may help heterosexual students who are homophobic to question their traditional assumptions in order to lead lives not bound and threatened by prejudices and fears. These recent works will generally affirm the lives of gay and lesbian teens and may expand the horizons of their heterosexual peers.”

Source: TL Norton & JW Vare. English Journal (November 2004), 69. The secondary school publication of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE).

Comment: Who’s to say that these books, on the other hand, will not turn homosexuality into an attractive life style for their heterosexual peers?

In other words, we do expect books and language to influence the attitudes, actions and lives of students. Censors don’t want books that will influence students to copy the use of profanity, engaging in sex, etc. For example, the use of the word “N…….r” with the tone of hate and contempt in Huck Finn could generate feelings of racism in the reader. How deal with these characteristics of books in such a way that the students remain objective and are not unduly influenced to the degree that they use them as models of behavior? RayS.