Banning books. Such a controversy these days and I just don’t understand it. As a kid all I can remember is being told by basically every adult, “pick up a book and learn something.” Well, not anymore. There is a possibility that hundreds of books are going to be banned from classrooms and libraries. 

The thought behind this is that the books are opening students up to inappropriate topics. Common “inappropriate” topics include inappropriate language, sexual themes or abuse, drugs, and features of gay couples. 

My issue here is, banning these books so that kids can’t read about these topics, isn’t going to make them go away in real life. It is just going to make the kids uneducated when they go into the real world. Wouldn’t you rather have kids asking questions about these topics somewhere where they are safe and protected versus when they go out in the real world where they are responsible for themselves? I think there is an obvious answer. 

Governor Reynold’s also mentions in her bill that parents will need to allow their “minors.” It’s minors this, minors that, I’m not a minor. Do the rules not apply to me? But I’m in high school…

It honestly scares me that parents and the government don’t want kids to be educated. I completely understand parents wanting to have these teaching moments with their kids on their own terms, but you can’t avoid it forever. 

I have known for a long time about banned books but I never could have imagined that it would actually happen. It always seemed like one of those topics that you joke about but never actually happens, like the zombie apocalypse. 

I am 18 years old and I am terrified of this country. It’s like this now? What’s it going to be like when I am my parents’ age? Probably the zombie apocalypse… 

Why are people scared of their kids learning? Isn’t that the whole point of us being forced to go to school? So we can learn… 

My mom wears a shirt all the time that says “read banned books.” I always thought it was silly, but I think I’m gonna have to get one for myself. 

I will always support kids being educated, especially when the knowledge is actually useful and not something crazy difficult and useless like finding the derivative of y=3x4 + 7x. I didn’t know what a derivative was before I walked into Calculus, we’ve been talking about them for weeks, and I still don’t really. One thing I do know for sure is that after I graduate college I probably won’t hear it again either. Unlike education of sexual abuse, as uncomfortable as that is, that’s real life. These things are important for your kids to know. 

Please don’t ban the books. Let the kids read. Let them read, and let them learn.