Throughout history, censorship has had a drastic role in affecting the world we live in. Censorship can be seen in various locations everyday in media, ranging from books to television. The debate on censorship would cover volumes of law books by itself. Censorship has the positive effect of protecting children from harmful influence, but it can also have negative effects. It suppresses the spread of ideas and new knowledge. The First Amendment, states "Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances." (Pilon, p. 13) Is this violated as soon as a child walks into a school?
             Censorship can be defined as "the practice of officially examining books, movies, etc., and suppressing unacceptable parts." (Merriam-Webster) Books are constantly being challenged and suppressed from our school systems. In many people's eyes, every book that is banned is another chance lost for a child to gain new knowledge. With that said, there are hundred of books on the banned book list. The number of book banned went from 152 in 1990 to 472 in 2000. (American Library Association) People argue that these new ideas and knowledge being suppressed eventually leads to ignorance and bias beliefs because when information is restricted, all sides of can issue are not truly seen. Sides would not be fairly represented which leads to misrepresentation and misinformation.
             Parents challenge books every year based on general misunderstandings of the piece. Books in the past have been banned for encouraging "children to break dishes so they won't have to dry them" and teaching "children to spy" (Campbell 1) Books that are banned are then removed from the shelves of a library so that the readers would not have free access to them. If a teacher attempts to add a banned book into their curriculum, then ...