Book Banning–Beneficial or Grooming?

A report on the banning of books in Florida school districts and the 

negative repercussions this will have on the future of our society

 

Introduction

 

More than five hundred and sixty-six books are banned in Florida’s Public Schools educational system. On the week of March 9, 2023, the governor, Ron DeSantis, called reports of book bans a “hoax.” Here, the governor misrepresents his book-banning policy to the public to deceive and downplay the issue. The primary cause of this issue is the current standing requirements that these books “violate” to be prohibited. These requirements are held responsible by the school board association and state government officials. Initially, these parties deem whether a book is qualified or appropriate for Florida School Systems. Many of these books aren’t taught as core curriculum. Many banned books were in the libraries and available to those who chose or sought to explore them. The books that fit the ban description include many written by people of color or about LBTQ+, building relationships, and sexual development. Some of these books use slang that is accurate to the story time the book takes place. Banning books on these themes is detrimental to the development of students. Restricting them negatively impacts books like these or those in similar categories. This, in turn, will groom these students to have an oppressive belief system that will be engrained and only regress our society further. 

 

Harms

Banning books in Florida public schools will only create chaos and further the digression of Florida public school systems. The first harm it will create is a severe psychological and educational toll on these students. Secondly, we will see teachers depart and less integration of ethnicity and races in these positions. Lastly, this spread will grow stronger in Florida Systems’ higher education levels, ultimately creating more deterrence from these education systems out of fear of acceptance from minorities and of the curriculum that will be implemented and allowed. Right now, the focus is more on free-range books offered in libraries. Still, if we don’t put a policy in play, it will be the student reading curriculums, etc. This issue will become more challenging to stop because the layers of chaos will be a foundation for future students and will be too deeply engrained in these students. 

 

Psychological and educational harms Florida students will face psychological and educational harms, starting with the barriers to accessing what everyone deserves, to read freely. Many children love to read creative stories, especially those they can relate to or feel their family is represented. This made me ponder the percentage between each race and ethnicity in our Florida public schools. Upon research, I found an Article by the Florida Pheonix about the Florida Department of Education’s current makeup being “numbers for 2018-19, showing that the white student population dipped to 37.4 percent.  Hispanic students comprised 33.9 percent of statewide enrollment that school year and black students comprised 21.9 percent.” Just from 2018-19 alone, the minority makeup of Hispanics is only 3.5 percent lower than that of the white student population. The Black representation is behind by 15.5 percent, considering this information was taken 4-5 years ago. I can only imagine that both of these groups have only gained more representation in Florida public school systems since.

Furthermore, when seeing the types of books being banned, the theme is those of color, ethnicity, and overall a theme of minorities. Banning away books that make up many students in our state is neither ethical nor beneficial to our students. In a post by the Legal Defense Fund, teachers have reported stories of students crying when they can no longer read or borrow their favorite books. This response is neither unreasonable nor surprising. As Florida taxpayers, we must think about how the start of this grooming process will affect these susceptible young scholars psychologically and educationally in the near future. The co-founder, Stephana Ferral, of the Florida Freedom to Read Project, spoke out in her interview with LFD as she is also a parent of two biracial children, stating that the “District leadership is essentially telling our students that the stories they connect with aren’t acceptable… If the emotional toll weren’t enough, the educational impact of removing stories that Black, Indigenous, Hispanic, Asian, and LGBTQ+ students connect with would make it harder for these students to spark a love of reading.” President of the Florida Education Association (FEA), Andrew Spar, saw a similar view when he told LFD, “In all these cases, when kids see books that talk about them, that talk about their history, that talk about their struggle, that talks about their life being pulled out of the library, it has a psychological impact on those students. That there’s something wrong with them or that they shouldn’t be who they are,”  He says; ultimately, this will take away their ability to connect to their learning. Any good educator knows, if kids can’t connect to their learning, they’re not really learning.” The credibility in his words is strong, considering he is the President of the FEA.

 

 In addition, we will see teachers depart and less integration of ethnicity and races in these positions.

 

Introduce

1. Issue Area (where does the problem fall into?)
   1.  Education – the restriction on books displayed and allowed for students to read/explore in their schools 
2. Jurisdiction
   1. Local and state 
   2. The school board, counties, and the governor
3. Policy Instrument (mandate, capacity builders, system change, inducement)

 

Conclusion

The solution in the future is to ultimately stop the ban on books. However, a more attainable goal that may be a good step in the right direction and won’t be as hard as stopping together to achieve is to restructure the plan. I propose that the requirements books must meet not to be banned be altered. This will hopefully decrease the number of books that are banned and prevent more books from being banned. Having a more specific plan with very detailed qualities which a book must possess to be banned will help everyone, but who should decide this plan and what qualities are on it? This should be decided by the public a ballet and a vote should take place on the policies.  

Grooming children to have one right and wrong belief 

 

Approach is cause/effect/solution 1,500 words