Alumni, a professor and a student say book bans prevent equitable access to information, and parents should resolve concerns individually with their kids
Recently, Illinois became the first state to issue a prohibition on book bans in its schools and public libraries, according to Associated Press. The new law aims to protect public libraries by having their materials removed because of partisan or doctrinal disapproval. Reflecting on the issue of book banning, BYU–Hawaii alumni, faculty and a student said parents should resolve reading concerns individually with their children, and not project their views onto others. They also said they should follow inspiration from the Holy Ghost to help them decide what to read.
Winston Poh, a sophomore from Papua New Guinea majoring in biology, said, “I think the real beauty of education is it’s supposed to be teaching us, not necessarily just facts but how to think in many ways. So sometimes I think people are scared of people who think in different ways or think out of ways that are considered not normal, and so then books get banned that run on different planes of thought.”
The role of the parents
Lucy Torres, an alumna from California who graduated in 2021 with a degree in elementary education, is now attending San Jose State University for a master’s degree in information sciences. As she works on her graduate degree, Torres is employed at a branch of the Sacramento Public Library system in her hometown of Isleton. She said she has the goal of working in public libraries.
From her education and experience, Torres said many people are concerned about younger children reading books with content they might deem inappropriate for their age range, but said it is not the government’s role to say what children can and cannot read. Instead, Torres said the responsibility falls to the parents. Some parents, she said, are alright with their children reading books that cover serious topics. “They want them to learn about the world, and learn about the people in the world. Other parents aren’t okay with that. They can put limitations on what their kids can read and teach their kids whatever they want to.”
According to BYUH’s outreach librarian, Assistant Professor Stephanie Robertson, if a child is reading a book with something questionable in it, it is ultimately up to their parents or guardians to counsel them about whether it is appropriate based on their age and maturity.
If an adult encounters something with controversial information, Robertson said it is important for them to consider the value in reading something outside their lived experience, even if it is a little uncomfortable to navigate. “You can learn from a character or a historical figure’s experience and if that can help to shape your worldview in a way that’s more compassionate and inclusive of others.”
As a mother to four children, Robertson said she feels reading with them is very important because it gives them opportunities to talk openly about difficult topics. “Through these conversations and having this type of dialogue and relationship with my children, we’ve built a foundation for context in their minds as they’re navigating their own reading information as they get older. I trust them at this point to navigate those topics with intention.”
According to Torres, “If parents don’t want their kids reading those books, then they can talk to their children. But you shouldn’t make those books impossible for the children to access. At the same time, children aren’t reading a lot of these books. They’re not reading ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ to kindergarteners,” she added.
Kathy Vuki, an alumna from Utah who graduated in 2000 with a degree in TESOL, said she and her husband strove to lead by example by becoming familiar with children’s and young adult literature. “Another part of our role in helping them decide what to read was to introduce them very young to the joys of a public library, how to use it and find things that interest them.
“Lastly, our role in what our children chose to read came down to teaching them our values, which in our home is the gospel of Jesus Christ. If it didn't resonate with gospel values, then it was probably better to put it down and find something new.”
Vuki said it was important for her children, who are now grown up, to know how to listen to the Holy Ghost to allow them to decide if something was inappropriate or not. “I think it's not all black and white. So, sometimes the lists of good or bad, or right and wrong, won't serve them well when they are confronted with gray areas, especially in their academic readings and texts.”
She continued, “There's so much filtering into our curriculums these days that are gray areas, and only the Spirit can answer those questions for them individually while receiving their formal education. I think when they learn to listen to the Spirit and trust their own gut instinct about information, they feel validated.”
When Robertson was working on her senior English paper, she said she came across some research discussing the value in teenagers encountering topics through characters and themes in literature that were somewhat controversial. “Studies have shown it can help with decision-making, should they be faced with similar situations in their own life,” she said.
Poh said, “We all have opinions. Some are right, and some are wrong. Sometimes, neither is right. They’re just opinions, and so I think when it comes to parenting a lot of times it’s really on the parents how they handle it and I think a lot of times parents push that off onto the schools and say, ‘Because you let them have access to these things, then it’s your fault.’”
Poh said he remembered when his mother assigned him to read a book about communism by Karl Marx. “I was probably 12 or 13 and you know, that challenged my personal thoughts on freedom and those whole ideas, but then I was able to have a conversation with my mom about it and discuss it. It was in that conversation with her that we were able to discuss why this made me uncomfortable or why this book made other people uncomfortable.”
What does it mean to ban books?
With her background as a librarian, Robertson said banning books can mean different things for different people. She said she will hear from her colleagues in the public sector about encounters with people who are horrified or scandalized about a certain title being on library shelves for just anyone to pick up and demand it to be removed.
According to Freedom to Read, book bans have been instituted throughout history, from ancient China to colonial America, all the way into modern times, with several high-profile book-banning campaigns in states such as Florida.
“There are lots of layers of complexity to this as with all issues,” Robertson said. “You’ll hardly ever find an issue that’s just completely black and white. … We usually see banning books applied to younger readers and a librarian or an educator might be seen as someone who would have some sort of judgment about what type of material would be appropriate for young readers.”
Reasons for banning books
According to Robertson, “The fear for people who want things banned is that an impressionable young mind is going to get a hold of something explicit or graphic or just wildly inappropriate for someone of their developmental age and stage in life, and I can have some sympathy for that for sure.”
She continued saying there can be many agendas for banning a book, but sometimes it was not necessarily about the book itself, but more the perceptions people had toward it. She said some concerns about books might be valid, but added, “It’s a dangerous, slippery slope when we start to remove information just because the topic might make us uncomfortable. We really limit the opportunity for growth. We want to make sure that we can sit in the discomfort of the unfamiliar because growth comes from learning. Growth comes from discomfort and welcoming discomfort.
“You hear all the time about students who feel so alone until they read a book with a character that felt the same way they did, and suddenly they felt seen and understood. And it can improve their mental health. It can improve their trajectory in life. Why would we want to limit growth and have people feel represented and seen and understood?”
As library science students at SJSU, Torres said she and her classmates have the goal of helping public libraries provide better access to free and equitable information regardless of a person’s race, sexuality, social status, income or any other classification.
“With books being banned, it doesn’t always allow for the proper representation especially since the books that are being banned are primarily LBGTQ books.” Torres said books that contain themes about race and sexuality are often on the chopping block when it comes to being banned.
She added how books like “To Kill a Mockingbird” have been banned throughout history because they show the harsh reality of topics like racism and sexism. The goal of public libraries, according to her, is to make sure everyone, not just one specific group, has access to books that represent all of the community.
According to Torres, “Harry Potter” was banned in the past on the grounds it promoted witchcraft. More recently, she said books like graphic novels were challenged and then banned based on accusations of being sexually explicit. However. she said the accusations were faulty because the books featured strictly romantic relationships with nothing sexual depicted.
Reading and education
As a librarian, Robertson said she would like to provide as much access to information as possible. “Those who don’t know history are destined to repeat it. If we want to promote true inclusivity, as I believe the Savior would want us to, we don’t want to silence the experiences of others just because the history of it makes us feel uncomfortable.
“I don’t think that it’s dwelling in negativity to read the perspectives of others who have different lived experiences outside our own and learn from those other points of view. I think it makes us more Christlike and more able to walk through life with compassion and love for our fellow man,” Robertson added.
Torres said, “Libraries are there to just provide information without judgment. If you go into the public library, they have books about how to overcome addiction and how to deal with mental health. People can check those books out without judgment. So why wouldn’t they be able to do the same thing for books that feature LGBTQ characters, characters who have to deal with things like racism or even classic books?
“If we don’t understand the way things were, how can we make things better in the future? We can look at history and understand the people who banned books weren’t necessarily on the right side of history.”
Torres said some of the best ways for teachers to educate children is through sharing stories because it can help children feel empathy for others. “When you have middle school or high school students reading ‘The Diary of Anne Frank,’ they’re relating to her as a character because she’s very much a teenage girl. They relate to her and they realize what happened to her was unfair. It was harsh. What happened to her and so many other people was absolutely terrible. It’s not that they’re pushing these stories onto students. It’s that they’re trying to teach them the harsh realities of the world and teach them history,” Torres said.
Poh said he believes libraries and schools should be unbiased areas in which people can learn. A library and a school should merely be a place where people access information and then it is up to the individual to choose how to use the resources.
Growing up on an outer island of Papua New Guinea, Poh was homeschooled and said having books as access to information was where his love for reading started.
Having materials with only one point of view is harmful, according to Poh. “I think it just limits everyone’s education. It limits the way we see the world. And I think education isn’t supposed to necessarily teach us opinion. It’s supposed to teach us how we can see the world. … If we only let people see things through one lens, then we end up having a generation that’s very narrow-minded, rather than broad thinkers who can see the whole picture.
“I think especially children, they’re learning to see the world, to develop and to be able to kind of frame the world in their own way. When we narrow it, it limits them in many ways. It limits the way they interact with others. It limits the way they solve problems as well. I think it just creates a limiting factor where they see less of the world,” Poh said.