Not such a "Brave New World"

          When I was in twelfth grade I loved the book Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. In fact, as I write this blog post in my office, I can look up and see a copy of said book on my book shelf. So I was appalled when I learned that a Seattle  high school recently dropped the book from its curriculum. Apparently a parent objected to the book because of its reference to American Indians as "savages."
         I read in an article from USA Today  that parents have been getting more and more conservative lately with what their kids are reading. Judith John, an English professor from Missouri State University suggests that parents are becoming more picky because of an unstable economy and the increased threat of terrorism. She says that, "When people are afraid they become more conservative and reject changes," according to USA Today.
        Some of you Coloradans may know of Focus on the Family, as it is a christian ministry in Colorado. Candi Cushman, an education analyst from Focus on the Family told USA Today that "it's healthy and normal for parents to want to weigh in on what their kids are exposed to at taxpayer-funded schools, especially when we talk about materials that are sexually explicit."
      What do you all think? Do those of you who have read Brave New World think that it should be kept off shelves? I think that Brave New World is an amazing book. It opened my mind and made me think in new ways. I highly suggest that everyone read it! I think that it is awful that so many great, mind opening books are being thrown out for silly reasons.
      I found a map which shows all the books that have been banned or are in question of being banned in 2009-2010. I found it very interesting. You might want to check it out! Let me know your thoughts!

Third Blog Post

           I like writing this blog much more than I thought I would. It isn't as difficult as I thought that it would be. I thought that it would be hard to stay up to date with the blog and to stay interested in it. I have found, though, that not only do I enjoy my blog, but I really like reading other people's blogs too. I like that I can write a blog post and immediately after someone can post feedback. It is very easy for me to continue to update my blog because my topic really excites me.
          I like my topic a lot and I do think that it is something I could blog about for four more weeks. The number one thing that excites me about this topic is that so many people have so many different opinions on censorship. I like to read what other people think, and I like the ideas that they inspire. I would like to learn more about the technological side of my topic. Since schools allow Internet access to students, I want to learn more about what they block students from seeing. I wonder if the books that schools ban can be accessed online at the school. I also wonder if all sites containing information about the book are blocked. It seems like it would be rather impossible to block ALL the sites about a particular book.
        In the next couple of weeks I hope to explore more about the Internet sites that are blocked in public schools.I have found a blog that I enjoy reading, that I will continue to follow, about this subject. I would also like to learn more about what my audience thinks about the censorship debate. Is it right or wrong? Why or why not?
       

Twilight Banned?

          So I guess that I haven't been very up to date on the Twilight happenings. I was told today, by an eleven year old, that she is not allowed to read Twilight in school. I was so shocked! I read all the Twilight books in high school. According to a blog that I found, the Twilight books have been banned because they are too religious and have too much sexuality in them. I think that this is interesting because the last book that I talked about, Nickel and Dimed , was being put into question because it wasn't religious enough. Very interesting...        
           While researching more about banned books, and books that have been challenged, I came accross this great website . It gives a list of many classic American novels, including: To Kill A Mockingbird, The Catcher In The Rye, The Great Gatsby, and Grapes of Wrath. Under each novel there is a list of all the times it has been questioned by or banned from public schools. It is so interesting to read some of the reasons that the books were put into question.
          In the grand scheme of things, censoring books really affects everyone. Twilight being banned from public schools probably doesn't greatly affect all the people involved with the New Hampshire case questioning the validity of Nickel and Dimed. Although the banning does affect a lot of other people. It affects my audience. People who are involved in the public school system, are greatly affected by the banning of a book. So many kids who could have enjoyed Twilight, like I did in high school, won't be able to.

First Blog Post

          I intend to use this blog for two purposes. I want to learn how to become good at blogging. I like the idea of having somewhere to write my thoughts, especially about things like education, where future employers can see my writing style, or just get a look at my thoughts. Secondly, I want to practice journalistic writing. I like writing my thoughts, and what attracts me to journalism is that I can wrte my thoughts, in my own style, and people might want to read it and think it's intresting. I don't have much experience in journalism. I actually have none. I have never written anything that has been in a newspaper or anything like that. I've also never covered a beat before, but I am very excited about the one that I am going to cover now. I think that censorship is a very important topic, especially in education. I think that it is important for everyone to know what is being censored in schools, and why it is that way.
          My strengths as a journalist would probably include, reading a lot of information before I form an opinion. I am very open minded and I like to know a lot of information about something before I form and opinion. I think that this is an especially important skill for a  journalist to have. My weakness would definitely be not taking critisim well. I don't like when people tell me what is good and bad about my writing. This is something that I am working on getting over though.
           I don't have much experience blogging. I think that my closest experience would be Facebook. Like most students, I am on Facebook atleast once a day, and I usually write many things on there. It scares me that people will have easy access to my writing and will be able to critique it at their convience. I think that I will learn how to be a better writer through this blogging experience. I also think that I will learn a lot about banned books, which will help me in my career path of secondary education.