Censorship: The Lesser of Two Evils

Henry Steele Commager put it perfectly, “The fact is that censorship always defeats its own purpose, for it creates, in the end, the kind of society that is incapable of exercising real discretion.” This was true in Commager’s early 20th century lifetime, and it remains true today; however, nothing in life is ever that cut and dry. Censorship definitely has a dark side, as do most necessary evils, but I must say I can see both sides of the spectrum in terms of educational censorship. On one hand, in K-12 classrooms you are responsible for what students view, read, and interact with in every subject. When a student goes home and says they heard the F-word in a YouTube video they watched while researching a history assignment in class that responsibility falls back on the teacher and administration. On the other hand, if we do not teach students how to choose appropriate sites and research effectively, they will not be prepared to sort through the immense mounds of objectionable material catapulted at them each time they access the internet. Students will not learn to find the educational jewels if they never have to use caution and discretion to wade through the irrelevant (and often inappropriate) materials. But when do we start expecting students to self-censor materials? Certainly not in Kindergarten, and probably not even in 2nd grade… What about 5th grade? Must we wait until middle or high school? Do we eliminate all censorship in education or just that of the secondary students? Drawing a line for censorship can be even trickier than eliminating it all together.

One issue that must be addressed in regards to having no censorship in education is one that student safety. The limitation of student access to only trustworthy resources protects schools and districts not only from lawsuits but also from unwanted viruses and hackers. A student simply attempting to download a document from a seemingly valid resource can result in a file virus or even a worm, which can then affect other computers within the district’s network (Gunter 2010). Ideally, anti-virus software will protect schools from this danger, but I have personally gotten a virus while having this protective software, so a young student in the classroom is equally susceptible. Also, the text discusses several ways in which the Federal Government, school districts, and even a single classroom teacher can (and do) monitor student interaction with virtual content. These methods ranged from nation-wide filtering software geared around the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA) to curriculum pages with prepared links to reviewed sites for student use to teacher observation of all student computer activity (Gunter 2010). While these methods appear to simply be providing students with effective sites and means of research, they are still censoring materials available to our youth. While some may make the argument that teachers are able to find suitable materials for their students, once the teacher limits students to those chosen suitable resources, it becomes just as much censorship as the government telling us YouTube is not safe for school use.

Now, we must cross over to the other side, the side taken by writers such as Joseph Janes in his journal article Censorship Gets Smart (2009). Janes regards the implementation of the CIPA as being “forced down our throats.” Something that must be dealt with rather than appreciated. While Janes paints an entertaining and pretty convincing picture of the misguided attempts to maintain the oh-so-pure character of our nation’s (and world’s) citizens through censorship, I cannot help but wonder if he has ever actually set foot into an elementary classroom as a teacher or felt the weight of being responsible for everything that goes into the eyes, ears, and minds of twenty children from 8 am until that bell rings at 3 o’clock. My guess is probably not. Beyond the fact that censorship is yet another means of controlling our thoughts and viewpoints, today’s students must be prepared to not only interact with people in a face to face manner, but also to network with children and adults around the globe through the internet. In order for these students to effectively communicate, learn, and conduct business in this flat world (Gunter 2010), these students must be exposed to the virtual world as it really is. We will not be helping them as educators to simply provide them with the silver lining on a pre constructed curriculum page and not teach them how to search for and find it through appropriate research and self-filtering of materials.

I think we are capable and creative enough as educators to teach our students how to effectively search and filter through materials to find relevant and thought-provoking resources without exposing them to every website out there. Even with the already established censorship in today’s schools, there are still inappropriate and un-educational websites that students must be taught to avoid or recognize as incredible. They will be exposed to the crap at one time or another, of that I am sure, but it does not have to be at school. We barely have enough time to teach and expand upon the required curriculum, let alone explain to little Johnny why Pretty Lady 1 was blowing a kiss to Handsome Gentleman 1 while holding hands with Pretty Lady 2… all while wearing barely any clothing and saying naughty words. That is something I do not have a strong desire to willingly expose my students to every time they type the word three in a search engine. I will however explain to them how the Three Stooges are not relevant to the three stages of a plant’s life cycle they are supposed to be researching. In that respect, I suppose I ultimately find myself in favor of censorship. After all, if we cannot say it is best to eliminate all censorship in each area of education, then we are all, in some way or another, in favor of a form of censorship.


Janes, J. (2009). Censorship Gets Smart. American Libraries, 40(11), 32. Retrieved from Professional Development Collection database. Shelly, G. & Gunter, G & Gunter, R. (2010).

Teacher Discovering Computers Integrating technology and Digital Media in the Classroom. (6th Ed.) Cengage Learning