Our Freedom To Read

OUR FREEDOM TO READ Many rights are guaranteed to us or implied within our constitutional tradition. The right to read is one of these, and like the other rights it can be used wisely or foolishly. To deny the freedom of choice in fear that it may be unwisely used is to destroy the freedom itself. Book censorship should not be allowed because the right to read freely enables many students to expand their imaginations …

…select, or censor, books to enhance this growth should be strong, especially considering the education backgrounds and training of English teachers. In society based on the basic rights and freedoms, denial of the freedom to read and the freedom of inquiry should not even be considered. As Wallace Stevens once wrote, "Literature is the better part of life. To this it seems inevitably necessary to add, provided that life is the better part of literature."