Censorship in educational settings

 Censorship in educational settings   

04/01/25

Censorship is a prevalent issue in education settings, one that affects everyone. I didn't believe this affected myself until I ran into an issue with my current call out, this made me face the issues head on and realise how widespread it really is. As mentioned within my blog, I created a call out poster to receive responses and participation for my current project. This is exploring honesty, intimacy and sharing in stories and trauma all through the ideas of bathrooms. From this I’ll create publications, film and anything really. The project is called Shit stories. Due to the name of the project, this was not allowed. 

After this I began to think about censorship in a wider sense when applied to education. I believe it could be argued that it takes many forms, from set curriculums, expected speech and behaviour, banned films and books, the internet.  My thoughts here are directly around primary and secondary education but could apply to a wider range of education levels and systems. 

I do believe censorship over certain things like internet access can help in keeping children safe but i guess the question is how far should it go? What things should be out of bounds? As a child i asked a lot of questions, probably annoying to most but the couple that used to look after me were big on education, so they always gave me honest answers. I remember an instance when myself and my childminder were out, i was probably 5 or 6, we were at a bus stop, on the back of the bus there was some advert with the male and female toilet symbols, i asked why do we have separate toilets, i don't Remember  how but i asked do boys not have a vagina too? To which my childminder replied no they have a similar thing called a penis. That information answered my question and that was that. Yet a lady next to us got quite upset with my childminder asking if it was appropriate to use the proper words, i imagine because of my age she thought more fluffy words might be appropriate. I've always remembered the response from my childminder, she replied something along the lines of, If she is able to ask the question then she is able to hear the answer. This has always been my view, maybe impacted by the way they helped to raise me but i think its the safest way. This itself doesn’t apply to education systems but i guess it does learning. I myself was so inquisitive, and if someone didn't tell me an answer id just ask others until i got it. I think its better to tell children the correct information, rather than them perhaps keep looking and find wrong information or go on uneducated. 

 Another instance of censorship in education is within media, banned books and films in schools. This is a big issue in the US but its still prevalent in the UK. Only recently the guardian released an article highlighting the banning of LGBTQ+ books in school libraries. Books with LGBTQ+ themes aren't the only ones to banned but also often race, the occult and themes around mental health. Some of the themes like teen suicide seem difficult to have in schools but i don't think they should be banned altogether, in my belief we shouldn't hide away the "bad" books, these themes are things that can effect anyone, so its important to talk about them. 

I don't have a definitive conclusion to this topic, instead i believe this is the realisation and pondering of thought about the extent of censorship in education, I guess id never really thought about it before. I certainly believe if is beneficial in some areas when thinking about safety, but it all depends on the the audience and topics. 

Creamer, E. (2024, August 19). Dozens of UK school librarians asked to remove LGBTQ+ books, survey finds. The Guardian.

 https://www.theguardian.com/books/article/2024/aug/19/uk-school-librarians-asked-remove-lgbtq-books-index-on-censorship