“Financial Times”: The number of banned books in American schools is growing rapidly
A record number of book bans are set to appear in the US this year. The culture wars there are putting increasing pressure on children, teachers and publishers, notes the Financial Times.
The number of banned books in American schools and libraries is growing rapidly, writes the Financial Times.
A record number of book bans are set to appear in the US this year.
The culture wars there are putting increasing pressure on children, educators and publishers, the British publication notes.
There is an increased activity of parents, lobbying organizations, and politicians exercising their influence, to ban certain books they believe are inappropriate for younger readers, according to the American Library Association and PEN America.
The most recent example of such a ban is legislation in the state of Missouri that affected books about Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo, as well as illustrated versions of the Bible and works of Shakespeare, according to the Financial Times publication.
“We are witnessing a huge increase in the number of requests to censor books.
There’s just no end. We expect a record to be set this year,” Debra Caldwell-Stone, director of the Office of Intellectual Freedom at the American Library Association, told the Financial Times.
Bans are often directed against content allegedly of a sexual nature.
Memoirs, which tell about the confrontation of black children with racism and the lives of representatives of religious minorities, also fall under the blows of censorship.
The American Library Association reports that it registered 729 attempts for imposing bans on nearly 1,600 works last year. This year the attempts are 800 and are directed against 1651 titles.
