Book bans are roadblocks to critical thinking

Re Mockingbird ban exposes culture of fear, Oct. 28 How sad. Rosie DiManno has it right. The Mockingbird ban is an education ban. How are students to learn and develop critical thinking if they are not exposed to challenging ideas? How are students to learn about the cruelty in our history if they are banned from the reality of history? Peel Board used to be one of the top Boards 10, even 5, years ago. The system unfortunately reflects the values and opinions of its leaders. Lillian Shery, Toronto While the Peel board’s ban on To Kill

a Mockingbird is making the headlines, books in many schools are subject to what’s known as “silent censorship,” which is where controversial books are quietly removed from school libraries and reading lists usually following a complaint from one or two parents ...

As part of last year’s Freedom to Read Week, I was invited to give a talk to a class at a private girls’ school in North Toronto and used as an example of a much challenged book,

Merchant of Venice and explained how, despite Shakespeare’s depiction of Jewish merchant Shylock, it can be a valuable teaching tool on racism (as with To Kill a Mockingbird). As the session ended, the teacher quietly told me that the school principal had banned that book because of a single parent complaint. Sadly, many students are being deprived of valuable life lessons due to school boards and principals who lack the determination to confront censorship and place education ahead of parental myopia.

Ron Brown, past chair of the Writers’ Union of Canada Rights and Freedoms committee, Toronto