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Week 5

Reflective Questions:

  1. To what extent is it necessary for schools to censor in order to keep pupils safe yet well-educated?
  2. What does ‘safeguarding’ children in schools mean in relation to censorship?
  3. Critically explore some possible materials that schools have and have not censored, and the extent to which such censorship is justified.
  4. Review your sex education at school. How would you change it? Did your school incorporate LGBTUA into sex education? If you were designing national curriculum guidelines on sex education, what would they be?
  5. “There are two schools of thought on this [Racial and Religious Hatred]: that the material is offensive and must be removed; or that it should be kept but classified as racist and offered alongside opposing viewpoints: this would allow borrowers to draw their own conclusions regarding the material” (Taylor and McMenemy 155)
    Which school of thought do you ascribe to and why?
  6. Review labelling, an action taken after challenges. Do you believe that labelling books that have been challenged in libraries is a “slippery slope” towards censorship?
  7. According to the United Nations convention on the Rights of the Child (United Nations 1990) Article 13 declares that: "The child shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive
    and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the
    form of art, or through any other media of the child’s choice." Explore two schools of thought in response to this convention -
    1. The primary role of adults is to guide children and protect them from harm.
    2. Children should be free to express their natural curiosity and creativity.