[Carannillion]

First of all, I have not had the time to read through all the above posts, so I may be repeating things, but I will say them anyway.

Aiwendil, I was thinking about the exact same thing as you: Banning books is on the brink of breaking the law. The school I attended did not ban any books whatsoever. Had a student brought Mein Kampf and my teacher found out, it would have turned into a loooong discussion, not a ban.

This banning of things - books - for some obscure reason seems to always end up in tragedy or defeat. Why ban these seemingly bad things (books written by Tolkien and all the others...)? Why not look at them and figure out how to prove them wrong? Let me give you an example of how banning something turned out to have a very opposite effect of the intention, and how the people of this effect failed to learn anything at all. some 2000 years ago, a certain priesthood in a known region tried to ban a certain man's teachings. It went so far that in the end, they killed him. This all evolved into this man's teachings becoming one of the most widespread and accepted teachings ever known to mankind. Now, the irony here is that the leading followers of this famous man's teachings soon began to fall into the pattern of the previous priesthood; banning oppoosition. Was it Sun Tzu who wrote about knowing your enemy? Take modern medicine as another example. If a virus like HIV is discovered, the important thing if you want to fight it, is to understand it. Find out how it works, then fight it. If you as a principal have a hard time accepting what Tolkien wrote, first you have to read him and get to know him yourself. Then you have to explain your students why you have decided to ban this book. Actually, you should not ban it at all, simply enter a discussion with them, and if you know what you are talking about, you will make them understand. Ultimately, you will understand that banning things will not work. The variety of our society is what is keeping it alive.

In my English class we were encouraged to read. If I brought a book to class and concentrated about it instead of what the teacher said, she would go on and in the break ask me what i was reading and then decide whether I could go on or had to put it away (when I brought Silmarillion, she encouraged me to go on, even though she had never read a word of Tolkien herself...).

Oh my, I am raving and ranting uncontrollably now.... ooo... phew! managed to stop [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]

[ December 08, 2002: Message edited by: Carannillion ]