Hi everybody! I chose to base my poem off of an article I found called, “The First Amendment in Schools: Censorship” on the National Coalition Against Censorship.
This article discusses the dangers of censorship being introduced in school and the effects that it has on students and teachers.
I chose to arrange my found poem similar to some of the Zong!
Poems, I did this because I like how the words are arranged on the page and how it makes it less comfortable to read and forces the reader to really focus on each individual word.
I chose this specific article because I am
an AEN major and I am going to be a teacher someday, so I feel very strongly about this message. One full quote from the original article I would like to share with you guys says, “By limiting resources and flexibility, censorship hampers a teacher’s ability
to explore all possible avenues to motivate and ‘reach’ students. By curtailing ideas that can be discussed in class, censorship takes creativity and vitality out of the art of teaching.” (5). The basis of censorship in schools is a certain group of people
telling the teachers what they can and cannot teach and telling students what they can and cannot read, based off of a small group’s personal beliefs. A few examples of books that have been censored in schools are Katherine Paterson’s Bridge
to Terabithia, John Steinbeck’s Of
Mice and Men,The
Diary of Anne Frank, and Romeo
and Juliet. These books were banned in certain schools due to criteria including; their level of
profanity (which can even be one word), ideas of sexuality, or their ideas were “objectionable”. None of these reasons were based on facts, they were chosen because of personal beliefs, some even based off of one’s religion. I created my found poem to highlight
the harmful effects of censorship in hopes that someday the First Amendment will be held up in schools.
