• By Grace Ding, High School Junior • IDRA Newsletter • September 2024 • 
Growing up in the South, I often struggled to understand myself and my identity. Finding characters in books who had similar thoughts and experiences made me realize I wasn’t so different.
For example, in my freshman year, I read The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan in school, and it helped me feel connected to my Asian American heritage. Many stories like the Joy Luck Club resonated with me in ways I never expected. They gave me hope during a confusing time.
All students deserve to feel seen and understood like I did, which is why my school district’s recent book ban is harmful.
Sheltering our students from a diverse literature promotes ignorance, not virtue.
School districts have the responsibility to educate. While many district leaders are wasting time, resources and taxpayer money for book review committees, they are taking away time, resources and taxpayer money from our students who desperately need inclusive literature.
While there’s a fourth-grade student dying to read Do Animals Fall in Love?, Katy ISD would rather let all of our new books rot away in a warehouse. The people in power who are in favor of creating discriminatory policies help foster an increasingly hostile environment (Zuvanich, 2024).
Because every single new book is jailed in the warehouse, the “book reviewing committee” has a lot on its plate. This review system risks preemptive bans based on speculation rather than content because no one has time to review thousands of books in the span of a year. Even so, Katy ISD’s prejudicially-curated book reviewing committee is definitely not bias-free, and it certainly is not representative of all Katy ISD students. In fact, students aren’t even allowed to serve on the book reviewing committee (Ding, 2023).
Sheltering our students from a diverse literature promotes ignorance, not virtue. It’s simply immature to ignore the fact that great works often spark controversy by pushing boundaries. But limiting students’ exposure to diverse ideas severely hinders critical thinking and imagination, which are core tenets of education.
Schools must trust students to evaluate complex opinions themselves and trust our educators’ guidance. Restricting literature suggests we believe youth cannot handle complexity or opposition. This is a disservice to any school district that aims to create a new, informed, insightful generation capable of independent thought. We must have faith in our students.
Rather than bans, we need more communication between parents, educators and students about which books are right for each child. Every family has different values, and their choices should be respected. But one family’s views should not dictate what all students can or cannot read.
While my own path is still unfolding, I know that inclusive literature paved the way. Every student should have that same choice.
Resources
Ding, G. (September 6, 2023). Katy ISD’s Book Bans Alienate Students. Shift Press.
Zuvanich, A. (August 27, 2024). Katy ISD board votes to ban books about gender identity from many school libraries. Houston Public Media.
Grace Ding is a high school junior in Houston and a member of IDRA’s Youth Advisory Board.
[© 2024, IDRA. This article originally appeared in the September edition of the IDRA Newsletter. Permission to reproduce this article is granted provided the article is reprinted in its entirety and proper credit is given to IDRA and the author.]
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