It was a normal day in our 7th grade English classroom as I sat at my desk with my school supplies in front of me and my friends around me. Everyone in the classroom was as quiet as a morning in the mountains as they listened in on what my teacher had to say.  My teacher stood in the middle of the class further explaining the day's lesson, when she began to speak of recent bills passed in Kentucky. These limited what teachers could teach in the classroom which ultimately forced teachers to follow the curriculum laid out by the school district. At first I paid little attention to this statement by my teacher as I had not yet thought about the consequences, however, some of my other classmates were heavily against this bill. I couldn’t understand why but as I moved into my next class I began to realize the true grasp this bill would put over my school.

As a child I went into school and didn't pay any special attention to the months of February and March but as I grew older teachers began to teach of black history month and then the month after, women's history month. I soon began to be fascinated by the topics of the history of other cultures and my teachers often took specific effort to create projects or to make assignments to cover these ideas and I enjoyed doing these assignments. Besides actually enjoying learning about these aspects of our history, I also began to become educated on other cultures and began to understand their true ramifications on our history through their struggles against different forms of oppression within our society. 

As I thought back to the present, students would no longer be given the opportunity to learn about these cultures and ideas as teachers would be forced to teach what the school board desired. The more I thought of the effects of the bill the more concerned I grew with the issue. “Would this affect how teachers can teach about the events happening around us?” I thought as I still wanted to be taught and for teachers to teach about other cultures to help inform students of what truly occurred within our history. This right is  being stripped from students and teachers and would limit their understanding and scope of our nation's history and the history of students around them. Many students wouldn't even be able to have others learn about their own history leaving students to feel that maybe the students around them might just be different and weird compared to them.

Censorship in school systems is not something new to our society. Censorship, which is the covering and hiding of the truth from large groups of people for people to remain in control of our history, has been an issue of social justice since the days that our society was segregated. This censorship originates from one purpose being to continue a cycle of segregation within our society by starting at the root of learning, schools. According to Deborah Menkart a writer for the Zinn Education Project, an online website which originated from the goal of spreading censored content to students to continue helping students truly understand their own history states that, “Racism is not merely the product of prejudice, but that racism is embedded in American society and its legal systems in order to uphold the supremacy of white persons.”(6). This statement implies the importance of racism in censorship and builds the idea that it's the root cause. Despite this, we still face large scale amounts of censorship within our school systems today. Throughout the states bills have and are in the works to limit what teachers can inform students about their own history. According to Samuel Crankshaw of the organization ACLU-Kentucky which works for many causes of social justice throughout the state, the SB1 bill recently passed in the state affects teachers' freedoms. “The Kentucky General Assembly today voted to override Governor Beshear’s veto of Senate Bill 1, a bill to censor discussions between teachers and students and hold teachers criminally liable for any violations”(1). This is a large-scale step-back and demonstrates the continued battle for and against this censorship and its ultimately large scale effects to come for students. With this in mind, the Kentucky state senate should remove bans on books and what can be taught to students about U.S history as it prevents students from fully understanding our history and instills a whitewashed mindset.

The Kentucky senate often finds it necessary to pass bills against the ability to freely teach and be educated on any topic throughout history because of its impact that it would have on students understanding our nation's flaws throughout history. The beginning of censorship can be connected to racism against African-American students within the schools as the governments desired to hide the true cruelty of slavery and to reinforce a racist mindset for students. Parents often felt as if they didn’t have enough of a say within school systems teaching, finding that their kids would learn things against their own personal beliefs. Many parent lead organizations formed around this belief. According to Tim Craig an author at the Washington post, a well respected and recognized news source located in the U.S capitol washington, “The organization is channeling a powerful frustration among conservative mothers, who feel increasingly sidelined by school administrators and teachers”(8). This still occurs within schools as parents still rally in an attempt to root out education against their own beliefs. This issue within school systems within modern times can be connected more closely to attempts to hide social disorder from our nation's history such as revolutions or protest. According to Maya Lindberg, an author for the activist organization learning for justice which works to help prevent issues of social justice, “Encourage or condone civil disorder, social strife or disregard of the law. The proposal identifies Advanced Placement U.S. history as one of first curricula to be reviewed”(2). This attempt to help prevent social disorder has only worsened many of the effects of it and has caused students to revolt and has caused this issue to be sprung into public spotlight once again as students walk out in protest to this censorship. Ultimately giving way to powerful effects on our schools.

This mindset that would be established by the passing of this bill would affect the mental state of students and would limit what they could truly understand whitewashing their mindset. It was horrible for me to realize what would happen not only for me but also for students of the future who would never get the opportunity to learn about these things. It was disappointing to learn this would be the future of our schools and it inspired me to further learn to help fight against the issue of limiting education for students.

The impact that the bills being passed by the Kentucky senate has can greatly affect students' perspective of our own past. According to Maya Lindberg the effect that censorship often carries is that students do not accurately and fully comprehend their nation's history. “The parameters put forth will give students a false impression of our country’s history. A curriculum that blindly promotes patriotism and universal respect for authority figures will hide important truths: Our 250-year history is driven by the desire of people to effect change, often taking to the streets and using extralegal means to do so”(2). Lindberg expresses the severity of the censorship within school systems in Colorado which are putting forward bans on literature for students. Students not being able to understand their own nation's history is a large-scale negative blow for students and it can result in false mindsets of how history occurred, often leaving a whitewashed mindset or a belief in the dominance of white people throughout history.  According to Tim Walker who also discussed racism sparked by censorship for neaToday, a trusted news outlet, students are often taught too little about racism to their parents' belief. “And a recent Associated Press poll found that 71 percent of parents believe their local schools’ focus on racism was either “too little” or “about right”(17). Ultimately racism being taught too little in schools results in students being uneducated and unappreciative of other cultures and this can lead to bullying for one's race and culture such as muslim students or African- Americans. This can result in racism among students harming the lives of others making this a large issue of social justice. 

The Kentucky state senate should work to remove bans on education as the bans are only applied with racist intent towards other cultures whitewashing students. The only purpose of these bans is to cause harm to other groups of people to attempt to 

make them feel that they are lesser by not talking about their culture and their personal history. This issue can often be framed as discomfort about the darker parts of our personal history for students as Walker claims,“Proponents of the measures try to maneuver around these and other concerns by citing potential student “discomfort” at having to confront shameful episodes throughout U.S. history.”(24). This discomfort claim is being used to pose the stance that because of this discomfort among students they should remove topics within our history that can spread this discomfort. This proposes a difficult claim where it could be true that they feel discomfort then they should challenge themselves to face the issues that they find to bring them discomfort so that they can move past this and make their own opinions on this issue. According to Walker, “Any discomfort that arises from what we read is outweighed by the possibility of learning. If the book makes you uncomfortable, it’s time to consider what it might be trying to teach you and what you are fighting so hard not to learn”(25). Students need to be able to have access to the issues and to be able to personally confront them instead of being sheltered from the truth of their own history to be able to make their own personal and educated opinions on what they view right and wrong, not being told only the “patriotic” parts of our history. For this to be accomplished students need to have access to their own history to learn.

The Kentucky senate should work to remove bans on information shared in the classroom to prevent the formation of malicious mindsets towards the government because it is a violation of the first amendment. The effects of attempting to root out civil disobedience at a level such as education systems results in students not fully having a comprehension over their history and in many cases such as the case in Jefferson County Colorado students revolted against the idea of greater censorship of books within our schools. Lindberg of Learning For Justice reported on the attempts by students within the schools to revolt against the bans stating, “Taking to the streets, these educators and students are engaged in acts of civil disobedience—a type of protest listed among the very action that the school board proposes to omit from curricula.”(4). This means that despite the goal of rooting out disobedience it can still become an issue to take away what students desire to learn and understand about their own society. Ultimately resulting in worsening dissidents which can greatly affect students education and their abilities to learn not being in the classroom. Students often find themselves on the front lines of fighting for independence of education when discussing issues of critical race theory and issues of racial matter when discussing censorship. According to Menkart who often works to challenge the restriction of learning towards other cultures within schools to the benefit of students many students still challenge this issue and find themselves fighting to maintain possibly even the democracy of our own country within the schools and preventing continued segregationist views, “The professor who is a leading voice on critical race theory has warned that the rightwing battle against racial justice education not only threatens US democracy, but encourages a revival of segregationist values and policies.”(6). It is very beneficial to students to learn about their own personal history and to be able to learn about other cultures and races and this continued push of students to the front lines of challenging this social justice issue.

The Kentucky state senate should remove bans on literature so that students can learn about complex and diverse topics. Students deserve to understand more of their history and have more opportunities to be able to learn about more topics and have a better understanding of the world around them. According to Samuel Crankshaw of ACLU-Kentucky which discussed the issue of students being ready for the society around them and what honest patriotism would be within our society, “Honest patriotism would engage with our past so students could have a legitimate chance to learn from our collective harms and how those harms influence life today”(3). So for students to often be successful within our society they need to have been exposed to the complexity of our world and our nation to prevent them from viewing the world from the whitewashed lens which is not the full story of society. Another factor that comes into play when discussing censorship is the LGBTQ+ community which can often be rejected being taught within schools. This becomes an issue as students are unable to make educated decisions on the group and be able to decide their own personal decisions. According to Tim Craig of the Washington Post which also covers issues of this matter, LGBTQ+ issues continue to be highlighted by groups for censorship such as moms for liberty who challenge the teaching of these issues to their children. “And their targets are sprawling — not only mask mandates but also curriculums that touch on LGBTQ rights, race and discrimination, and even the way schools define a scientific fact”(7). This issue is major and students deserve to be able to understand and make their own educated decisions by having their education unrestricted by school systems and the Kentucky senate.

Students continue to have what they can and cannot be taught within their schools and this continues to further whitewash and mentally wear on a students ability to make their own informed and educated decisions about the world around them and the people within it. This will ultimately cause students to form a false sense of patriotism and will be sheltered from what really happened within their nation resulting in a great number of students not being educated on the society around them and not being fully prepared for the real world. On top of this affect students will often revolt against the ideas of banning books and what they can learn about and this creates a malicious intent that the banning had attempted to prevent for their students. Students also still need to be able to make educated decisions about the society around them and the world as a whole so that they can truly be prepared for the society that students need to eventually be able to survive and thrive within, however, this is significantly harder without a full understanding of our society. 

Ultimately we as a society need to take a stance against school boards and senates within Kentucky to attempt to better the education systems. We should attempt to appeal to senators within the Kentucky legislature to attempt to appeal bans on what students can learn and be taught to ultimately improve our schools. With the threat of harming the society that students are a part of,  the Kentucky state legislature should take action to remove bans on books and what can be taught to students about U.S history as it violates the first amendment and prevents students from fully understanding our history and instills a whitewashed mindset.

Works Cited

Craig, Tim. “Moms for Liberty Has Turned ‘parental Rights’ into a Rallying Cry for Conservative Parents.” The Washington Post, 15 Oct. 2021, www.washingtonpost.com/national/moms-for-liberty-parents-rights/2021/10/14/bf3d9ccc-286a-11ec-8831-a31e7b3de188_story.html. 

Crankshaw, Samuel. “Statement Regarding New Classroom Censorship Law, Senate Bill 1.” ACLU of Kentucky, 13 Apr. 2022, www.aclu-ky.org/en/press-releases/statement-new-classroom-censorship-law. 

Lindberg, Maya. “The Danger of Censoring Our History.” Learning for Justice, 25 Sept. 2014, www.learningforjustice.org/magazine/the-danger-of-censoring-our-history.Menkart, 

Deborah. “Right-Wing Campaign to Block Teaching for Social Justice.” Zinn Education Project, 18 May 2023, www.zinnedproject.org/news/gop-campaign-to-block-teaching-for-social-justice/. 

Walker, Tim. “Educators Fight Back against Gag Orders, Book Bans and Intimidation.” NEA, 28 July 2022, www.nea.org/advocating-for-change/new-from-nea/educators-fight-back-against-gag-orders-book-bans-and-intimidation.