As proud Americans, many people want to see their history as a bright, shining star compared to the rest of the world.  However, schools often wish to change pride-threatening issues.  School districts should not be given the ability to dictate the content of history books, for in doing so, they clearly violate most of the basic rights within the first amendment.

The constitution/bill of rights clearly lays out that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press”(Bill of Rights) as a basic right to American citizens.  Letting schools censor history books blantly contradicts that Amendment.  Authors of the censored textbooks are angered, alarmed, and aggravated by this because they are told their work will not be published because it contains “too radical” of issues.  This violates the author's right to freedom of press because they are being censored over factual information that someone else “does not like.”  In the court case, Loewen v. Turnipseed, the Mississippi Textbook Purchasing Board was sued by the authors of a textbook called, “Mississippi: Conflict and Change” after the Mississippi Textbook Purchasing Board (MTPB) refused to distribute the textbook to public schools.  The board claimed that “they (MTPB) believed the textbook was controversial and too concerned with racial matters”(Gould).  The federal court ruled “those were not justifiable grounds for rejecting the book and that the authors had been denied their constitutionally guaranteed rights of freedom of speech and the press”(Gould).  Just think.  Sometimes people are unaware how much influence textbooks have and they try to change them without even realizing how much it violates their basic rights.  The president of the Texas State Teachers Association, Rita Haecker, stated, “ The circus-like efforts of right-wing board (State School Board of Education (SBE)) members to impose their own religious and political beliefs on the public school curriculum have been and still are a national embarrassment”(Walker).  Haecker is building on the idea that censoring school books is a national embarrassment because it violates basic American rights.  However, this issue has traveled further than attempts to censor textbooks.  In Texas, the SBE has removed Thomas Jefferson, one of America's founding fathers, from its school curriculum.  Instead they have replaced him with religious figure, John Calvin.  An article composed by the Huffington Post stated, “Board member Cynthia Dunbar wants to change a standard having students study the impact of Enlightenment ideas on political revolutions from 1750 to the present. She wants to drop the reference to Enlightenment ideas and to Thomas Jefferson”(Texas).  This clearly violates the first amendment, freedom of religion, by creating a bias towards the christian religion.  In creating this bias children learning from this textbook will grow up having a more limited view on outside influences, thus setting the children up for a more difficult time in the real world.

Despite the compelling evidence supporting non-censored books some people still argue book censorship due to their strong religious and political bias.  In fact, one Florida community wants to remove a whole chapter on the religion of Islam, and they are backed by a state senator to take out this chapter by arguing, “the school’s world history textbook had dedicated more pages to Islam than other religions”(Islamophobic).  This point brings to light that religion is a big part of most people's lives and they can feel misrepresented in history text’s.  However taking out a whole chapter on one religion is not reasonable at all. Eliminating a whole chapter on one religion in a school textbook will not be in the best interest of students living here.  In an article by Dean Obeidallah he talks about how this proposed law,“would truly result in conservative school districts putting aside what’s in the best interest of the students and instead only choosing textbooks that teach political and social views that comport with their right wing politics”(Islamophobic).  Supporters of this law may argue that they want their children to grow up with strong right wing views, but as a public school it is their job to provide an environment where both sides can be compared without a strong bias on either side.  Thus creating a well rounded student who can make a well educated decision on what he supports.  Limiting what is published in textbooks creates a narrow minded student with narrow minded views.  It is not in the best interest of the students either; when a whole generation is created very narrow-minded it generally means that they will be more violent and racist when it comes to issues in the real world.  This point is especially proven when the article talks about how a recent news report,”found that there has been a resurgence of the KKK in Senator Hays' district and the surrounding area. While it can't be independently verified, the Klan leader boasted over a 1,000 members. Clearly numbers like that could influence a small local school board's choice of textbooks.”(Islamophobic).  This proves there is even hard evidence showing how racist groups in some areas are trying to create a more narrow minded society.

No one would voluntarily bind themselves with chains of oppression.  So why are American people so willing to do so?  By censoring American textbooks we are not only violating the first amendment we are setting ourselves up for failure.  Schools should create well rounded students not narrominded children with biased points of views.  Do not let a few narrow minded individuals mold society to their liking.  Prevent textbook censorship for the betterment of America’s posterity.