Dear Mr. or Mrs. President,

Have you ever thought about why books are being banned in some areas of the United States? I have a concern with the way we are handling books that contain bad historical context in them such as, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and I wanted to write this letter to show you why this should be fixed. Many kids in schools across America are denied access to reading certain books. This is a problem I think needs to be resolved, and you, the president of the United States are the only one who I believe can fix this.

I think that the banning of books is very unnecessary due to the fact that it closes off much of the valuable information consisting of how older cultures worked and communicated. Most books that have been banned, are banned due to racial terms or discrimination, which I do not believe is fair. Why should a book be banned for these ideas if it was written during a time when this was thought of as normal? For example; The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is seen as a good source of education at the friends select school; "We see it as a very important opportunity to educate kids further about the use of language, especially the use of the N-word”(McDaniel, eLibrary). Students are missing out on the history contained in some of the currently banned books. Some books were simply banned due to the use of a word that was at one time considered normal in society, and is now thought of as an offensive slur. If students were able to read these books, they would get a better grasp on how American people talked and thought throughout our history. Bring back the banned books of this country, and you will improve the education our students have on past history.

The government and schooling systems think that books should be banned because of their negative effects on students in the classroom. I think that this is very invalid, everyone should understand that this was written when these words or terms were ok, and if a student is not very happy with the context, have that student read another book, have them do homework, or have them learn about another piece of high importance. For example, “The book that came up most in my cases is Sherman Alexie's The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian . That book has been banned in many places across the country, and it is really for two or three sections that deal with teenage boys' sexuality.”(Albanese, eLibrary). A book should not be banned due to something as minor as this, when the rest of the book holds much valuable content.

Some people may say that the books that have been banned, were banned for a very good reason. However, I do not think this is true in for the most part, but I do agree some books out there should be banned, such as books promoting violence. In most cases books are not banned due to this reason though, but due to the reason of being racist or not supporting laws that are in place today. Most of these books were written in a time where these ideas were not frowned upon. I understand where someone might be coming from when saying books need to be banned for this reason, but kids can learn and better understand so much more from this material, and I think that these valuable resources should not be taken away from any school or kid.

As I end this discussion I would like to remind you all of how much these books that have been banned mean to our youth’s education. Without these books, kids are losing valuable information that can not be obtained through another source. I hope through this letter, you, mr. or mrs. president of the United States of America, will better understand the importance of these books, and the value they hold in education. My main goal of this letter is for you, and us the people of the United States, to understand we need to un ban all of the books that can still be used to educate the youth of America. These books may hold some harmful content, but they carry much importance.