Children's Right to Read

One of the most aspects of the type of censorship addressed in the article about Harry Potter that frustrated me the most is the fact that the adults who attempt to have so-called "sensitive" materials from the library seem to think that children who are reading those books are unable to make any sort of judgments or form any opinions on their own. Both parts of their argument--that "reading the Harry Potter books could lead students into juvenile delinquency" and "a belief that the books promoted a particular religion of witchcraft"--are founded on an assumption that young readers are not qualified to determine for themselves which ideas have merit and which they choose not to believe.

As an avid Harry Potter fan, I was especially disappointed in the narrow-mindedness of the adults who were trying to restrict access to the books. They took the books at their surface value only (likely due to the fact that many of them had never even read the series), seeing only the supposedly occult themes and completely overlooking the strong themes of friendship, acceptance, and love that the series revolves around. This suggests to me that these adults are more interested in using the Harry Potter series to set an example: they are taking advantage of the popularity of the series to advertise their beliefs by trying to ban it. Presumably, there are many other books in the relevant school libraries in the fantasy genre that could be subjected to similar accusations of occult themes, but Harry Potter’s popularity causes it to draw more than its fair share of challenges.

I found it encouraging that the court ruled that the removal of the books from the library was unconstitutional. Many aspects of the Constitution are specifically intended to protect the rights of minorities and other groups that don’t have as much of a say in government proceedings, and that includes children. The fact that the court in this case interpreted the Constitution in such a way to protect the right of school children to access information says to me that the Constitution is doing its job.