Censorship

The American Heritage Dictionary defines censorship as “the act, process, or policy of censorship. They define censor as “a person authorized to examine literature, plays, or other material and who may remove or suppress what he sees as morally or otherwise objectionable.”

The American Heritage Dictionary. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. 1982.

This definition forced me to consider who exactly is “authorized” to censor material. It also posed the question of what should be censored. After listening to “Suicide Solution,” I started thinking about our last assignment on authentic music. I realized that I often am not aware of the lyrics to a song, but I enjoy the beat. However, a young impressionable teen is a completely different story. What if the teen considers Ozzy Osbourne to be authentic music? What if they are connecting with the artist as one? Are they then vulnerable to acting out the message (in this case suicide)?

I find that I have a different opinion on the topic of censorship depending which hat I am wearing. Am I the teacher? Am I the parent? Am I an adult taking a popular culture class? Am I a record company trying to promote my product? Am I the artist sharing my message?

With these thoughts in mind, I decided to consider the following lesson to introduce and address the issue a censorship in my classroom.

Day 1
What is censorship? I wouldn’t provide a definition until my students had the opportunity to ponder this question.
• I will have the question on the board and ask them to come in and think of one word that comes to mind when they are asked “What is censorship?"
• I will give them 1-2 minutes to come up with their one word. After everyone has their word, they will go around and quickly share their words.
• Once they are done I will have them write a few paragraphs explaining in more detail what they think censorship is and how they think it is used. I also will have them consider how different forms of censorship affect their lives.
• I will put them in groups to read and discuss their paragraphs. They will each need to highlight one thought or idea that they want to share with the class.
• After they share in a group, I will bring them back together and have them share with the whole class. Each group will send a member up to add something to the list on the board.
• After we compile a list of our ideas on what we think censorship is, I will provide them with the official dictionary definition.

Day 2
• I will provide them with two articles: one for the censorship and one against the censorship of music, videos, literature, etc.
• I will put them in groups and divide each article into sections. They will be responsible to read and summarize their section for the group. This will allow them to begin to become familiar with both articles.
• I will then ask them to think about what their personal position is on the censorship of music, literature, videos, etc.
• Their assignment will be to write a one page rational on their stance using the articles as support.

Day 3
Now that they have defined and read about censorship, I want then to consider this topic from different points of view. To achieve this I will have them participate in an on-line role-play.
• I will assign them a role to adopt for this on-line role-play. They will either be a junior high student, a parent of a junior high parent, a teacher in a junior high classroom, a school principal, a rock star marketing their music to youth, a record company promoting a product, or (since I teach in a Catholic school) a priest. If they have another perspective that I have missed, they will be able to talk to me and have it approved.
• I will post a collection of links that they can access to use as support in their role-play. They also will be expected to use the two articles that they read in class the previous day.
• Their first assignment will be to introduce themselves in their role. They will provide a one-page introduction of who their character is, what their character's background is, and how their character is affected by censorship. They need to become their fictional character and be creative.
• To help organize their discussion, I will provide different forum questions that they can go to and respond. They will be required to respond to a certain number of their classmates’ posts and they will be required to use the articles and links provided to support their stance.

I participated in something similar to this in one of my U of M classes and it was an effective activity. I think that the students are all heard in this type of debate. Additionally, they learn how to effectively use the facts they have found to back up their opinions. This would be a great topic to use for my persuasion unit. The role-play could be used as a pre-writing activity that could then be followed up with a persuasive essay or speech.